Have you seen a Dragon in the South China Sea?

8 Comments January 13, 2016 Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

This is the first Mythical beast I have painted! I keep getting asked to do a unicorn, but I can’t quite bring myself to do it! Dragons Have much more punch, in particular Chinese Dragons! This one is a three clawed dragon and was used in ancient chinese culture to represent the common people. A five clawed dragon represented the emperor.

A long time ago well, 1987 there was a discovery of a dragon statute in Henan that dates back to about 5000 BC. The chinese dragon classically takes on a snake from and is associated with water. Down through the ages The dragon came to represent weather and water and unlike European folklore where dragons are fire-breathing monsters, the chinese dragon represents power, strength, good luck and imperial authority.

It is unclear why the Chinese dragons have an association with water but they are believed to be the rulers of bodies of water such as seas, rivers, lakes etc.. There are four major dragon kings, representing the four seas, these are the east, west, north and south seas. In modern China these are the East China sea, South China Sea, Qinghai Lake and Lake Baikal.

for me this composition was all about the snake form, in fact while doing it I thought it might make a good composition for a sausage dog! I do like painting water, cerulean blue was used here and my two favourite colours , Rose madder Genuine and Quinacridone gold..,mmmmm lovely!

Image © Daniel Mackie

It is my intention to do more mythical creatures, greek mythology is full of them, perhaps the three-headed dog Cerberus, who guards the entrance to the underworld?!

Buy this design and others as cards and prints at The DM Collection

Can Curiosity be Deadly? – The Fox and the Hare

Leave a comment December 8, 2015 Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

You need to be careful with your curiosity. To much of it could result in you finding yourself in a life threatening situation. Aesop’s fable, The Hare and the Fox illustrates this perfectly. A hare is interested to know more about the fox, so tell him he is interested to know what his nature is like, The fox( no doubt a smile creeping across his lips) asks the hare to dinner so he can show him what his nature is like!

Many cultures have stories and fables about foxes being tricky and sly, and this one keeps with that theme. But Aesop’s fable suggests that the Hare in this tale already knows the fox is untrustworthy, but still out of deadly curiosity wishes to know more… mmmm, the fox sensing an opportunity suggests the Hare comes to his house for “Dinner”. Now there is the red light Mr Hare!

The hare in this fable pays with his life for not using caution to stem his desire to know about the foxes nature. Rudyard Kipling was probably aware of this fable. He illustrated this in his Just so Story, The “elephants childs” curiosity leads him into a deadly situation with a crocodile.

I often work on more than one painting at a time, generally I have three on the go at any one time, I usually draw them all out first and once i am happy with the composition etc I then paint them one by one, This seems to have the effect of linking the ones I do together as they often has similar colours or motifs. I used to do four at once but one always turned out to be a stinker!

I did these two together, both painted on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper stretched on the drawing board. As you can see, Rose Madder genuine and Quinacridone Gold Feature in both of them, although I did use Prussian Blue in the fox, This colour is becoming favourite! The blue in the hare’s body is cerulean blue mixed with Davy’s Gray.

Image © Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

Image © Daniel Mackie

These two designs are available as cards and prints at The DM Collection

Goldfinch – Salvation, Freedom and Wealth

2 Comments January 26, 2015 Daniel Mackie

The goldfinch is rich in symbolism, it has been featured in hundreds of Renaissance paintings. In Paintings of the Madona and child the bird if often perched or nesting in Mary’s or the christ childs hands. So what is the weighty symbolism that places the goldfinch in the centre of, for example Raphaels painting, Madonna del cardellino? Its symbolic meaning stems form its elaborate plumage and its feeding habits. Goldfinchs have red checks and in the medieval mindset, these were acquired while the bird was trying to remove christs crown of thorns in an act of mercy. Goldfinches also eat thistle seeds and together these two things associate the bird with Christ’s Passion and his crown of thorns.

Another layer of meaning has been attributed to the eating of thistle seeds, In europe they were used as a medicinal ingredient to combat the plague. So through this association the Goldfinch also became a good luck charm. Bestowing good heath and warding off disease from those who either saw a goldfinch or owned one (more on that later).

So with the warding off of disease and vibrant health associated with it, the Goldfinch also came to be a symbol of endurance.. This symbolic combination when rendered in Renaissance painting of the Madonna and child came to be an extend metaphor of the salvation christ would bring through his sacrifice. Hallelujah!

So all of the Christian symbolism is symbolism enough for any bird you might think! But, no! there is more! Freedom! Freedom Freedom!

The Goldfinch is very dextrous. Because it feeds on thistle seeds it has become a deft touch with its feet and beak and can be trained to perform tricks. Known as a Draw bird, it has the ability to pull up a weight (a thimble if water) attached to a thread, by looping each length under it’s foot. The Gofdfinch has been a popular choice as a cage bird in Europe for ceuntries. Carel Fabritius 1654 painting, Shows a The Goldfinch tethered to it’s pearch by a delicate chain.
You might say, if you were a cynic, that the Goldfinch has brought this upon on itself, showing off with its fine singing voice, beautiful plumage and deft touch with its feet and beak.

The Caged Goldfinch comes up as a reference to freedom in two poems by Thomas Hardy, “The Caged Goldfich” and, “The Blinded bird” both communicate the same outrage of having freedom taken.
In fact a number of other poets have used the Goldfinch in their work. Russinan poet Osip Mandelstam knew a thing or to about freedom, he was was excelled by Joseph Stalin’s government during the repression of the 1930’s, his poem “The cage” illustrates freedom withheld.

When the goldfinch like rising dough
suddenly moves, as a heart throbs,
anger peppers its clever cloak
and its nightcap blackens with rage.

The cage is a hundred bars of lies
the perch and little plank are slanderous.
Everything in the world is inside out,
and there is the Salamanca forest
for disobedient, clever birds.

Finally, show me the money! “Gold”-finch. Across the Ceuntries there has been the assumption that what is brightly coloured must be a symbol of wealth. For example, this is woven into ryme in The courtship, marriage of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren,

“Who gives this Maid away?
I do says the goldfinch
and her fortune I will pay”

So for a small bird, the Goldfinch has been loaded with a lot of symbolic bagagge.

The This and other designs at The DM Collection
Image © Daniel Mackie

The West Wind.

2 Comments July 4, 2013 Daniel Mackie

I have been meaning to add a horse to my collection for a while. if you were to look at my sketch book you’d see page after page of horse sketch. I finally settled on a greek theme. I nearly went with the The Trojan Horse, But I changed my mind!

The Siege of Troy.
In a nut shell the story goes like this, Paris, a trojan, steels Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. Why did he do it? The poor lad was manipulated by the powers above! It started with a vanity-fueled dispute among three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite sparked by another Goddess, Eris (strife), Eris inscribed an apple,”to the fairest” and tossed it umogst the festivities at a wedding sparking the quarrel between the 3 goddesses about who indeed the fairest. Zeus (king of the gods) wanted to settle the dispute and so sent the three goddesses to Paris to settle the argument. Who was the fairest? well,each Goddess tried to bribe him, the most tempting bribe to Paris was Aphrodite’s who offered Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Oh dear!

Menelaus and Agamemnon (his brother) led a greek expedition to Troy to retrieve Helen from Paris. This was the start of the Trojan war which was a 10 year siege on Troy

The war terminated with the scam of the Trojan Horse. The Greeks built a wooden horse and hid an elite group of soldiers in it, they wrote an inscription on it,”For their return home, the Greeks dedicate this offering to Athena” (the goddess of wisdom) and left by boat back to Greece. (well they appeared too!) The Trojans despite a warning from Laocoon, Helen and Cassandra that it was a bad idea, pulled the horse into the city.

The elite force inside the horse now attacked, as did the greek army that had not sailed back to Greece but had just laid in wait. Troy fell, game over. Goodnight Vienna!

Spring is in the Air

But war and con tricks don’t really fit with my theme of Animals in there natural habitat! Fortunately there are a lot of horses in greek mythology.

The Anemoi were the four wind gods, They were often depicted as horses, each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came. Zephyrus was the west wind, the gentlest of the winds, known as the messenger of spring.

Zephyrus is most commonly depicted as a winged youth, the most famous myth about him is his rivalry with Apollo (greek sun god) for the love of Hyakinthos. Hyakinthos chose Apollo and this drove Zephyrus mad with jealousy, yeah you guessed it, It’s a greek myth, it’s going to end badly, and it does! Zephyrus saw Apollo and Hyacinth playing quoits in a meadow, Zephyrus insane with jealousy struck the quoit with a gust of wind which struck Hyakinthos on the head and killed him. Very sad! In his grief Apollo created the hyacinth flower from his blood.

Zephyrus’ Roman equivalent was Favonius, who held dominion over plants and flowers

Below you can see the watercolour in progress.

Buy this as a cards at The DM Collection

Scent Hound

1 Comment August 29, 2012 Daniel Mackie

Watercolour in progress of a scent hound. This one is an English Fox hound.

How sensitive is your nose? The Scenthound breeds are generally regarded as having some of the most sensitive noses among canines.
The theory goes that the long ears aid the wafting of sent into the scent hounds sensitive nose and their loose, moist lips are help in trapping scent particles.

So the History goes like this.

First there was warrior dogs. Phoenician traders Brought Molossian dogs (early mastiff-type dogs) to the Uk in the sixth century BC. These enormous brutes were used as “dogs of war”. When Julius Caesar invaded britain in 55 BC he described how the Britons fought side by side with warriors dogs and was so impressed he stole the idea, took them back to Italy and called them “Pugnaces” or “the Broad-mouthed dogs of Britain.” They then fought beside roman legions and fought bears and lions in the amphitheaters. From Italy the dogs began to spread across Europe.

At this point in dog history it is important to remember that dogs were not categorized as specific breeds, but were bred and classified according to the job they did. So in the case of the scent hounds, one excellent trailing dog was simply bred to another, no matter whether the breeding partners resembled each other or not. It is believed that the Celtic people were the first to realize that some of the mastiff-type dogs had incredible scenting ability, they selectively bred the mastiff type dogs and created a sort of gigantic scenthound. Later on these massive scent hounds were probably crossed with lighter sight hounds (dogs that primarily hunt by speed and sight) resulting in the hound dog we see today.

View cards and prints at Daniel’s shop The DM Collection

King of the Jungle!

3 Comments July 26, 2012 Daniel Mackie

Watercolour in progress of a Lion (Panthera leo)

Lion, king of the jungle. Well not really as lions don’t live in the jungle, they live out on the African Savannah.

Maybe it’s because lions are at the top of the food chain that they have become labeled with “king”.

An interesting related fact is that the King of Sparta between 488BC and 480BC was called King Leonidas’. The name actually meant “lion-like,”.
Perhaps some people associate Africa with jungles, and since Lions live in Africa they make the erroneous association.

In the jungle the Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Well, there is some truth in lions being kings of the jungle. Some lions do live in the jungle. Well, the Gir Forest of Gujarat in India. The Asiatic lion is a subspecies of lion that lives in the Gir Forest of Gujarat, it is the only place in the wild where this species is found. It was established as a wildlife santuary in 1965. It is believed that their habitat used to range from Northern India to Iran, south to the Arabian Peninsula and west towards Greece.

A number of factors have contributed to the decline in their population. The big three are habitat distruction, farming and poaching.
At the moment it is believed there are 411 lions in the sanctuary of the Gir Forest of Gujarat. It is scrub and open deciduous forest. The population in 1907 was believed to consist of only 13 lions when the Nawab of Junagadh gave them complete protection. This figure, however, is highly controversial because the first census of lions in the Gir that was conducted in 1936 yielded a result of 234 animals.
The Asiatic lion is listed as Endangered by the international Union for the conc=servation of nature (IUCN).

View Daniel’s print and card shop
View Daniel’s Illustration portfolio

Whale Stories

1 Comment July 23, 2012 Daniel Mackie

This is the finished whale picture, as you can see, it’s probably one of my most graphic looking.

I mentioned some stories in my earlier post about whales, Famously Jonah spent three days inside a whales belly after an argument with God.
Sailors had trouble with mistaking whales for Islands and were shipwrecked as a result.

More recently, O my Best Beloved Rudyard Kipling described how the whale got his throat in his Just so Stories.

Perhaps one of the most famous stories about a whale is Moby Dick by Herman Melville, it was first published in 1851. It is considered to be one of the Great American Novels. Captain Ahab is consumed with his desire to kill the “white whale” after it had destroyed his boat and bittern off his leg.
Melville was inspired to write his book by actual events. One was the sinking of the Nantucket ship Essex in 1820, after it was rammed by a large sperm whale. The other was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the albino sperm in the waters off the Chilean island of Mocha. The whale was rumored to have twenty or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and attacked ships with premeditated ferocity. Well wouldn’t you!

The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal. The name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in the animal’s head. spermaceti was one of the reasons that the sperm whale was hunted by whalers in the last three centuries. It was used as an ingredient in cosmetics and as a lubricant.

The hunting led to the near extinction of large whales until bans on whale oil use were instituted in 1972. The International Whaling Commission gave the species full protection in 1985 but hunting by Japan in the northern Pacific Ocean continued until 1988.
There are a number of whale species that are listed as endangered or vulnerable by the IUCN (International Union for the Conversation of Nature) including, North Atlantic right whale, the Sperm whale and the Blue whale.

Whales were little understood for most of human history as they spend up to 90% of their lives underwater, only surfacing briefly to breathe. They are the largest animals on the planet. Many cultures, even those that have hunted them, hold them in awe and feature them in their mythologies.

Above you can see the painting in progress,as you can see I was keen to get a balance between the pinks the golds, the blues and finally the black ( I use ultramarine and burnt umber mixed together, you get move of a blue back that way.)

View Daniel’s shop where you ca by cards and prints
View Daniel’s Illustration portfolio

Greylag Geese Flying through a Thunderstorm

3 Comments June 8, 2012 Daniel Mackie

This painting is going to be on a lampshade.
This is just one part of the overall design. Very japanese! There are three panels altogether that will all join up.

Lazy Geese!

The geese are migratory, moving south or west in winter. The greylag is one of the last to migrate, and the “lag” portion of its name is said to derive from this lagging behind other geese.
There are populations of these geese throughout Europe and America. The population that live in Iceland migrate every winter to the UK usually arriving in Britian in october. They stay until march, then they fly back to Iceland.
Image © Daniel Mackie

View Daniel’s portfolio
take a look at Daniel’s shop

Repeating pattern – Ducks rising on a misty morning.

2 Comments April 12, 2012 Daniel Mackie

repeating pattern design in progress. This is very much influenced by both japanese prints and William Morris. This way of making a repeating pattern effectively involves two drawings, one that is around the outside that will match up when the tile repeats and the other (in this case the ducks) in the middle of the page. This is watercolour so no doubt there will be a bit of messing around in photoshop afterwards to line up the pattern!

View Daniel’s Illustration portfolio
Visit Daniels Shop, The DM Collection

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

1 Comment November 25, 2011 Daniel Mackie

William Blake wrote a Poem in the late 1700s called Tiger. Its first two lines are:

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night….

You probably recognise it. You can read the whole thing here
It reminds me of this painting by Henri Rousseau.

In a nut shell, it questions how the hand of god can create something as gentle and mild as the lamb, but also something as terrifying and deadly as the tiger. How and why does God do this? Also while he is at it, Blake begs the question, why are things that are so deadly so beautiful?

Well I don’t know! But Tigers are really quite something. William Blake’s poem leaves us with the impression of a tiger that can roam at will in its own habitat.

Well sadly the tiger is one of the most threatened species on the planet. Two subspecies are already extinct, the Bali tiger and the Javan tiger.

The six remaining subspecies are all classified as endangered by IUCN, and the Sumatran Tiger, which is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, is critically endangered, with only 500-600 individuals in the wild.

So why are tigers in this mess? Habitat degradation, deforestation and poaching. Tigers are naturally solitary and each one requires his/her own manor, so to speak. Each animal has its own territory and they get very upset if another tiger walks into its backyard. There is some toleration and indeed some territories of tigers overlap, but as you can appreciate, tigers need space and plenty of it. However, that need for space does not fit well with the sprawl of humankind across the planet.

Illustration in progress. Tiger in its natural habitat.

View Daniels watercolour illustration