My Little Bambino

My sister Mary and I were wandering the streets of the city on Saturday night on our way to the Strand bookstore, and I asked her to tell me a story. She is always reading something good, and she told me the entire tale of 'Where Angels Fear to Tread' by E.M. Forster. In this story, an upper class English woman named Lilia runs off with a young Italian son-of-a-dentist named Gino. The result is a sweet little Italian bambino. Poor Lilia dies in childbirth, but Gino loves the baby so dearly! Mary's description of Gino and the baby was so heartwarming, especially when she told me about how he lay the baby down on the dirty carpet and would wipe it dry with whatever there was lying around. He sounded like a sweet buffoon. It inspired me in my current animation project. Here, I decided to depict a tender little baby just like Gino's. These are screenshots from the scene I was working on today. This is my little Bambino Italiano.

The baby's head, hands, and eyes are cut from paper. The hair and cheeks are a watercolor wash. I had fun sewing the red silk blankie and picking out the trim from the trim shop... why didn't someone tell me you can't iron lace? Good thing I bought extra! Mine melted! So you may notice I sewed on an extra layer.. but I like the look of the double layer. The darkened edges of the frame are also inspired by Mary, she has been taking lots of pictures with a Diana camera, which was sort of dirty and old so it was giving these shadowed antique edges. I put a glass filter on my HD camera lens then painted over it with carmex mixed with black paint which I manipulated with a q-tip and eye makeup brushes... I really like the way that came out! Also I'm thinking about the effects of pinhole cameras lately. Just thinking about how to get that tunnel vision effect.