Jan Tait and the Bear

I created the illustration for an animation for a chamber opera. Jan Tait and the Bear is a Shetlandic folk tale, set when the islands were part of Norway. Jan lived on Fetlar and announced he was going to pay his taxes in butter. The tax collector argued with him and ended up dead, so Jan was carted off to Norway. The king gave him the opportunity to gain a pardon by capturing the bear in the forest that had been frightening the good people of Bergen.

The chamber opera is written by the composer Emily Dolittle and I was invited to do the illustration by Jason Brown of Green Light Creative in Glasgow. Paper animator Eleanor Stewart brought the drawings to life to make this video:

These are some screenshots and mock-ups of how the elements would come together that I made for Eleanor when providing the images for animation. Eleanor printed all the elements and cut them out to work her magic.

I’ve done some other projects for Green Light Creative as well. These are all pantomime posters: Snow White is a fiesty super-hero sort of girl and this drawing is based loosely on the actress. The dame in these is consistent because the actor is. One of things I love about working on these illustrations for Perth Theatre is the costumes and sets – I’m often sent the costume/set designer’s sketches or descriptions, so have great fun meeting their lavish style.