illuminated manuscript of a children story "a fox and a hare"

This week we present to you an illuminated manuscript of the Russian children story: "a fox and a hare", which can also be found under the name "Hare's hut". A picture consists of four sections, by the chapters of the story and should serve as a background of one of the bus stops in the city of Perm.

But first thing first, let's star with a story: the drama starts with a robber baron fox, who's snow hut melted in the spring and let him think it was a good idea to move to an apartment owned by a hare (maybe not as nice as the "ice hotel", but warm and dry). In a unequal battle a hare had to flee saving what's left of his skin. The whole summer he was looking for a help of higher authority - mighty and resourceful wolf and bear, but none of them dared to attack a fox, fearing kamikaze style retaliation. And when a pour hare was getting ready to join his ancestors, a hero (a cock, probably helping him out of class hate for royalty and foxes) comes by and saves the day.

Illuminated manuscript - a fox and a hare, winter and sprint section, Alexandra

As I mention already we create an illuminated manuscript, this technique was developed in the early middle ages and was mostly used by monks to illustrate holy books. We came to an idea to use this style after watching The Secret of Kells, an animated film depicting a fictional story of Book of Kells - an illuminated manuscript of the Bible, created by Celtic monks around ca. 800 (If you have not seen it yet, it is a great cartoon by the way).

We have used illustration to the Commentary on the Apocalypse to learn the style and mix the colors, the illustration is a bit less complex as ones in Book of Kells and have been better preserved which made them a good target.

Escorial Beatus, f. 108v: Worship of the beast and dragon

Facundus Beatus, f. 240

Interesting fact: according to some sources it took monks months to finish each page, most of the colors were custom designed and considered to be a know how, almost like the coca cola recipe :)

Anyway this time we almost broke the rules, although no photoshop has been used, Alexandra had to use Illustrator (vector graphics) to create the paintings, so they can be easily printed out on a big screen.

Although competition for the space on the bust stops windows is tough, we still hope to get our spot, may be somewhere around a school :)

A fox and a hare, original story

Illuminated manuscript - a fox and a hare, winter and sprint section, Alexandra

Illuminated manuscript - a fox and a hare, summer and autumn section, Alexandra


A fox and a hare, alternative reality

Illuminated manuscript - a fox and a hare, AR, Alexandra

2008 financial crisis hits the fox hard
fox using bailout money forces a hare out of his über-mortgaged home
authorities are corrupt and lazy bastards

Illuminated manuscript - a fox and a hare, AR, Alexandra

Traditional media threatened by the financial power of the fox are backing off

New social media is the only chance for a hare to be heard and helped

The day is saved by a cock - young and ambitious lawyer who responded to the hare's ask for help.