"Pierrot"

This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Pierrot.” I didn’t know who he was so I did a Google search. I used the description I found on wikipedia to come up with my postcard idea. Because I was unfamiliar with him and everything and everyone else associated with him, I didn’t look at any images on the Internet (other than the ones on wikipedia) because I didn’t want my idea to be influenced by anything I saw.

I knew what a harlequin was, I knew what a modern clown looked like, and I knew who Scaramouche was, but I didn’t realize their origins came from here. This challenge was an educational experience for me, which I enjoyed.

My postcard shows Columbine choosing Harlequin, and turning away from Pierrot. I have the moon in there too, because he was “moonstruck” by her. I wanted to put some moon dust raining down on him, to show that, but there wasn’t enough room. All of the clipart is from Clipart ETC. I colored it and made a few minor modifications.

After I decided on my postcard theme and the clipart I would use in it, I did do a search for Harlequin and found this beautiful painting called Harlequin Dance, by Gary Benfield. Pierrot is in it also, but he was so subtle I didn’t see him at first. I know it’s not a postcard, and not part of the challenge, but I thought I would share it anyway. It can be seen on Herndon Fine Art - Limited Editions, Originals, and Sculptures: Gary Benfield Limited Editions. It’s almost all the way down to the bottom of the page. To view the image directly, go here.

Technical notes to myself: Even though I uploaded the BMP file, which didn’t have the “ghost affect”, the website appears to be using a JPG style version of it, which does, just like my original one did until I changed everything to BMPs and processed them that way.