It's a Guard

A close up of the finished work

The artwork I chose to recreate is one painted by my mother. This particular watercolor painting is older than me, and has been a staple wall decoration in the Beadles household for as long as I can remember. 

A painting by Monica Beadles

As a child, I thought the painting was a painting of either Jesus or Saint Joseph. There was no indication of this figure being either of those people, and it was sort of just an assumption I had made based on little kid logic. Little kid logic likes to make assumptions out of nowhere. 

I think my assumption was based on three factors. First factor is the figure's welcoming pose. One hand outstretched in greeting, and the other hand crossing his heart. The second that factored into my assumption is the figure's garb. I interpreted the black cloth as the sort of thin cloth covering intended to cover as much skin as possible, like the clothing worn in deserts intended to protect the wearer from exposure, sun poisoning, and blistering sandy winds. I interpreted the white spots as an animal pelt being worn over his woolen thawb, and the blue-and-black stripes over his face as a scarf. I also somehow interpreted the scarf over his mouth being somehow simultaneously a scarf and a beard. I'm not really sure how that would work. The third factor that led to my young mind's conclusion and the most subtle, is the stick behind the figure's shoulder. I interpreted that stick as a walking stick stowed away on the back of a sojourner taking a break from his adventures.

So, a friendly bearded man wandering the deserts of the middle east? In the mind of a child in a Catholic family, that man must be Jesus! Or Joseph, for whatever reason. For years I operated under the assumption that my mother's painting was Jesus, Joseph, or in the very least a biblical figure. Eventually the piece left my mind and faded into the scenery of the house, and I paid it little mind except to occasionally appreciate it. 

When given this assignment to recreate an artwork in the house, I went with this painting for how it stood out in my memory. I decided to ask my mom what the painting was of, anyways. 

She said "It's a guard."

I asked her to elaborate, and she simply said that the painting was meant to be of some sort of guard or knight. The stick over his shoulder is the hilt of a sword, the beard is a face guard, and the gray cloth is something like chainmail. What!? Somehow, I've completely misinterpreted this piece on even the most basic level!

Using ms paint and an image of a chainmail frock, I made a mockup of what I think the figure's clothing is really meant to be

Even though I completely misinterpreted my mother's painting, I still think it represents one of the most formative pieces of my aesthetic principles. Story time is over, so here's my work.  

My sketches

I had begun making sketches for this assignment before bothering to ask my mom what the piece contained, so these sketches are both my attempts at trying to redraw and sketch the original piece, as well as myself trying to figure out how the rest of the figure might look, even though the rest of the figure did not factor into my final work.

For a while, I tried to recreate the work by making a costume that matched the character, but I gave up on that when I couldn't find enough material to use for making the costume. Normally when costuming, I'd go out to thrift stores, but that isn't really an option.

Instead, I resolved to simply painstakingly recreate the painting in loving detail using a different medium. I decided on paint markers, an old standby. In conclusion, here is the result of way too many hours of the careful use of graphs and calipers in conjunction with glorified graffiti tools. 

A painting by Paul Beadles as a study of a painting by Monica Beadles