Illustration - Clara and the Nutcracker

"It was the most beautiful toy Herr Drosselmeyer had ever made. Clara had never seen such fine clothes, such real eyes, such intricate detail, on any Nutcracker in her entire life. And she knew without a doubt that, when the Toymaker returned, this was the one she would ask him for. He had said she could choose any she liked, after all...."  </em>

I am working on writing and illustrating a reboot of the Hoffman fairytale "The Nutcracker", off of which the beloved Tchaikovsky ballet is based. It is based of of A) What I see mentally when I hear the music, B) Research into the original origins of the story, and C) My attempt to make sense of things about the original story that don't seem to have a straight and connected plotline. I will be posting several illustrations over the next couple months.

This first is just a basic picture of Clara on the day she becomes the owner of the Nutcracker, who in my story is named Peter in honor of Tchaikovsky himself, whose first name was Pyotr. I have made Clara a wee bit older than she is often portrayed - about 16 or 17 years old. Her dress was a loose redrawing of an 1800s German lady's dress that I once saw and her hair is based on several paintings I researched of young ladies hair in that era . The nutcracker is based off very much research into pictures. I wanted to make him look as if he had actual clothes on, not just his whole figure carved and painted in wood, because that's a plot point in the retelling. I'm not sure if I succeeded there, but that was the intent. I deliberately drew "real" eyes with irises and reflective pupils, like Clara's, on him instead of white and black painted ones like Nutcrackers usually have. This is another plot point.

In the reboot, Clara is one of only three people at first that can hear Peter speak - when he was cursed, only his sight, hearing, and voice remained, but only those that believed he could talk could hear him. Clara's kind heart helps her to believe this, and even before she ever hears him speak to see that he's something special, and see past his ugly face to the things about him that are good and beautiful, which eventually allows him to learn to move again, just a little bit (Turning his head, raising his arm, and so on). She has to face the ridicule and concern of her family - her father is a doctor which makes it worse - but she maintains that Peter really can speak and eventually her conviction yet clear sanity moves some of her siblings to be able to hear his voice too, and eventually her kindness towards Peter leads to her quite accidentally figuring out how to break the spell on him. 

The pose was freehanded after looking at references of children holding pets and dolls.