Those days I’m doing a series about fractals. The main idea is that I am imitating the way computer programs are drawing. I will give more details about it in a separated article. Today I want to tell you about one drawing of that series:
From a blank page
When I started it on my blank page, I first wanted to draw a tree by doing the outline like a fractal. So I started to draw that black outline and the horizontal ground. Another graphic element of fractals is that there are some continuous colored surfaces inside it like this:
You can see the black part that looks like the black outline of the tree and the purple/red/yellow/green that looks like the red/yellow inside my tree. But, to make it less obvious, I wanted to extend the colors inside the trunc with a very thin red line that looks like blood which flows into an underground lake. I also wanted to draw the surface outside the tree in red… like a bloody burning world or something like this.
I did a mistake while drawing (the red stain just on the top of the lake), I was very angry about it.
Dracaena cinnabari
The drawing was finished, but then started the most interresting part. I was looking for a title. The main elements of the drawing are 1-the tree, 2-the blood. So I was asking google about « tree blood ». The first answer was about « Dracaena cinnabari ». This is a tree which surname is « dragon blood tree »!
I looked at my drawing again and I realized that the red and yellow surfaces inside the tree look like an eye, a dragon eye. Even the black leaves arround it looks like the rough scaly skin of a dragon. This dragon’s eye seem to bleed because of the red flow from the tree to the lake. Then, suddently, something amazing appeared to me!
Siegfried
At that point, I had those elements: a tree, a defeated dragon and some blood. You can try to ask google about those 4 elements, you will find something new, but I didn’t need google’s help: that was obvious for me! The answer is Siegfried, an opera from Richard Wagner (I like his opéras a lot). A quick summary of its story is the following: Siegfried is a young man who lives in a forest, he is forging a sword which will help him to defeat a dragon who is holding the ring of the Nibelung. After Siegfried kills the dragon and drinks its blood, he will talk to a bird that will guide him to Brünnhilde who will be loved by him.
I was very surprized to find so many elements of this opéra in my drawing! And this was pure (happy) accident! Except the tree and the blood, none of them was premeditated/ You can try to find all the elements of the opéra that are in the drawing, here is the (non-exhaustive?) list of them:
- the tree
- the blood
- the dragon eye
- the ring (gold circle in the eye)
- the blade of the sword (horitontal yellow rectangle on the bottom)
- the bird
- the anvil (red shape done by inverting the 2 red parts arround the tree)
I was so angry about the red stain on the bottom, first I thought it was an error, but finally not, it’s the bird of Siegfried… Now I’m so happy about it!
What is an error? What is beautiful, what is ugly?
Where do those elements come from? My sub-conscious? God? Pure hazard? Are there other possible stories for this drawing? Does it really mater?
I don’t know… I just draw…
Dessins de François 