Beschreibung

Fox Tie - Men's Gift - Dapper Fox Necktie - Men's Necktie



A stylish, handsome fox adorns this original tie. He's suave and sophisticated and wears a tweed jacket. He is the dapper fox. Artwork by shop owner Michael Phipps.



***This listing is for ONE necktie. Choose from the following colors:



(from left to right in first picture)

Rust

Silver

Ivory

Sand





Find more tie designs on my shop's home page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScatterbrainTies



Need a gift box for your purchase? http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScatterbrainTies?section_id=10560981



SAME DESIGN AVAILABLE AS A SHIRT OR PRINT IN MY OTHER SHOPS: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScatterbrainTees OR http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScatterbrainPrints



MORE TIE DESIGNS: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScatterbrainTies Great gifts for men!



~ Please Note ~

International buyers are responsible for all additional custom fees or import taxes.



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The story of the Dapper Fox



All of the items in Scatterbrain Ties are very personal as they are all the product of my imagination. Although the basic idea for the Dapper Fox came not long before its creation, it really goes back nearly four decades to when I was a very young child. My friends and I would make believe in what we called the "animal game". As four year olds it started as simple games pretending to be puppies or kittens, but not too long after we began to be more creative in what animals we would be. There was a phase where we would pretend to be vampires and "haunted lions", but that soon passed as well.



My friend Brad used to collect little cards with "animal facts", so he would tell us about various marsupials and other varied creatures throughout the world. We would then pretend to be these strange animals and make up various stories and scenarios. As we grew older, the role-plays turned into drawing, and we would draw animals in anthropomorphic positions, complete with clothes, weapons, tools and more.



Before long we started to make up animals of our own, which usually consisted of combinations of real animals. Take a lemur body, add a turtle shell, give it a tail with some an ankylosaurus club and you have yourself a new creature. Then add clothes, perhaps a crown and a scepter, and you have a character. We named the world where these beings lived, drew maps, made genealogies of the kings, drew charts of their food, and much more.



As the years went by and we entered High School, I continued to draw, but the stories we had created as children faded. As an adult I drew other things that were quite distant from the fantastic stories of my youth, but I discovered the desire to draw these things had never really left me.



I don't remember when the idea for the Dapper Fox first came about, but it definitely owes much to the fun I had drawing with friends as a kid. The clothes we used to create for our animal creations were usually of a medieval variety, but something of a more Victorian or Edwardian style really seemed right for a fox. They have such a natural debonair or dapper look to them, it just seemed to make sense. I knew I wasn't the first person to ever draw some clothing onto a fox, so I made sure to avoid looking at any perviously created anthropomorphic fox art as I drew mine. I found some good fox photos and did a lot of clothing research.



I first did a pencil sketch, and it really wasn't far from the final outcome, although lacking the detail. I then used a light table to use the pencil drawing as a basis for the ink version. I somewhat traced what I had already created, but made improvements as I went, adding fur lines and a whole lot of herring-bone pattern on his suit. The buttons on his suit are inspired by fox eyes, something that I'm not sure anyone has ever remarked to me. I wonder if anyone has ever noticed?



Given the popularity of Wes Anderson's movie "The Fantastic Mr Fox", a wildly imaginative adaption of Roald Dahl's book, it doesn't surprise me that people often wonder if this is my own version of "Mr Fox". The short and honest answer is "no", although given how much I love the film, it doesn't bother me. I do encourage anyone interested to Google the movie and compare Mr Fox to my Dapper Fox. They are both suit-wearing foxes, which gives them an obvious similarity, although their costumes are from different eras. Personally I don't think they look very alike beyond that, but I'll leave that up to you, the viewer.



At this writing the Dapper Fox is about six years old. He's been joined by a Penny-Farthing riding frog, a Stylish Sloth, and a few other animals that have chosen a two-legged existence over a four-legged crawl. As an artist it's easy to be very self-critical to the point of not wanting to look at my older works for very long. The fox is an exception. He's just so... Dapper.