Opposites - real life and fairy tales

February's prompt for the sketchbook challenge was "opposites." It had me stumped. I really didn't know how I wanted to represent opposites. Then today...

Actually let's go back a bit. I've been participating in this online painting class, Get Your Paint On. For this week's assignment, I reinterpreted a scene from a fairy tale and drew this sketch in my sketchbook in preparation.

I liked the idea so much that I've been perusing my complete collection of the original Grimm tales (it's a hefty book with lots of inspiration). I was doing exactly that in the cafe while taking a break from real job related work (oops!) when I noticed a man. 

I couldn't help but wonder... And this is what I did.

There’s a man sitting in front of me in the café. He’s carrying lots of plastic bags and I don’t know if he’s homeless or not. He’s wearing a sun hat and a heavy jacket. Is he just keeping himself warm from the cold outside? Does he have anywhere to go? Is he happy? Is he safe? He’s sleeping. It must be nice in here, nicer than anywhere else he has to go? I keep thinking that at one point, this man was someone’s baby. Did he feel loved? Did he know his parents? Did they hold his hand as he took his first steps? I hope he feels loved.

I actually don't think fairy tales and real life are opposites. I think they are pretty close sometimes....

(ETA - the print was hard to read...)