Fairytale art:
Fairy- & folktales from around the world!
KING MIDAS MYTH:
GREECE: In ancient Greece, gods and deities walked the earth and often meddled with the lifes of mortals.
SCOTTLAND: There are many myths, that I find fascinating, but the Selkie myth really captures my fancy! Most Selkie folk-tales revolve around the relationship of female selkies with human men. They often hide the fur of the Selkie women, so they can’t turn into seals anymore.
These tales are about freedom, loss and are really heartbreaking and beautiful!
I wanted to show the free spirited playful game of a female Selkie and a seal in the sea, both circling around a bright light source.
NORWAY: The three billy goats gruff wanted to cross a bridge under which a gastly troll lived. The smallest tried to walk over the bridge and the troll jumped out to devour the poor goat, but it told the troll that a much bigger and meatier goat was about to come along. So, the troll spared its life and the second biggest goat crossed the bridge, telling the troll, that the last goat - the biggest of them - was about to cross the bridge too. The big goat didn’t even consider being eaten by the grim troll and pushed him off the bridge with its horns.
I picked this tale, because I was interested to illustrate a scandinavian tale and this one is a fun one!
GERMANY: The tale of Rosered and Snowwhite is so well known, that I won’t tell it here, but I picked this one, because I wanted to illustrate a typical German Wood Fairytale. The forest always plays a big role in tales from this region and I’m quite fascinated by its cultural relevance!
IRAQ: The tales of Sindbad the sailor are well known, still this tale of him going on a hunt for elephants isn’t often mentioned in literature.
While Sindbad is out to hunt elephants for his king, one of the animals picks him up and carries him to their elephant graveyard. The king is delighted about the huge quantities of ivory and sets Sindbad free.
Here, you see the elephant pick poor Sindbad up in the air. I wanted to show the different moods of animal and man in this scenario. Also, the textures and colors reflect the heat and dust of the dessert.
GERMANY: In the iron stove, a prince is turned into a iron stove by a witch’s curse. A princess can lift the curse, but she must face several hardships until they can be together, including spending the night in a tree high above where a little bird comforts her.
I wanted to show this scene of her up in a tree looking for her prince, while referencing an old painting (‘the iron stove’ by Warwick Goble (1913)). I tried recreating the soft dusty textures of the painter while interweaving it with my own style of illustrating pieces.
INDIA: Almost every child knows Kaa’s song from the disney classic ‘the jungle book’! I tried to make this creepy and strange scene a little more whimsical with a lot of lights and colorful jungle elements.