Hey guys; a question! :)

[moonvoice]

What fairytales would you like to see me do a lateral artistic interpretation or rendering of, a la these pictures?

Gretel
Red Riding Hood
Vasilia the Brave
Snow White and Rose Red
Dear Little Brother

And why?

Any particular scenes in mind?

Comments

Scary Fairies

[perzephone]

The Frog Prince and Silverhands have always been a couple of my favorite little stories. It's not really a fairy tale, but I bet you could probably do a kick-ass interpretation of Sir Gawain & the Green Knight :)

Re: Scary Fairies

[moonvoice]

Ooooo, Silverhands. Good call, man!

[darakat]

For something Twee there is The teddy bears picknic, for something a bit (a lot) darker Rumplestiltskin

[moonvoice]

I've thought about Rumplestiltskin before actually, I think I'd turn that into quite a dark picture. Heh.

[darakat]

I always imagined him to be somewhat foxlike in appearance, even though all the books illustrated with him had him as a Goblin type thing.

[aldersprig]

Rapunzel!

(It's just always been one of my favorites)...

oh, oh, Tattercoats, I read a really good retelling of tattercoats.

Or Bluebeard.

(An older copy of Grim's was one of my childhood read-over-and-over-agains)

[moonvoice]

Oooo Rapunzel! :D My idea of that is so differentto Disney's though. Hee.

Bluebeard would be awesome. Such a sinister tale.

[aldersprig]

Iknowright?

I enjoyed Rapunzel-the-movie, but I enjoyed it like I enjoy any other creative reinterpretation of a fairy tale, not as a direct telling.

[silere]

How about The Nightingale, or the Six Swans?

Or one of the stories about Selkies, or perhaps swanmaidens. (maybe with black swans, oooooh)

The Pied Piper of Hamelin might be interesting, too.

Or The Snow Queen...

[silere]

I forgot the rest of the request... the why's and which scenes...

For the Nightingale.. it's a simple story, but still strikes a chord with me, and brings up many beautiful images.. and i can see how you could do something fabulous with either a mechanical nightingale or a real one.. or both together, even.. (i almost want to try painting some of these images myself..sigh)

The Six Swans has some dark imagery.. a lot of hard trials and heartache and risk, and i think it's beautiful in some ways.

Selkies and Swanmaidens are just very interesting to me.. any transformation myth is, really..

The pied piper has a lot of scene options.. just a story i was always intrigued by..
Same with the snow queen. i could do without some of the sappier or more religious bits of it, but overall lots of good stuff. snow crystals, reindeer!

[moonvoice]

I do really like Nightingales too, they are stunning, understated birds and I wish we had them here in Western Australia.

[finch]

Seconding the votes for Tattercoats and the Six Swans. My favorite folktale character is probably Mulan followed by Koschei, but I see you did Vasilia already.

[moonvoice]

Koschei is awesome; but I love the Tattercoats suggestion too. :D

[gone_fishing]

THUMBELINA. PLZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I LOVE THUMBELINA. <3

I'd also very much enjoy Rumpelstitskin and Rapunzel, The Little Mermaid (Andersen's, not the Disney version; I'd be very interested in seeing a rendition of the sea-hag); The Six Swans; Jack and the Beanstalk; Puss in Boots; The Twelve Dancing Princesses; Cinderella (whether the main character or the fairy godmother, or both... or that and then one of the stepsisters...). Er, just to name a few. :3

Also, this isn't a fairy tale per se, but I'd die if you did Titania and Oberon.

[moonvoice]

I don't know why, but I've never thought of Thumbelina before; that'd be pretty interesting for me to illustrate though, especially with the other animal characters.

[donnalotus]

I'd love to see anything you want to do, however my favourite was always "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", not sure how that would be recreated, but yeah, Grandma had a book of that story that had such amazing pictures in it - I would read it over and over when I was at her house on holidays!

[moonvoice]

I don't know if I could do The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but that'd be pretty awesome. It's such a stunning story. :D

[silverjackal]

That is not an easy choice for me. (It doesn't help that I don't know the stories in English, but Wikipedia came to the rescue!)

First, my childhood favorite, The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was. My favorite bit has to be where he's sitting by the fire in a circle with the corpses of hanged me, trying to have a party. Or the bowling with skulls and shin bones against a ghost. :D

My other favorite was the tale of the Goose Girl at the Well. The old woman in the tale is a powerful witch, and possibly a goddess. The revelatory scene always stays in my mind: where the girl pulls off the ugly mask that has concealed her identity while washing at the well by the light of the full moon at midnight. (The well is surrounded by three oak trees, and the young nobleman is hiding, watching her. At the critical moment a cloud crosses the moon, an owl hoots from the trees, and the girl gets frightened and runs back to the witch's hut... to find it vanished.)

That, or the scene out of Brother and Sister where the brother is compelled to drink, and is turned into a roe deer.

I have other suggestions, but I'll control myself. :D

[moonvoice]

Ah! Jim Henson's The Storyteller adapted the first tale into 'Fearnot,' and I've always loved both tellings. I love fairytales in general though; my all time favourite being One-Eyes, Two-Eyes and Three-Eyes not because it's the prettiest or best told, but because of the memories it evoked in me as a child.

[paleo]

I am very fond of Bearskin. For the life of me I can't remember which show introduced me to it. I was just fascinated by the tale, tests of love, a man being made bestial, deal with the Devil. The twisted part of me likes that Old Nick ultimately wins.

[aries_ascendant]

Are you familar with Terry Jones' Fairy Tales? It's illustrated by Michael Foreman and it's gorgeous. It has some of my favorite stories in it.

[linstar]

East of the Sun and West of the Moon - the scene where she is standing over the Bear with the candle and she burns him...

[ariestess]

Hmm...

The Selfish Giant is a personal childhood favorite.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is another that I've liked over the years, particularly Robin McKinley's adaptation.

[goddess_incarnate]

I don't know very many fairy tales, but the one that came to mind instantly was The Princess and the Pea. I just find the story to be really interesting and would love to see your rendition of it. A fairy tale that's a bit closer to me personally would be The Ugly Duckling - and again, I'd love to see how you would create it.

[filhotedelua]

The Ugly Duckling
When I was a kid, this story was the face of my hopes. I love how he decides present to the other swans, thinking they will kill he and how he is welcome.


And The Six Swans (that here in Brazil are seven swans, lol). At least here, her encounter with he Queen of the faeries, that teach her how free the brothers, is stunning. At least the version I was introduced as a child is a very pagan folktale.

[lifedominant]

Honestly, I can't think of anything save for maybe Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Damn I wish I had that fairy tale book...it had the story Beautiful Vassilissa (sp?). I remember the book title though: A Treasury of Fairy Tales. Had some good ones there.

[redsixwing]

I see the 'Swan Prince' has already been referenced in form of the Six/Seven Swans. *s* That'd be my first choice, especially the maiden's encounter with the (sorceress/goddess/fairie). Or the Swan Prince with his one arm still a wing, that image gives me shivers and has for ages.

'The Boy who Went Forth to Learn about Fear' is also awesome and contains several awesomely creepy scenes. 'Fraid I have nothing new to contribute.

[etherealzephyr]

Seconding selkies or any other skindancing legend ^^ Or, for a lark, what about Tristan and Isolde? I know, I know, it's very overdone, but that could go so dark so quickly, or be on the twee end of things.

Hrm. I dunno. Chantecleur the Rooster (fail!spelling) from the Canterbury Tales has been kicking around in my head for a long time, but it's not exactly a fairy tale....

[linstar]

Dammit I had a response and the computer ate it!

Some other responses hon:

Goose Girl - the one where the princess is overtaken by her maid and is cast out as a goose girl but the real princess has a talking horse who the imposter princess orders killed. The horse's head is hung on a gate that the real princess passes each mornign and she talks to the horse every morning. Either the scene where she talks to the horse or the scene where she brushes her hair and the goose boy has to chase his hat would make for awesome scenes.

Jorinde and Joringle - the scene where the witch is trying to escape with Jorinde as a bird and Joringel is holding the flower.

Beauty and the Beast - the scene where Beauty is dancing with the Beast or the scene where Beauty sees the Beast dying in the mirror.

The Elves and the Shoemaker - the scene where the elves find their clothing. I have always loved that scene :)

Oh and definitely Rumplestiltskin - the scene where Rumplestiltskin steals the baby! Make it particularly dark, I think that would be awesome!

Hope some of those help hon. *loves*

Another Thing (mis-replied to someone else, oops)

[perzephone]

How 'bout the Brementown Musicians?

etherealzephyr mentioning Chanticleer made me remember them. I've always liked the robbers' inordinate fear of barnyard animals... and how one of the greatest powers of darkness is to make the ordinary seem extraordinary.