Unf- I love Camille Rose Garcia. Her art reminds me of lost Fleischer cartoons. I have her version of Alice in Wonderland (so incredibly acid pastel that it hurts my eyes) but the colors in Snow White are more to my taste. I love when books have details like this- the cloth bound cover is…
Category: fairy tale
Wild Swans -lost masterpiece by Gordon Laite
“Gordon Laite’s breathtaking artwork for a Little Golden Book edition of the Andersen fairy tale was found recently in the Golden Books archive. Planned for a 1970 release but never published, this Little Golden Book is finally making its debut for today’s fairy tale fans! And it couldn’t be a lovelier retelling of the story…
Sleeping Beauty Ballet
With the movie “Maleficent” due to be released May 30th, I got into a discussion about the different ways the “wicked” fairy has been portrayed in the fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty and it reminded me of this book floating around on my book shelf, “Behind the Scenes at the Ballet: Rehearsing and Performing The Sleeping Beauty.”….
Flapper Cinderella
Bonjour l’Automne! It’s Fall and that means it’s time for my favorite Autumn themed fairy tale: CInderella. I’ve posted other versions here and here but this one is particularly charming. Set in the 1920s, it stars a brunette bobbed Cinderella, fabulously dumb step-sisters, an alcoholic step-mother, and a very english looking prince. Illustrated by Roberto…
disney cinderella~ retta scott edition
this is another cinderella i remember from childhood. While i didn’t like it as much as gordon laite’s, i did like it better than the standard disney version of cindrella. for one thing, i liked the dress here much better. while i appreciate the animated cinderella’s dress now, when i was a child i found it a…
diamonds and toads~ gordon laite
I’ve always heard of this story as “diamonds and toads,” instead of the other way around. it’s the familiar poor girl with mean stepmother/stepsister scenario. i think you can guess who’s who from this scene. i love her think black wavy hair and the expression of her face is some of Gordon Laite’s best work….
sleeping beauty~ janet and anne grahame johnstone
I have Dean’s A Book of Fairy Tales illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone. Unlike their fellow British children’s illustrators they’re not well known here in the U.S. which is a shame considering the high quality of their work. They generally worked on small to medium sized artist board in watercolor and gouache. Right…
snow white~ nancy ekholm burkert’s medieval marvel
published in 1972 nancy ekholm burkert’s “Snow White” is a marvel. inspired by medieval manuscripts and a pre-raphaelite obsession with detail, she used colored inks and tiny lines to create intricately detailed art. {right click and open in new page to enjoy in a much larger format.}there was a medieval revival in the 70s. from Rush to…
swan lake by lizbeth zwerger
lisbeth zwerger’s Swan Lake {2002} is beautifully strange. delicate watercolors shift between impermanence and reality. from odette’s* swan headed glove to the impenetrable mists, we float in a world where dream logic reigns. i love the awkward transformation of the swan maidens. it’s ideas like this that set zwerger apart from her peers. never content…
mercer mayer’s "sleeping beauty"~
mercer mayer’s “sleeping beauty” {1984} is more than a little convoluted and while beautiful, one of his lesser works. the subtle pencil shading is gone and the colors appears straight out the the pan with next to no mixing. his solid draftsmanship has weakened and characters are often put together in unconvincing ways. still, some…
ivan bilibin ~vassilissa the beautiful and the witch baba yaga
i love ivan bilibin’s art. the stark outlines and gentle colors are lovely. “my white, bright day.” “the red sun” “that is my servant, the dark night.” baba yaga and yes, mike mignola has spent the last decade paying “homage” to bilibin. i’m not being catty, i like mignola’s art. so vassilissa takes this flaming…
little golden book cinderella paper dolls by gordon laite
as i promised, here are the scans of gordon laite’s “cinderella” paper doll~ i’ve looked for this book for 15 years. finally, this year i ended up purchasing two books. one with the dolls and one with the uncut clothing. there really aren’t enough good things i can say about these dolls. to me, they…
cinderella~ autumn queen
Cinderella is an autumn tale. Don’t believe me? Pumpkins. Okay, occasionally it’s a winter tale and the ball is actually a yule ball. Cinderella comes in decked in flowers which makes the party-goers believe she’s a fairy bc it’s the dead of winter. i.e.- “rashin’ coatie” (“coat of rushes” a scottish cinderella variant). But usually, it’s…
mercer mayer’s "favorite tales from grimm" part 1.
as i’ve posted before, mercer mayer is one of my earliest and most lasting influences. with the beginning of autumn, now seems a fitting time to post his illustrations from “favorite tales from grimm.” this was his third and last book before his artistic decline began to set in. the pictures are highly detailed, exquisitely…
inspiration file~ st. george and the dragon
starting in 7th grade i ordered time-life’s enchanted world series. instead of starting “witches and wizards” they started me with “the fall of camelot”. my knights/arthurian craze had begun!in my mid teens i discovered trina schart hyman’s beautiful, “st. george and the dragon”. taking it’s details from spencer’s “faerie queen” we are plunged into an england…
kay’s destiny
from “the snow queen” by hans christian andersen ~ “kay’s destiny” all grown up, kay finds his destiny lies to the north, in the palace of the snow queen. leaving his novels, his absinthe, & the pallid bust of pallas, the snowflakes spirit him away…buy a print on etsy i think, for the “snow…
"kay leaves the palace of ice"
“kay leaves the palace of ice” from the “snow queen”.this scene depicts the moment when kay has solved the snow queen’s puzzle & has become his own master as well as a won a new pair of skates. however, he’s not ready to grow up & leaves the palace of ice with gerda. the…
"the snowflakes vanquished"
“the snowflakes vanquished” the snow queen’s palace is guarded by her snowflake army. unsure of how to reach kay, gerda’s frozen breath becomes angels who subdue the army. i love drawing armor, especially fantasy armor. this was painted in the midst of my klimt / pre-raphaelite infatuation. or maybe it was love bc i still adore them, they just don’t quite…
mercer mayer’s east of the sun & west of the moon
mercer’s mayer‘s “east of the sun & west of the moon” is a curious book. an amalgam of the scandinavian tale of the title & “the frog prince” plus some elemental mythology. i’m still confused why he didn’t call it “the frog prince” instead of “eswm“. it certainly offers a more satisfying telling of “fp”…
mercer mayer’s beauty & the beast
working on some new paintings which will be offered on etsy as well as two private commissions. in the meantime i wanted to share one of my favorite books when i was a kid, mercer & marianna mayer’s “beauty & the beast”. they were husband & wife at the time~ i believe they were married…
nouvellegamine 