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Friday, October 11, 2013

The Snow Queen by Julia Griffin

These aren't new but it's the first time I've seen more than just the first carriage illustration and.. wow. Just... wow. 



I have seen her work before (check her website link below for the wolf on the first page - love that) but this Snow Queen series in colored pencil is so beautiful.





To me, the snowy scenes are where Ms. Griffin's work really shines. The work becomes really powerful and visceral. You'd think colored pencils would make for a lighter, dreamier mood but the ones below all evoke a feeling from chills to gut twisting (without any hint of horror in sight by the way - so incredibly impressive!).

I don't believe this is the robber girl who has Gerda by the throat here (the robber girl is my favorite character in the story) but I love the sense of peril here. Such a hot-blooded human threat as opposed to the cold and distant freezing magic of the Snow Queen. You can almost see Gerda girding her backbone as you follow the sequences along.

The reindeer one is killing me. (Yes - I had to show it to you again - in sequence this time.) Why, oh why are we not getting Gerda riding the reindeer in November?? Oh. That's right. It's not actually The Snow Queen. *sigh*

How awesome is Gerda roaring here?!! And it's completely believable at this point. You can see her growing stronger through the images until here, she roars right back. CHILLS! (Good ones.) Plus: ice bears? A snow eagle? Just love this...

And look who used icicles in the Snow Queen's clothing before Elsa even existed! So nicely done. Works very well with this frosty alien-like zombie (who takes hearts instead of brains..), complete with her UFO-like headquarters here - shades of Area 51 but with a girl who's having none of it. Go Gerda!

I'm totally imagining pitching a "sequel" to Disney for Frozen right now, but with the Gerda character being one of Anna or Elsa's future daughters (or even better, granddaughters). Why? Because since Disney's name has been linked with this story NO ONE is going to touch Snow Queen in animation, possibly ever again (cue wailing and gnashing of teeth!) BUT Disney does love a sequel these days... and I bet a sequel like this - see the awesome reindeer, lily princess and kick-ass roaring girl-power above - would make waaaay more money for them. *ka-ching! + happy people = family fairy tale film revival!*

In other news - how romantic of an idealist am I?? *goes back to brooding over the reindeer pic*

Ms. Griffin's website is HERE, her Tumblr is HERE and her Behance account is HERE. Be sure to "appreciate this" on her Behance site (you can see larger versions of the images there too - definitely worth a visit just for that) and let her know how much we love (and appreciate!) these.

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