#Folktaleweek Picks of Day 5: "Darkness" (Pt 1)

Artist unknown (but hiding somewhere on Instagram)

Note: We didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to going through the entries for today (Friday at time of writing) so we are posting a small selection and then will have to add to it when we get time over the weekend. Apologies for our mail subscribers in particular, but just check back the next day if you're keen (or go straight to the instagram hashtag #FolktaleWeek and see the hundreds there for yourself. :)

A whole work-week of discovering folktales and fairy tales and new ways of looking at old ones - and two days still to go! All the #FolktaleWeek and #FolktaleWeek2019 info is HERE. The link shows the posts collected by hashtag and you can see an enormous sampling of the myriad mediums and styles being created in. (Prepare for lots of scrolling! There are hundreds of wonderful things to see!) You can also see a small selection of the MANY posts that have appeared for each day so far:
Monday      - HOME HERE
Tuesday     - SECRET HERE
Wednesday - PATH HERE
Thursday    - SMOKE HERE

Today's prompt is DARKNESS.

Note: Today it was interesting to see the numerous interpretations of Snow White! Not too surprised to continue seeing Baba Yaga, but we obviously don't mind that at all. As expected, we saw a lot of wolves and ravens but the tales artist actually researched to find for the prompt ended up being wonderfully varied.

As a reminder, we chose for different styles, unusual scenes of known tales and most often, lesser-known tales wonderfully done.

Enjoy - artist credits, and any pertinent notes made by them for their work, are below each image.

IG @sandrabowersart

Artist comment: Day 5 of #folktaleweek2019 (I’m not doing this in order!). This is a polymer clay sculpture. Today’s prompt is Darkness. Meet “La Mano Peluda” (the hairy Hand). It’s a folktale that my dad used to tell me (a very famous one in Colombia and maybe all over Latin America). There’s a hairy hand that comes out in the dark to get you if you get out of your bed in the middle of the night. Adults never explained why it would get you or how the rest of it would look, they would just talk about the hairy hand. Now I figure it must have a body, but when I was a kid I didn’t even question the fact that it was just a hand. Talk about childhood trauma! No wonder I’m still scared of the dark!

IG @spittypt

Artist comment: - day 5 - Darkness. Today I drew one of my most favorite Baba Yaga's features - skull with burning eyes, mostly recognized in Vasilisa the Beautiful folk tale. One day I will have my own fence with such skulls!

IG @syunliki

Artist comment: Scared myself to death with my own picture. This is prompt Darkness

IG @kathwaxman

Artist comment: Folktale Week 2019, Prompt 5: Darkness - My degree is in graphic design, so I thought it would be fun to explore icons and type for one of these prompts. I imagine this might be an interesting poster or book cover?

IG @meliisagardnerart

Artist comment: What do you think will happen in Sleeping Beauty's castle, when all the people fall asleep for a 100 years? Certainly the animals will take over, no? This is a detail from a much larger piece. It won't show well on IG, so I'm breaking it down in parts for you to enjoy! And in case it's not obvious, this is for the prompt "darkness." Don't worry, the cook is just sleeping! Like everyone else in Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Everyone, except the plants and animals!

IG @oprunenco

Artist comment: #darkness in #folktaleweek #folktaleweek2019 and ,,Red Riding Hood" #redridinghood  #grandmother #wolf

IG @artbyemilyskinner

Artist comment: Day 5 prompt 'darkness'. Jorinda is locked in a cage in the darkness with hundreds of other bird cages. Jorindel has been turned into a statue and is unable to save his beloved. He will remain frozen until the sun rises in the morning.

IG @yellowstonestudio

Artist comment: Day 5. DARKNESS - Concept - Pitchfork Black - A nod to both the ritual of world folktale costumes and the classic pitchfork mob. Warding off the evil spirits that appear in the darkness, who've come to take away the harvest.

IG @charlotte_weyand

Artist comment: The murderer house - Darkness overcomes me. Do you know the really scary fairy tales from the Grimm collection? - Once a miller's daughter became engaged, her fiance lived in a house which stood at the darkest part of the forest. As the bride was afraid, she did not visit him. But now the wedding should be celebrated and so she went on her way. But the house was a murderer's house and the inhabitants cannibals. - The bride hid while the killers slaughtered a maiden. With the old woman, who had to cook for the cannibals for years, she fled at night. - Pretty scary this story. Do you know more? The promt for #folktaleweek2019 is #darkness.

IG @laia-pampols

Artist comment: Day 5 of #folktaleweek : Darkness - Snow White running away in the forest 👣///

IG @dilara.arin

Artist comment: Day 5 of Folktale Week - "Darkness" - Little Red Riding Hood is all everybody ever talks about but what about the grandmother who had to wait in that wolf's belly in complete darkness?

IG @ludmi_linea

Artist comment: Day 5 of #folktaleweek2019. Dark. .🇬🇧It’s a very special story for me, because it came from the Ural region (near the place where I was born and raised).. The story tells of a young talented master who wanted to make a flower of a gem, similar to a real one but he was failing all the time. He was obsessed of that idea. And then He asked the Mistress of the kingdom of Mountains to show him her kingdom. And there he saw a magical garden. Everything in this garden was made of stone and gems , but it was alive. And the main thing he saw in the garden was The Gem Flower he was obsessed with....The story tells that he never returned to his family. - That story has a lot of meaning about darkness: darkness of mind, darkness of the Kingdom ( that obviously is an underground world, world of death), darkness of the human greed...

IG @marketastengl

Artist comment: day 5 DARKNESS 🧡 The Firefly Queen from the Japanese folktale called The Firequest.

IG @farrell_annemarie

Artist comment: Darkness: aka when the soundtrack to your folktale week spills over into your illustrations. This illo is based on one of the songs from The Decembersists’ album- The Hazards of Love(which for me fits the parameters of a folktale). There is love, bewitchment, infanticide, abduction, imprisonment, ravishment... you know ALL the folktales greatest hits!) 

IG @ayukotanaka

Artist comment: Day5 - the prompt ‘darkness’🌚 - My illustration for #folktaleweek is from ‘The Drummer’ from Grimm Stories! In one midnight, a young drummer sees a beautiful princess with a veil. She says she can only come outside during midnight because she is confined in the glass mountain by an evil witch...🧙‍♀️

IG @amylouillustrations

Artist comment: Day Five : DARKNESS - Maleficent's famous entrance! This turned out differently to what I imagined and I couldn't do more because of time constraints, but I still think it turned out fairly well. 

IG @sketchytabitha

Artist comment: Day 5: Darkness. I found some interesting Persian folktales that featured Luck as a sleeping man. One story was about a foolish man who searched out his Luck who was asleep in a cave. It was a fun story, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the concept of luck asleep in a cave.

IG @katerinafrolenkova

Artist comment: N/A

IG @apolin.art

Artist comment: Day 5: darkness "she is like a cat of the night and then she is the darkness "

IG @janneke_ipenburg_illustra

Artist comment: Snow White on the run. Folktaleweek day 5: DARKNESS. - I wouldn't have thought that I'd have so much fun drawing storytales!

IG @retnasihadiwibowo

Artist comment: “Darkness Curse” - Folktale Week Day 5: Darkness (Two parts because this is my favorite!) This is a tale from Bali, Indonesia: “Frog Prince” - Once upon a time, Bali was in a great drought because men neglected their worship to gods. Rangda, the leader of darkness enjoyed their suffering so much and use this chance to take over Bali. One brave prince named Putu Oka sacrificed himself and faced Rangda, but Rangda was too powerful and cursed him to be a frog. “You’re a frog now and if you can change a cold heart to love you, then you will back into human again. That is if someone will love a frog!” Putu Oka as frog hide behind bushes and cry for day and night. His cry became a song that made sky restless and heavy, thus poured rain to the land. The human was grateful as the rain would end the drought, especially Putu Oka who felt his sacrifice was not in vain. But will he come back to be a human again? (To be continued)
Cold-Hearted Princess Conquers Darkness” - Folktale Week Day 5: Darkness - This is a continued tale from Bali, Indonesia: Frog Prince - Putu Oka as frog was somewhat hopeless and wandered into a beautiful land with a spacious palace led by a king and his only princess, Putri Putu Ayu. She was an arrogant princess and heartless, despite her fairness. One day, she accidently dropped her beloved shawl in the palace’s pond. Putu Oka came and took the shawl. The princess called Putu Oka to give it to her in exchange for anything. Putu Oka asked the princess to be his friend, to her surprise and disgust. She left the frog who followed her and shouted, “A noble won’t break her promise!” The princess shooed the frog away from her room, and the frog was gone, along with the other frogs so there was no frog to call for rain. The kingdom was in confusion as there was no rain. The king and the princess ordered their men to seek for frogs but there were none. The princess realized it was her fault to drove the frog before. She found the frog prince and apologized deep from her heart. And so the frogs returned and sang to call rain, and the kingdom was saved. - The princess and the frog befriends and the princess thought the frog was so charming and smart. One night, she told the frog that she likes him. And so the frog was surrounded by a cloud and came back to his human form. - And they lived happily ever after!

IG @violetacanoilustra

Artist comment: The princess is exchanged for a baby troll: this type of story was born to justify the birth of babies with disabilities or deformities, and led to their abuse.

IG @theuglymugwort

Artist comment: Another piece for Folktale Week and a partner piece for the Cailleach illustration I posted the other week. ⁣ - This is the Morrígan, Queen of Phantoms and another badass character from Irish mythology 🖤She is described as a shape shifting goddess who can appear in the form of a crow to foretell doom or victory over battlefields. She is strongly associated with war and in some accounts, appears as a warrior joining in the battle. ⁣- In some instances, the Morrígan is a trio of sisters while in others she is an individual character. The name Morrígan is believed to derived from nightmare queen. She’s also associated with the banshee and just a pretty cool character all ‘round really!⁣

IG @honey.gherkin.illustration

Artist comment: When the dwarfs came home that evening they found Snow-White lying on the ground. She was not breathing at all. She was dead. They lifted her up and looked for something poisonous. They undid her laces. They combed her hair. They washed her with water and wine. But nothing helped. The dear child was dead, and she remained dead. They laid her on a bier, and all seven sat next to her and mourned for her and cried for three days. They were going to bury her, but she still looked as fresh as a living person, and still had her beautiful red cheeks. - (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm) - Little Snow White

IG @victoria_fomina_art

Artist comment: N/A

IG @katijatomic_artist

Artist comment: Day 5 DARKNESS  ...so the wedding was to take place. The mole had already come to teach Thumbelina;she was to live with him deep under the ground, and never to come out into the warm sunshine, for he did not like it. The poor little child was very sorrowful; she had to say farewell to the beautiful sun.....

IG @judithploenart

Artist comment: I didn't plan to join Folktale Week, but couldn't resist todays prompt: Darkness 😁 So here's "Nøkken", which is one of the scariest creatures in Nordic folklore (at least in my opinion). He's always lurking in dark ponds and rivers, waiting for his next victim. As a shapeshifter, he can also change himself into a horse or a man whenever he pleases. Nøkken has one goal; to lure humans into the water and drown them.

IG @kattonop

Artist comment: 5️⃣Darkness - African legend says that the first woman on earth thew ash to the sky and it turned into Milky Way, then she thew edible root to the sky and they became stars. .

IG @hannahjdyson

Artist comment: Day 5. ‘Darkness’. The Skirrid mountain which lies alongside the Sugarloaf is said to get its distinctive shape when the devil, in a rage from losing a bet with a human, kicked off a large section of rock. The troll looks on.

TOMORROW'S PROMPT IS KEY.
But we have added new, second post for PART II for DARKNESS, since we ran out of time on Friday night. You can find that HERE.