InByTheEye Sprinkles Us With "Stardust"

Have you ever felt lost and far from home, wondering if the light inside you is doomed to go out, or if you can nurture it enough to bring magic into unfamiliar places?

Injury from the fall

In the latest photo story from InByTheEye, Director and Producer Lisa Stock has personified this overwhelming feeling of homesickness and 'other' through the character of Neil Gaiman's Yvaine, created for his original, novel-length fairy tale Stardust.

Tending to the wound

This is the second of his works that Gaiman has given Stock permission to explore with his blessing, (the other being a street play interpretation of Snow, Glass, Apples) and seeing her results, you can understand why. While her writing, direction and photography pay lovely tribute to Gaiman's own creations, fittingly expanding their story forms, these works are uniquely her own, and feel at once mythic and personally accessible. This photo series captures the artistic photographic storytelling and mythic world view Stock so naturally employs in all her projects, while bringing to the lens something personal that engages the viewer, bringing worlds and emotions "in by the eye", just as her company name states so succinctly.

A star never stays up so late as the sunrise

Here's her introduction as she debuted her new series:

I'm excited to share my latest photo project, YVAINE - inspired by Neil Gaiman's "Stardust".  This is a photo series that brings the fallen star into the modern world, a story about longing for home, and carrying your own light with you. - Lisa Stock; InByTheEye

At the sign of the Chariot

She also shared a little bit of background in creating the series on her blog. Here's an excerpt:

If there was one fictional character I’d like to catch a glimpse of in the current world, it would be Yvaine from Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust”.  She is a star fallen to Earth and the way she observes our society (and that of Faerie) is refreshing – she speaks her mind, questions what she deems nonsense, and relishes the potential for good in mankind.  Above all, “Stardust” is a story of home, where you come from and where you truly belong. Her fate in the book is different from the film, but I won’t give up any spoilers. I love them both equally, however, my Yvaine is inspired more by the book, and Charles Vess’ gorgeous illustrations of her. 

...With my own pull for home ever present on my mind, I created an Yvaine photo story – Where would I see her and how would she “fit” into my world?

Rest until star-rise

You can read the rest of Lisa's post on bringing Yvaine to life in our world, and her inspiration to do so HERE.

Below is the rest of the series, with our two favorites up next:

The light of the water, the light of home

A visit with her sisters

Remembering home

Shining before the Wall

To see more of Lisa Stock's beautiful magic realist work (and get some special glimpses behind the scenes from time to time) you can view her Instagram HERE and follow her on Twitter HERE. Her Patreon supporters HERE have the best seats in the house, however, with exclusive previews, pre-debut sneak peeks and inside looks that give you a glimpse of the amazing world you can see "InByTheEye". By supporting this Indie filmmaker from as little as a dollar up to $25 per month you guarantee the creation of more magic in the world.

I saw this entry on Tumblr this week and found it hilarious so had to share. All the images are from the comic series by Charles Vess that was eventually released in the GORGEOUS book, shown at the top of the post.

From the Tam Lin Balladry Tumblr HERE:

man, ballad tropes are fun

ceruleancynic:

• Anything that begins “as I was a-walking” is probably not going to end well, which is at least a good two-thirds of the ones I know 

• 366 days is the right length of time to wait before you give up on anything 

• If you’re going to drown somebody, for God’s sake weigh the body down with rocks or something so nobody comes along and MAKES A F-ING HARP OUT OF IT ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS because that harp is going to drop the dime on you so fast 

• The Queen of the Fairies has a hoarding problem

(via camwyn)
                      

I am STILL laughing.

"Into the Woods Trailer" Surfaces (& People Get Excited, Even Though We're Pretty Sure It's Fan Made...)

Into the Woods by Charles Vess

The real question is, are they on target for a Christmas 2014 release? It's already (nearly) mid-May, which means we're about six months out and so far... nothing!

This trailer here, with the not-fantastic text and the weird lighting etc is looking.. less-than-Disney, ie it looks fan-made (please say it is because, although it's fine for a demo it's not looking very pro.) More telling, this appeared at the very end of April and there hasn't been a blip of news or comment about it since....

Here's the trailer though, and you can make up your own mind about it. Apparently it's still fooled a lot of people but Disney will be doing much better than this (we sincerely hope!).

Meryl Streep is the Witch in ''Into The Woods'' from Walt Disney Pictures. See the musical like you have never seen it before. 

Walt Disney Studios, the studio behind "Frozen" and "The Muppets", presents "Into the Woods", a stunning big-screen comedic musical adventure. When the Baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt) discover they have been put under a curse from the Witch (Meryl Streep) rendering them forever childless, they embark on a life changing adventure into the woods to seek out special items needed to lift the curse. The cow as white as milk belonging to a poor village boy named Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) looking to sell his milk-less cow, the cape as red as blood belonging to a courageous and blood thirsty little Red Riding hood (Lilla Crawford), the hair as yellow as corn from atop the head of a lonely and outcasted Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy) and finally the shoe as pure as gold having fallen from a distressed Cinderella's (Anna Kendrick) foot. With giants abound and where Big Bad Wolves (Johnny Depp) become the hunted, love and betrayal will the Baker and his wife ever be able to lift the curse on their family? 

Into the Woods by Walt Disney Productions brings a hilarious new spin on an already existing musical classic. 

The film is directed by Rob Marshall ("Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", "Nine") and produced by John DeLuca, Marc Platt ("Winter's Tale", "2 Guns"). Featuring music from Stephen Sondheim ("Sweeney Todd", "Sunday in the Park with George") 

"Into the Woods" comes to theaters in 3D on Christmas 2014. 

What do you think?

Free Online Preview of "Drawing Down the Moon - The Art of Charles Vess" Still Available

Charles Vess, gifted artist of all things fantasy and fairy and close collaborative friend of Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint, has a new hardcover art book coming in December. And we get to have a free preview! (This hasn't just appeared but I re-checked today and the preview is still available, though it isn't clear how long it will remain so.)

From the illustrated version of "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

As per the announcement on Mr. Vess' BLOG:

My big, fat art book: Drawing Down the Moon, The Art of Charles Vess has taken a loooooooong while to wind its way from the completion of my initial layouts to actually seeing print this December. And along the way there have been multiple false alarms as to its publication date.

The folks at Dark Horse and I want to apologize for any confusion that these solicitations may have caused.

So, in an effort to make certain that you know that the book will indeed be available this December we are providing you with a sneak preview of the entire 200 pages.

The link to the 200 page free preview is HERE.

Go have a look at all this gorgeous artwork while you can (then order one for yourself - I mean someone else - for Christmas...).

From "A Circle of Cats" by Charles de Lint

Charles Vess Maps "Instructions"

A little while back I posted the announcement that Charles Vess was busy working hard on a illustrated version of Neil Gaiman's poem "Instructions". (You can find that post HERE.) He is now DONE! (40 paintings in two months apparently - I can't wait to see the results.)

Mr. Vess recently posted his illustration for 'mapping' the land which the reader needs 'instructions' to navigate.

To see a larger version, click HERE or on the image and be taken to his site to see it there.

Charles has also posted a few interesting fairy tale maps he's found along the way and I thought I'd do the same.

"The Land of Make Believe" by Jaro Hess. It was created in 1930 and is thought to be one of the first times all the fairy tale 'lands' were put together as if they exist/ed in the same space and time. You can find more interesting information about this map HERE.

The one above is a real map of a tour (it's actually a self-navigated route most of the time unless there's a promotion like the current Disney one) you can take in Germany to sites said to be the inspiration for the local versions of the Grimm's tales. SurLaLune had a brief post about a current Disney version of the tour, which you can find HERE.

I'm surprised there aren't more maps of fairy tales and make believe, available. I'm positive I've seen a map for the whole story of Disney's Snow White (when I was a child - not recently) but I can't find it, or reference to it, anywhere.

Do feel free to post a comment if you have any information, or other maps to share.

Charles Vess Illustrating Gaiman's "Instructions"

We're about to be treated: Charles Vess is busy illustrating Neil Gaiman's "Instructions".

If you're not familiar with the poem, it's what to do if you ever find yourself caught in the middle of a fairy tale - what to do, what not to.

Here's an excerpt:

If an eagle gives you a feather, keep it safe.
Remember: that giants sleep too soundly;
that witches are often betrayed by their appetites;
dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always;
hearts can be well-hidden,
and you betray them with your tongue.

You can find the whole poem at the Endicott Studio HERE.

Re the image above: Don't forget to count the black birds...

I also found a video of Mr. Gaiman reading his poem, which you can see below:

It's a deceptively simple poem but there's a lot in there and lovers of fairy tales should have a copy somewhere in their collection.

As for the illustrations, Charles Vess has collaborated with Neil Gaiman many times in the past and is the perfect illustrator to render these images. Gaiman is extremely pleased to have Vess on the project, as you can tell by his post HERE, which also has one of the images as a preview.

You can see some examples here in this post but there are quite a few more. Mr. Vess has kindly posted his WIP drawings for some of the panels at his Green Man Press HERE and you can see a couple of others in his friend's blog HERE.Re the image above: Can you recognize the characters and objects in the illustration? There are more than there first appears to be.

I don't think a release date is set yet but it's definitely next year (2010) sometime.