Women and Dragons by Bluefooted

by Bluefooted

Just some beautiful paintings with a fairy tale feel I wanted to share. From "Silly Little Art Blog" where you can see many more beautiful and fantastic pieces.

by Bluefooted

 There aren't tons of updates and they're a little random but it seems from the most recent date that the artist is still working.

By Bluefooted

The piece at the head of the post appears in many professional artist's "favorite inspirations" pieces so I do hope "Bluefooted" is encouraged to continue in their art. I would love to see this self-proclaimed amateur do what they obviously love for a living.

Pageant of the Masters 2011: Only Make Believe

I didn't know about this at the time but apparently this year's Pageant of the Masters theme, from the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach, CA was Fantasy. Specifically, "Only Make Believe."

[If you don't know what Pageant of the Masters is, it's essentially where they take live people and turn them into famous works of art, on stage for a sit down show/performance. Each actor is made up to blend into the painting - which is also reproduced person-sized, complete with prop pieces to help the actors blend in - and they must hold their pose for 90 seconds at a time while the story of the painting is told to the strains of a live orchestra. Neat stuff!]

This would have been wonderful to see in person. Apart from a simply awe-inspiring show and feat of art this year they apparently had Edmund Dulac's Cinderella With Fairy Godmother* AND Cinderella Sitting In The Ashes (please see note at end of post), along with Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Arabian Nights and many more (the videos show the most variety of pieces.)

 Here's a video with some of the behind-the-scenes work put into the Cinderella paintings/ performances, though this is from 2007. (I'm a little confused - did they duplicate this one for the 2011 show? See my additional note at the end of the post):

From fairies to superheros, here's another to give us a preview (now, a post-view!) of what people could expect to see:

Luckily there are a few photos from around the web to give us some closer and more specific glimpses, though why I can't find some decent ones of the Cinderella pieces is (frustratingly) beyond me.

And because I couldn't get enough glimpses myself (and thought perhaps you couldn't either) this news spot video shows some different works again:

There's so much work that goes into duplicating these paintings and making a 90 minute show. It's quite phenomenal. While I'm sad to have missed this year's works of Rackham, Dulac and many more, the Pageant of the Master's is definitely on my to-do list before I leave LA (whichever year that will be).

Pageant of the Masters happens every year in Laguna Beach, near Los Angeles. Next year's theme (2012) is "Genius".

 

*I've found a weird anomaly of a Dulac Pageant of the Masters photo from an earlier year, though the  program and promo videos and photos clearly showed Cinderella in the Ashes by Dulac happening in 2011. In one of the videos the two painting-performances are shown side by side so I'm a little confused by this one!

Posters By Mondo, A Fairy Tale Book Collection & More Coming from ABC's "Once Upon A Time"

 

From TV Overmind:

Mondo, the Alamo Drafthouse's collectible art boutique, uses world class artists to create limited edition screen printed posters based on television shows and movies.

Now, Mondo has partnered with ABC to create a series of posters based on the series Once Upon a Time, as well as the fairytale stories that have inspired the show's writers.  Six posters will be released for sale throughout December and January:

12/8 – Rapunzel
12/15 – Little Red Cap
12/22 – Sleeping Beauty
12/29 – Snow White
1/5 – Rumpelstiltskin
1/12 – Cinderella

ABC is revealing the posters on the dates shown HERE.

 The Rapunzel poster has well and truly sold out already in both the silver and gold prints but there are more coming, as you can see from the list above. Here's the website you need to keep an eye on HERE. You can see a large version of the Rapunzel posters there right now. But there's even better news.

What I'm most excited about is this:

The artwork on the posters will also be featured in an upcoming fairy tale collection book entitled "Once Upon a Time." Show creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz wrote the foreword for the book and their pilot script will be featured in the ebook version.

This is one of my complete-fantasy wishlist items that's becoming reality - a fairy tale collection book from Once? I'm hoping for something truly beautiful and magnificent - and very different. (Please let it be different!)

Puss in Steampunk Boots by Matthew S. Armstrong

I'm surprised there aren't a ton more steampunk variations of Puss in Boots around, after all, boots are to steampunk 'almost' what goggles are to steampunk. (ie. iconic)

The title for this piece is "Puss in Steampunk Boots" (aw!) and the artist, Matthew S. Armstrong (also known as 'Matthewart' on deviantArt), wrote a cute caption too:

The classic tale with clockwork ogres and airships. (not pictured) ^_^

I'd definitely pick up that story book! (Hint, hint.)

Matthew S. Armstrong has a very busy career, involved with a wide range of art and subjects in comics, games, picture books and particularly some recent Narnia books (see his Harper Collins Illustrator page HERE). You can see his official site with gallery of different samples HERE. (Be sure to click the 'comics' tab - adorable little stories!)

Matthew's gallery (on deviantArt) concentrates more on the whimsical with picture-book based illustrations (there is some overlap with the website). You can browse and appreciate it HERE and there's a Cheshire Cat too if you love Alice in all her variations.

Wolf Women, Deer Girls & Other Animal Spirits Brought to... Hair

What if Goldilocks and the bears weren't as far apart as we first thought?

Being that Rapunzel is so the 'fairy tale girl of the moment' I thought it'd be interesting to look up some art people have made with hair. I found one stunning picture of an 'animal hair hat' that instantly brought to mind tales and legends of women in animal form: fox women (some of my favorite dangerous fairy tale creatures), deer girls, were women of all types, shapeshifters and other 'Beastly Brides'.
It also provoked other questions like the one I wrote above: we know about shapeshifting in tales, they're prolific and we have many wonderful resources available discussing shapeshifting tales, BUT what if the traditional fairy tales (and legends) with animals and people interacting were also viewed through a shapeshifting lens? (A reminder that the new Datlow & Windling anthology The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People was released just a few months ago*. The Fairy Tale Cupboard has a lovely post HERE.)

I did a little investigating to find a) the 'hair hat' was created by well known Japanese artist (and Art Director) Nagi Noda and b) she'd actually created fifteen of them. Sadly, she died in 2008 from surgical complications (initial injuries were from a traffic accident the previous year) at the age of 35 but she left behind a very interesting body of work.
From the archives at CMYKaboom:

Let me tell you a little bit about Nagi Noda. Nagi is a Japanese designer, and dominating nominee for "Person I Would Most Care to be When I Grow Up." An art director who became known for her cutting-edge work in print design, Noda was soon drafted by the big boys, specifically, Nike and the famed Laforet. More recently, Noda has moved into video, where she has proceeded to sweep awards with her music videos and commercials.

Nagi Noda's work is simply stunning: based deeply in surrealism, she makes whimsical works that are as beautiful as they are mind-bending; whether it's costume bags or poodle aerobics or carnivorous flower bunnies. She is also so prolific with these new ideas it is liable to make ones head spin. (FTNH Please note: I had some difficulty with the links but am keeping them in the quote in case they work for you.)

While fashion shoots often get flack for 'artistically bared skin' this is one of those cases in which it makes sense (though it's rarely more than a bared shoulder or two in this case). I also like that some of the models' features match/blend subtly with their animals - beauty in all forms.

The official Nagi Noda website is HERE and you can see some more of her work HERE (and make sure to scroll down to the underground house and the animal shadows).

One more for fun (also a Nagi Noda creation):I like this one for its storytelling. Are we surpressing our inner natures too much? Or is it just as well we try to keep a grip on our wild sides? This is one of the conundrums fairy tales do a great job of exploring and a reason I adore shapeshifter tales.

*You can read the preface to The Beastly Bride anthology HERE.

Sources for images at CMYKaboom and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. Gorilla hands also found HERE (link also shows a couple of other wild hair sculptures)

Story of Snow White - Art by "12x07"

DeviantArtist "12x07" had her Snow White image featured on the site recently with this recommendation:

story of snow white by ~12x07... some juicy, energetic pop art to quench one's hunger for bold colours, masterful execution, and tantalisingly awesome loose structuring, with an endearing subject matter in addition to all... how could one resist?

Watercolor with white gouache and, if I'm not mistaken, a little Klimt influence in there too. Even with the traditional 'girl holds apple' presentation of the character it still brings some fresh perspective to the story.

You can see more of "12x07"s dark work on her deviantArt gallery HERE.

Kelley Lubsen's 'The Seven Swans' and Other Fairy Tale Art

A recent lovely fairy tale discovery on deviantArt, this picture of the Seven Swans is so beautiful I wish I could get a copy for my wall (one of all-time my favorite tales and I grew up with a single book with '7' swans as opposed to the six or twelve that were included in the fairy tale collections). You can see a much larger version with deviantArt stamp HERE.

You can definitely see the Trina Schart Hyman influence (one of my favorite illustrators and apparently one of hers,according to her bio on deviantArt) and I don't think that's a bad thing at all. In fact, more please!

The artist, Kelley Lubsen, known as FAyliN on deviantArt, is a recent graduate of University of the Arts (May 2010) and while she doesn't have a huge gallery on deviantArt it's worth taking a look all the same (click HERE). Fortunately, she also has an online gallery with her latest work HERE including some pieces from the Three Little Pigs and Peter Pan (see small examples at left & a HUGE version HERE, noting you'll have to scroll down a long way to find them). It's a little brighter and still lovely (though I adore the muted tones myself) and the truly gorgeous colored pencil work continues.

I do hope she continues to pursue fairy tale illustration and wish her the best of luck in her career.

Fairy Tale Art by Pat Brennan

Goldilocks and the Bears

For your viewing pleasure I'm posting just a few of the fairy tale themed work by digital artist/illustrator Pat Brennan (on deviantArt as moonmomma). The Goldilocks one at the head of the post remains one of my favorites, since seeing it a few years ago.

The Piper

Cinders in the Limelight

The Princess and the Pea

Yuki Onna

Undine

She has a LOT of gorgeous work in her deviantArt gallery, mostly fantasy based (lots of fairies and mermaids) so be sure to visit, take a look and leave a nice comment (and maybe hint how great it would be to see even more fairy tale pieces.. hint, hint). You can also visit her website HERE and her Flickr account HERE.

The talent must run in the family. Her daughter, Rebecca Parker, is just breaking into the book cover illustration biz too.

I'd love to see Pat work on a specific fairy tale project for a book herself though. She has such a lovely touch. While she does do commissions I gather she's very busy, so if you want to work with her be persistent in trying to contact her and let me know if you work together.