Creatures From El

Creatures from myth, legend, fantasy (including some mecha-animals) and fairy tales; they all take shape under the talented hands and fingers of Ellen June a.k.a. "El".From her website:

‘Creatures from El’, the artwork of sculptor Ellen June, was conceived of as a means of rapid sculptural exploration that incorporated an understanding of animal physiology with a love of the fantastic, grotesque and absurd. The consequence has been a prolific sculptural output of original creatures all handmade and painted. Each creature is unique, produced in a fluid, intuitive manner, and never replicated. The first creatures from El, fashioned and sold in late 2005, were constructed exclusively of fired ceramic. Now, this sculptural repertoire has expanded to include polymer clay, epoxie and other mediums all worked by hand in their raw state. In creating each creature Ellen is working towards a level of high craftsmanship and detail, seeking to create narratives which can be extracted by the viewer continually over time.

'Seeking to create narratives"...yes! I find these sculptures are very 'tale-friendly'!
She's both very talented and incredibly prolific! I love that she approaches each creature by starting with a realistic form then going to town on the fantastic aspects. She clearly knows her animal physiology - for a LOT of species! Her galleries are so extensive I'm not certain I've seen everything yet.
No matter your taste in fantastic animals, you're bound to find some piece you like. I've tried to show a range here but it's been so hard to choose and I get lost looking all over again. I suggest you have a look for yourself at her WEBSITE, deviantART site & especially her Live Journal BLOG. You'll see what I mean.

Animation Test for "The Princess and the Frog"

Oh yay!

Here's an animation test for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", shown at the 2009 ComiCon (last week).

fairy tale + animation = *happy sigh*
Love seeing this stuff. :)

Two Disney 'Art Of' Books Coming Soon

There are two lovely looking books coming later in the year from Disney animation artists:

1. The Art of The Disney Princess by Tk
Being released: October 20th, 2009

Description from Amazon:

Every little girl has a favorite Disney Princess--and for that matter, every grown-up girl, too! In The Art of the Disney Princess, Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world have re-imagined their favorite princesses and portrayed them in a variety of mediums. Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and Cinderella are newly incarnated in water color, pastel, oil paint, colored pencil, mixed media, and computer graphics pieces that range from the traditional to the unconventional. This artwork has been created especially for this museum-quality book, which is sure to delight art lovers, Disney collectors, and any prince or princess who ever believed that fairytales do come true.

Wonderful to see Snow White so beautifully drawn! I can't wait to see the creativity inside this one.
2. The Art of The Princess and the Frog by Jeff Kurtti
Being released: Dec 16th, 2009

There is no description available yet but if it's anything like the usual 'art of' books it's not to be missed. Seeing the concept drawings that appear as artists get to know the fairy tale and start to interpret it their own way is always fascinating (yes, I'm a complete pushover for an 'art of' book!)

Both books are now available for pre-order at Amazon.com (click on the titles or the images to go to the corresponding page).

Behind the Scenes of Fairy Tales by Rosie Hardy

What REALLY went on with those characters behind closed doors!

A talented, young photographer named Rosie Hardy, has done a wonderful job at relating fairy tale scenarios to real life issues that don't usually have a happy ending.

Her unusual self-portrait set of 'behind the scenes' fairy tale photos on flickr are not your usual dreamy visions, or even stylized goth versions of the fairy tale heroines. No. These girls just might be your next door neighbors, girls you went to school with, your cousins, your aunts, your sisters and maybe even your mothers - and their tales all have a sobering side to them.

In posting her photos Rosie has thoughtfully added statistics about social issues, addictions and other problems our fairy tale characters could relate to. It'll make you rethink those familiar stories from a modern and relevant perspective. Instead of just posting the photos I'm giving you screen captures so you can see the connections she's made (and perhaps entice you to check out the rest for yourself).

The issues are not always comfortable to consider but I feel like applauding the wonderful job Rosie did on these. Talk about showing how the tales can be relevant to today!

Check out the rest of her 'behind the scenes' fairy tales set HERE and see more of her photography HERE.

Trailer for Tim Burton's Wonderland + Some Concept Art

For those of us becoming curioser and curioser as to how Tim Burton is handling the beloved classic Alice in Wonderland, here's the trailer:

I must admit I'm VERY interested in this movie now! March 5th, 2010 still seems like a long way off...

I also found some development art that was done for the movie by character designer and concept artist Michael Kutsche which, while standing well on it's own, seems to have been reflected quite closely in the film (at least for two of them). Kudos to the artist for nailing it! I'm sure there's a lot more to come. (Michael promises,via his deviantART postings, to release a lot more art after the movie hits theaters in 2010 at least). I do hope there will be a making-of book!

Once Upon A Time A Little Girl...

Once upon a time, many years ago (on today's date), a little girl was born who loved fairy tales... and yes, that little girl was me. :)

Today, I leave you with a reminder of the awesome Lotte Reiniger (1899 - 1981) who loved two things I do - fairy tales and animation.

This amazing German woman directed the first full length feature animation in 1926, long before Walt Disney brought us Snow White. The film, titled "The Adventures of Prince Achmed", can most definitely be classed as an Arabian Nights fairy tale and is full of her beautiful silhouette work.Late last year the British Film Institute released a two-DVD set of her animated fairy tale films, spanning 1922 to 1961.

Here's the list of tales and when they were released:

* Cinderella (1922)
* The Death Feigning Chinaman (1928)
* The Golden Goose (1944)
* Aladdin and his Magic Lamp (1954)
* The Frog Prince (1954)
* The Gallant Little Tailor (1954)
* Sleeping Beauty (1954)
* Snow White and Rose Red (1954)
* Cinderella (1954)
* Puss in Boots (1954)
* The Magic Horse (1954)
* The Grasshopper and the Ant (1954)
* The Three Wishes (1954)
* Thumbelina (1954)
* The Caliph Stork (1954)
* Hansel and Gretel (1954)
* Jack and the Beanstalk (1955)
* The Little Chimney Sweep (1956)
* The Frog Prince (1961)

It's available HERE through the BFI website and through Amazon.co.uk (hint, hint Mudsock dearest!)

I'll bring you more of her gorgeous art another day but for now have some cake. :)

Grimm and Other Folk Tales by Corey Godbey

Artist Corey Godbey recently had an exhibition of his work for a new book called "Grimm and Other Folk Tales".

Grimm and Other Folk Tales is a collection of several classic and lesser known fairy tales and folk stories, illustrated.

He also just went to Comic Con to show and sell some of his work there. If this is what they're like on the screen I can only imagine how gorgeous they are in real life!

You can see a whole lot more of his work, including more final and lots of working drawings for "Grimm and Other Folk Tales" at his BLOG.

This is a guy to watch!

Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel - short series podcast

There's a new special short series podcast dropping today - August 1st - at "Supernatural Fairy Tales" - and it's a Steampunk retelling of a Grimm's fairy tale - by me!

Dorlana Vann was kind enough to invite me to write a short story for her site and it's turned into an exciting mini-production, being presented in five weekly parts during the month of August in both text and as a podcast.

The title of the story is:

"Cages: A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel in V Parts with Epilogue"

(gotta love those old-fashioned lengthy titles!)

and has a definite Neo-Victorian feel.

You can go listen (and/or read)
HERE.

In case you're not familiar with the fairy tale you can read it HERE (and thank you to Heidi at SurLaLune for making this a readily available online reference for me to check when I didn't have my complete Grimm's handy!)

I also managed to secure permission from Steampunk band Abney Park to use some of their music in the podcast, one song in particular being perfect thematically. Many thanks to them for their generosity in sharing their fabulous music. You can check out their website HERE.I'll also be making a PDF of the complete story available for free download and distribution at the end of the series, so watch out for that.

Lots of steampunk fairy tale goodness coming your way!

Enjoy.

Free Fairytale Castles Photoshop Brushes

These just became available and I thought I'd share for anyone else addicted to Photoshop brushes (for Photoshop 6, 7 and CS).

You can download them from HERE.

(Note: the page it takes you to, to download is very ad heavy but you don't need to click on anything except the download. You don't even need to sign up.)

New Rapunzel Concept Art Released

DisneyAnimation.com has just released five new concept art images from the new version of Rapunzel.
From Film: Blogging the Reel World (slashfilm.com):

Previous director Glen Keane (now Executive Producer) developed a new look for this computer animated film, which is said to look and feel more like a traditional hand-drawn Disney Classic, but in 3D. Apparently the film uses a non-photorealistic rendering technique which will make the surface look like it is painted but still containing depth and dimensions. The movie's visual style is (still) being based on French Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard’s painting “The Swing” (this is most apparent in the fifth and last image below).

NOTE: words in parentheses and italics are my additions

Rather than try to rephrase this sentiment, I'll just quote Peter Sciretta (from Film: Blogging the Reel World):

"Hopefully the new non-photorealistic rendering technique employed on this production will help capture some of the painting-like beauty of these pieces."

I couldn't have said it better myself.