Eugenio Recuenco's Fashionable Fairy Tales

Eugenio Recuenco is a well known Spanish photographer who's fashionable avant garde fairy tale recreations for Vogue caused a big splash back in 2006.

In this popular series he recreated The Princess and the Pea, Snow White, Puss in Boots, The Pied Piper (though this shot could double as the delirious Dancing Princesses), Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast.

Here are the spreads from Vogue that swept the web at the time:
I recently found a few more, though I'm not sure when they were taken. For this set we have Sleeping Beauty, Thumbelina, Snow White (take two), The Ugly Duckling and two additional Beauty and the Beast shots.And, just for fun, here's an ad for Saniterpen Pet Odor Remover in France (from March 2008). Puss in Boots gets a little on the smelly side...All of his photos have a dark, other -worldly quality. His extensive online portfolio is well worth your time to browse.

Steampunk Fairy Tales - Part II of III

Here we continue to look at some interesting 'steampunk-ing' of fairy tales. This is part II of III. You can find Part I, posted 7/12/09, HERE, which includes my introduction.

Please note, you can click on the images for a larger view (highly recommended). The link to the artist and more of their work are in the title & name.

Enjoy!

STEAMPUNK FAIRYTALE STEAMLADDIN by NIKLAS TARPILA

DON QUIXOTE: SUPRESSOR OF ENGINES by MAREK MADEJ

STEAMPUNK FAIRYTALE GOLDYLOCKS by CLAUDIA M. a.k.a LAVAH

STEAMPUNK THUMBELINA by HAKUBAIKOU

Part III, the final installment for this round, is coming on Thursday.

Make Sure You Have the Right Accessory Before Going Into the Woods...

I'm not really a bag-person but these ads from Louis Vuitton make me think twice about that assessment, besides, don't you think Snow White would have fared better if she'd just grabbed her bag before heading out the door with the Huntsman? Besides, how can a princess function without a few changes of clothes? (And shoes - don't forget the shoes!)And you have to wonder if Alice would have had quite as much trouble had she taken the right accessory with her through the looking glass... At the least she could have grabbed a few souvenirs along the way!Don't you want to reinvent the tales, just a little now? ;)

(You can see more creative ads for bags HERE.)

Steampunk Fairy Tales - Part I of III

CINDERELLA'S COACH CONCEPT by GORO

Halfway into jotting down my myriad ideas for a new fairy tale retelling, I realized the genre it fit perfectly was: Steampunk.

Gulp!

How can I possibly write steampunk? Don't you have to be part genius to handle everything from the Victorian language and sensibilities, combined with all that technical mechanization and steam technology? Then I realized many fairy tales are actually well suited to the genre and that means I'm already well on the road. It also explains why the ideas just kept coming and fell into place.

I knew there was a contest by CGSociety called "Steampunk: Myths & Legends" (which included fairy tales) toward the end of last year, with the contest winners announced in late February. (You can find all the contest entries HERE) I remember loving the few entries I saw and thought I'd post some to show you just how fun this idea can be. In further Googling, I found even more 'steampunk-ing' of fairy tales, not limited to the competition.

I thought I'd collect my favorites for you into a few different posts and link you to the creators. You can click on the images to see a larger version (which I highly recommend). The artist can be found be clicking on the title/artist note above each one.

So here's 'Part I' of Steampunk Fairy Tales.

Enjoy!

STEAMNOCCHIO by FABRICIO MORAES

STEAMPUNKED CINDERELLA by GORO

BAKTOFAIRY by LAURENT PIERLOT

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN STEAMLAND by GUILLAUME DUBOIS

Parts II & III are coming later in the week (Tuesday and Thursday).

Underwater Fairy Tales, Myths & Fantasies

I just discovered photographer Elena Kalis's underwater work on Flickr (known there as 'sugarock'). Her online portfolio isn't limited to underwater photos but these, in particular, are very fairy tale-like, as you can see from the small sampling I'm showing here.I recommend checking out the rest of her Flickr photostream (there are quite a few pages) as well as the gallery on her website. The images there are wonderfully artistic and almost seem to hold stories in stasis.

Tough Characters

On March this year Levi's Kids launched a campaign (found HERE) showing tough versions of fairy tale characters, all wearing Levi's of course.

You can click on the images for a more detailed view.The advertising agency is BBH Asia Pacific & the illustrator is Tye Sok Kuan (clicking on his name will take you to his blog to see a lot more of his work).

Fairy Tale Characters in Critical Condition

The Literacy Foundation released a new 2008-2009 campaign on the basis of this message:

"When a child doesn't read imagination disappears."

The ads show fairy tale characters hospitalized and looking very unwell as they slowly fade away.

There are 2 radio ads, one 'voiced' by The Prince and one by The Big Bad Wolf. You can listen to them below:

The TV ad is described as follows (from their website):

Cinderella wanders the corridors of a hospital with her IV drip. Her blue ball dress is all wrinkled. Visibly worn down by illness, she is pale and weak. She passes, one by one, Tom Thumb, moving along slowly with his walker, a sick elderly dwarf, an aging Peter Pan in his wheelchair, and Sleeping Beauty, still asleep. Suddenly, the continuous buzz of a heart monitor is heard, warning that a patient’s heart has stopped beating. Cinderella watches as medical staff rush toward Little Red Riding Hood’s room. Then a child is heard saying: “When we can’t read, the world of our imagination disappears. Give The Gift of Reading^®.”

You can see it below:

"The Princess and the Animator" - New Disney Featurette Released

Another featurette for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" came out yesterday.

In this one, the Supervising Animator for Tiana (Mark Henn) and the Directors talk about creating a new Disney princess.

We don't see much concept art for Tiana's character in this video but I've included a few images here to illustrate some of the ways a character is explored. Once a design is decided/agreed on, the concept is then refined on a model sheet,which becomes the standard reference for all the character's animation in the future.

Please note: Most of these were drawn by French character designer David Gilson - who has worked extensively for Disney - but I cannot verify these were done specifically for the movie (you can see his blog HERE and go straight to his website & gallery by clicking on the images below). They are, however, the sort of art you'd see pinned up on the development boards at the studio, as they're starting to get close to a design everyone is happy with. I've noted the confirmed Disney drawings, just to be clear.

CONFIRMED DISNEY ANIMATION CONCEPT ART

The featurette, in which they discuss the development of both art and character of the new Disney heroine, is titled "The Princess and the Animator".

Enjoy!