Evil Queens

The bad guy is essential to a fairy tale.  All plots really need conflict, but since folk and fairy tales are almost cultural distillations of the eternal story, the antagonist is even more important.  They need to be large and in charge, or subtle and competent.  They need to be real and unreal at the same time.  None of that ridiculous exposition.  Otherwise they cannot serve as such good foils for our heroes to overcome!

This post if going to focus on the evil queen.  Spurned, trodden on, a failed heroine, or any number of back stories can be thought up, but usually never revealed.  Bad guys exist in a vacuum. 

From Wen-JR (site), comes a scarred beauty who has assumed her own power.

ROD_GRIFFIN_THRONE

This next one could be the moment of birth for an evil queen.  The moment when heroine turned away from happily ever after and resigned to having to steal others share of happiness, her own eternally denied.  Illustrated by Kay Nielsen.

Last is a delightfully wicked image of a witchy woman.  Her glee and passion very much remind me of the the antagonist as their plot comes to together.  The 'Bwahaha' moment if you will.  I like the supernatural elements that mess with the slight sexuality of the figure.  Very reminiscent of the selling you soul trope.  The illustration is by Sergius Hruby for a German Magazine.

Desecration

Tumblr Tuesday 7/2/13

Here a loving couple that could be any mythological pair, although the blue skin leads me toward Krishna.  The glowing auras and use of almost cartoonist depth lend to a mythological air.  Tumbled by fuckyeahvintageillustration and originally by Marcel-Lenoir.

 Also blogged by fuckyeahvintageillustration is a fabulous image of the infamaus white rabbit by Gwynedd M. Hudson.  This rabbit is a very world fellow with a fabulous coat, and oriental fan.  Impeccable taste.

Blogged by yay kid lit is a forest scene with maiden.   Nancy Ekholm Burkert is the original illustrator and really gives this one a sense of urgency with all the implied movement, while keeping it delicate and colorful.

Deviant Dimanche 6/30/13

Starting off this week is a photomanip by Ruud van Empel, originally found on Juxtapose.  I love the face rising from the water like a nymph or young Vivian.  The color saturation is intense and stark, and crazy lighting that is difficult to pin down.

World #35 2010

A lost girl in a colorful setting, bazaar like, just waiting for the old ascetic to stumble up and offer something.  FeiGiap (site) presents a scene on the brink of change, of personal challenge, the Turning Point, or a badly veiled metaphor for puberty.

000

Last is a work from Sergio Lopez  selected from his recent spread on Empty Kingdom.  This work really made me think of a nymph, grooming in a grove with her sisters on a sunny afternoon.

Belle Isis