Winter Wonderlands

There is something about winter.  Perhaps it is the clean illusion of the snow.  Or the unchanging, frozen landscape.  The aspect of unchanging really works for fairy tales, which even when the details change, the eternal story is always present.  This first is a wonderful delicate castle.  Almost looks as if it is a confection sitting in the snow.  By Nelleke.

Winter Wonderland

The next is less candied, but has a great element to replace it.  Fork in the road!  The eternal decision, the ultimate choice, frozen in time, to be made over and over, by every person in the world.  (That was five phrases in that one sentence. Damn.)  By KariLiimatainen.

Lost

And last a scene of winter as the protagonist.  It showcases the effect of  winter on the world.  Beautiful destruction,  Preservation and recreation.  Rejuvenation.   By littlemewhatever.

Winter

Ballet

Ballet is one of the things that is fed to most western little girls along with Barbie, princesses, and, of course, Fairytales.  Ballet has this mystique and inherent beauty, with a symbolic communication that is on par with Bharata Natyam.  The graceful movements, behind the stage struggle and drama of ballet are right up fairy tale alley, never mind that many traditional performances are fairytales in their own right.

First is piece that is a taunt bowstring of drama.  The dancer is at the height of the move, when she lets go of actual control, lets gravity take over for a few moments, biding her time till it is her time again to viciously seize control of her movement, whisking into the next move.  All the while making sure that is looks as natural a graceful to the audience as possible.  By juuhachi-gou.

Ballet

Next one may not be a ballet dancer, but she could be.  The floating dress, dramatic cutians, wood floor and exposed feet are all major ballet themes.  The open window furthers the symbolism and ups the drama. By Julie-de-Waroquier.

The violence behind

 Last is a piece that was obviously going for the fairytale feel, complete with hyper saturation, an enchanted wood and protagonist on a road.  The bell like skirt is awfully tutu like, and although she is wearing heels rather than toe-shoes, visually it is very close and her standing position is reminiscent of the 5 basic positions. By Temperate-Sage.

Enchanting

 

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.

Fairy Tale Settings

Is that not Sleeping Beauty's boudoir?  Aged opulent glory!  Ohlala!  Check out the rest of this amazing apartment. 

Ever wanted your own fairy tale castle?  Lucky you, you can buy one, price upon request.

 

And an outdoor setting from Nelleke. I love the forest photomanips she does.  She has a way with color temp.

Nocturne by *Nelleke