Happy Easter!

More Magic Flute

Bluebeard

A quick take on a Bluebeard, the old French tale of a young maiden who marries an ugly nobleman with an even uglier secret. Classified as a fairy tale but quite frankly a forerunner of the horror story (it makes even the darkest versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White look about as scary as The Very Hungry Caterpillar), I hope to have captured the grim nature of the yarn.

Der Teufel

A little something I did in gouache. I always worry that my painting style seems like a knock-off of Mary Blair. Suffice to say, I doubt Mary Blair would create something like this demon...

Jack's Giant Adversary

Another stab at  Jack and the Beanstalk. This time it's the story's villain, a monster of a man with an appetite for young English males.

Bacchus, God of Wine

Aliens

I know, I know; I haven't posted in a week. Needless to say, I should be posting a good few more things here at quite a rapid rate, so you shouldn't be too disappointed.

Kleine Hütte im Wald

Ballet Casting Error

Jack Chopping Down the Beanstalk

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
"Jack jumped down from the beanstalk and got hold of an axe, for he could see the giant climbing down."

The Moomins: Tribute to Tove

Represented are my renditions of two characters created by a new favourite illustrator of mine - Tove Jansson. Yes, I'll admit it, this is fan-art, something I tend to avoid, but leave me be.

©Puffin Books

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) was born into a well-to-do Swedish-speaking family in Helsinki, Finland (then part of the Russian Empire). An artist and writer, she is best remembered for a series of Moomin chapter books and comic strips. Set in a fictional forested area of Finland called Moomin Valley (what else?), the series follow the Moomin family - Moominmamma, Moominpappa and their son Moomintroll - in addition to a host of other characters such as the gentle Snork Maiden, the vagabond Snufkin and a range of obsessive-compulsive creatures called the Hemulens. It was on this series that she developed a truly distinctive, dreamlike pen-and-ink style.

Andersen's Emperor

The Emperor's New Clothes

Another Andersen-related piece today after the other day's mermaid. This time I've had a stab at drawing a picture of a scene from The Emperor's New Clothes, which first appeared in 1837 alongside The Little Mermaid in a small booklet. A delightfully satirical fable, its moral rings just as true in today's society and political landscape as it did nearly two-hundred years ago. The scene depicted is the moment where the emperor finally tries on clothes made of a material that "has a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who is unfit for office or unusually stupid". Of course, the whole notion of magic material is a load of nonsense, merely the invention of two swindlers posing as reputable tailors. Daunted by the prospect of being declared incompetent, however, the emperor and his court imagine that the clothes do exist...