SJNY100-Fairytales/Folk Tales

Edmund Dulac was born in Toulouse, France; and became known for his illustrations during what is called know, “The Golden Age” of Children’s Book Illustrations. Dulac was a passionate Anglophile, changing his name from “Edmond” to the more English “Edmund”. His works were mainly inspired by Oriental Designs and imagery.

Some of his well known works are for Sleeping Beauty, The Arabian Nights, Cinderella, Bluebeard, The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen.

His works are characterized by their watercolor nature, where background and foreground blend together just enough to create a unique visual identity, a blend of muted colors featuring a monochrome color scheme in quite a few instances.

This vibrant and dull being of Dulac’s works is what I like about it so much, it feels like it’s up in a museum; that maybe in some shape, way and form, these tales really did happen, maybe one day something similar could happen, and you’d just be whisked away.

Illustration Project, Walter Crane (1)

Isabel Weiss & Connor Scott

One day, a penguin, who was bored of where he lived, and his repetitive life decided to leave the arctic world and travel across the waters in his boat. After long weeks of traveling, he came across a forest. The forest looked very welcoming, and warm. As he exits his boat, he steps foot onto the land and begins to enter the forest. The forest was beautiful. Full of the greenest trees, and most amazing rays of light. As he continued on his journey, he came across a squirrel and a doe. He greets them kindly, and in return they do the same. They question why he is in the forest, and he explains to them how he was looking for a new start. For something more exciting. They give him a warm welcome and follow that with a great warning. They warn him that no matter what he does, he must not enter the large dark rock. The penguin thanks them for the warning, and continues on his way. Soon enough he comes across the great rock. It was magnificent in size, and was more intriguing than he could have imagined. He remembered what the squirrel and doe had told him, but his curiosity took over. He looked behind him to make sure nobody was following, and slid into the tunnel of the rock. When he came to the center of the rock he was amazed to find a cave full of treasure. He began picking things up and exploring all the cave had to offer. All was well until he heard a loud roar. He looked over his shoulder, and to his surprise a huge dragon stood behind him, he was too startled to speak. He began running as fast as he could. He ran and ran and ran until he saw the end of the forest and spotted his boat. He followed the shells back to the arctic and he was so happy to return. He realized that where he lived wasn’t so bad, and that it’s important to be grateful for what you have.

Once upon a time there was a princess seeking a suitor. Because of her beauty and wealth men came from far and wide with gifts to try to win the heart of the princess. First, a handsome prince came looking perfect from head to toe. He presented her with a gold silverware set that sparkled and a songbird with feathers of gold. She accepted his gifts with a soft smile, but something about them felt off somehow. Later, a thief arrived to try to woo the princess. He simply offered a tiny shell and a baby dragon that was no bigger than a kitten. He knew that what he was offering wasn’t much but, it was all he had and his most prized possessions. One morning, the princess noticed that her little piglet companion was missing. The prince simply dismissed her and offered to buy her a new one, but the thief, understood the value of the piglet and offered to help her search. As they ventured through the forest, they came across moose which seemed to protect and guide the princess through the forest. The moose seemed calm and kind and he offered protection to her. The moose led the princess and the thief to the little piglet, who was found safe and sleeping under a great tree. Later, the princess was reviewing each gift she was given by the men and noticed that the silverware was far too tiny to eat with and appeared to be dirty. The songbird with gold feather appeared to be voiceless and could not sing at all. The gifts given by the prince were pretty but held no use or meaning. After taking a closer look, the thief’s gifts held more value than she originally thought. The small shell had the power to eternal beauty and joy to the possessor and the dragon which has already grown to be the size of a table was gifted to her to be her vast protector. These gifts were real and genuine. The princess realized that the prince had only wanted her for her wealth and beauty but the thief, wanted her because of her kindness and desire for a genuine connection. The princess chose the thief not only for his gifts but because of his witty charm and their connection which was the true treasure. From that day on, they lived happily ever after.

I worked with Isabella Harvey

Once upon a time, a baby unicorn named Autumn lived locked in a windmill by an awful crow. To ensure autumn couldn’t escape the crow swallowed the key holding autumns powers and perched on top of the windmill. One day, a unicorn named Blue discovered the windmill. The crow saw him coming from afar and knew he might find out about Autumn. The crow swooped down and attacked Blue forcing him to retreat back into the forrest. This fight only intrigued Blue to find out what’s being hidden in the windmill. Blue kept watch over the windmill for days to see when the crow would leave and come back. The day finally came when Blue grew confident enough to come out of hiding. When he reached the windmill, he realized there was another unicorn inside and needed to rescue her. With blues magical horn, he picked the lock and autumn came running out thanking him perfusely. Unfortunately this happiness didn’t last long because the crow came flying back. the three of them fought and the unicorns knocked the crow down and stomped on him until the key flew out. They locked the crow into the windmill and autumn finally gained her powers. she grew wings and they flew away, living happily ever after.

Brielle and Gabriella

To follow up on the examples provided below. There are a myriad of visualizations of fairy tales, beyond the iconic movie images from the Walt Disney studios.  Exploring how image captures story–or a moment in the story–invites the reader/viewer to situate themselves within.

Born in Strasbourg in 1832, Gustave Doré was a prodigious talent as a child, engraving his own lithographic stones by the time he was twelve. In the first three years he worked in a publishing house, he created an astonishing 700 drawings and five albums, all without taking formal art lessons. Over a remarkably scored career, Doré created 238 Bible engravings, 10,000 engravings, 1,000 lithographs, 400 oil paintings, and 30 sculptures. Although he was enormously successful as an illustrator, Doré yearned to be seen first and foremost as a painter, and he abandoned illustration in his twilight years. The abandonment was surprising given he had announced more than a 1,000 illustrations for four Shakespeare plays.

The illustrator that I learned about was Gustave Dore. He was born in 1832 and he was naturally very talented. He completed projects for many famous authors including Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and Charles Perrault. His artwork consisted on Gothic turrets, looming forests, and romantic vista. Dore is known for capturing the terror of Perrault’s Tales with his etchings, one example being this image of the ogre from Tom Thumb.

I had worked on George Cruikshank with Emma. We found that he was a well known satirist that focused on sociopolitical topics such as slavery and temperance. He had a caricaturist style and used etching and woodcuts to create his works. Most of his works poked fun at the royal family and other political figures. After class I did some more research to see if he ever got in trouble for these works, and I found that he was not formally prosecuted for his satirical illustrations of the royal family, but he did received a substantial bribe from King George IV to stop caricaturing him. he took the bribe, but didn’t fully keep up his end of the bargain. 

Can you identify the fairy tale references in this poem by Anne Caston:

Prelude  by Anne Caston

Every tree is one tree. That tree
grows in every forest, that forest always
dark and deep, always lying precisely
at the edge of every village everywhere.
Be there lost children, you will
have abandoned them there with a sack
of breadcrumbs; you will have filled
the trees with hungry birds.
Be there a huntsman, you
will have honed the hidden
blade he carries and sent him
in search of a girl’s heart.
Monsters, wolves or witches,
they are yours. Destroying angels,
devils, a crooked mirror on the wall, one
ripe bite of fruit lodged in a throat: yours.
The paralyzing poison. Drifting
snow. A wall of thorns. A coat of nettles.
Likewise, all extinctions. You have
traveled the deep Nothing to arrive here.
It is time.
Sleeper; waken.
Look: there. A tree.
What are you waiting for?
Find a grove of trees, enter it, close your eyes and listen…