Art Cards - Fairy Tales

These are some art cards I painted to sell at Bristol Expo. Originally there were going to be 14, all based on German fairy tales (so no Beauty and the Beast), but I only had time for 10. Rapunzel and Cinderella are still to be completed.

1 and 2 are Snow White and Rose Red. I mentioned in an earlier post that I imagine Rose Red looking a lot like my sister because we used to play a make-believe game based on the story, recently she told me that she remembers it too.

3 and 4 are Snow White. I love painting her, I like to interpret the 'hair black as ebony, skin white as snow, lips red as blood' thing literally.

5 and 6 are Little Red Riding Hood. I tried to make her look German, and make the forest look like it could be a scary place, since it would have been back when the tale was written.

7 and 8 are The Frog King, or Iron Henry. That's probably my all-time favourite fairy tale, I always imagined the princess to be only 12 or so (I think because the frog addresses her as 'King's daughter, youngest daughter'), and I liked the traditional description of the prince as 'a king's son with kind eyes'. Also the version where she throws the frog against the wall is vastly superior to the kissing version in every conceivable way.

9 and 10 are Sleeping Beauty. I find that story pretty creepy, but it's got some nice imagery. In the version I was told the prince can only get through the thorns because the 100 years are up, and on the way though he can see skeletons of other men who've tried to get through and died in there. I'd like to do a bigger version of that some time.

I'd never tried selling originals at cons before, so I was pleased to sell two of them. I put the rest up for sale in my online shop.