(DATABASE) Project Two - Refined Sketches

Katherine Cross

For project two I wanted to revisit the story of Hansel and Gretel, which has always stood out to me as a fairy tale that many people know of but that has comparatively few adaptations in comparison to other tales of Germanic origins and with similar themes. The retelling found in the text provided also holds interesting ideas not found in some other interpretations, with an emphasis on the duality of the witch and step-mother as shrewd, threatening and non-maternal figures, the emphasis of class and poverty as circumstances for the story, as well as the depiction of the witch as physically disabled. Between the Stepmother, the witch, and Gretel there spans the three roles of women in fairy tales, the wicked step-mother, the hag, and the Damsel. However, the positioning of Gretel as the damsel or maiden is also subverted as she is the one to throw the witch into the oven. The story also has an interesting rhythm to it, with characters and story beats found in sets of two rather than the typical three story beats found in most fairy stories.

The anxieties surrounding gender and the role of women found in this retelling stood out to me, and lend themselves well to a translation of the story to the late 1800's in Victorian-era England, and their anxieties about the roles of women in the home and workforce, especially among the lower class. The Victorian era also marks and important time in the conceptualization of childhood as a separate stage of life, rather than a time where adults are inconveniently small. Here in 1880's London, we see the intersections of gender, class, the industrial revolution, and the birth of the modern serial killer.

Here, Gretel will serve as the point of view character, and elder sister to Hansel. Instead of being left in the woods to die, she and her brother are sent to find work, and happen upon a glorious home with a mysterious old woman residing inside.

Bonus: costume research, my favourite!

Alton Beach-Bradshaw

I chose this story because it gripped me the most! I had never heard this version before and I really enjoyed all the twists and turns. I decided I didn’t want to change it too much though I did fiddle with a few things. For the biggest one, the protagonist is trans and finds this out while staying with the enchanted sisters, the second is that the bird maiden gives her dress consensually, otherwise this story isn’t the kind of romance I would want to illustrate. She gives her dress because it is the only way to stay tethered to the human realm, and when she leaves, it is to visit the family she misses but they trap her and her sons, thus the quest to get her back. I also made the protagonist a metalworker (as well as jewler) who has an iron shamshir of excellent make with a decorative handle, this is important because in many cultures iron can be used against spirits and fae! (The source of this is one of unknown origin unfortunately), and eventually the protagonist uses it to gain passage to the islands later in the story.

I spent a lot of time figuring out how the world works, deciding that the human realm is sandwiched between the spirit world, and on one side of the spirit world is the realm of gods and in the other is the realm of demons. Humans who traverse worlds are considered magicians, who are neither necessarily good nor evil though many are known to use this power for greedy means.

I decided to set the story in an approximation of the Islamic golden age in Iraq (the world is based on ours, but a bit different for fantasy’s sake) because that seemed my closest guess for where the original story takes place, so much of my research time was spent on Wikipedia and articles describing what it was like during that time. I noticed two things, so much of the educating internet is behind a paywall nowadays, and there are not as many visual resources out there as I thought. The MET database ended up being an excellent resource for pictures that showed popular patterns and designs of the time, but man! I wish there was more! In an ideal world, I’d like to have much more time to research because I don’t want to get anything wrong or be disrespectful due to ignorance, but it is what it is. I copied down the patterns I saw, did some research on architecture, flora/fauna, and fashion, but fashion is another thing that I could not find too many good resources about! So much is just generalized or non-visual, which has been very frustrating, so I’m just doing my best over here.

In the sketch I’m going with, on the feathers of the dress are symbols that describe the characters and events that take place

The third image is the updated version of the first after getting feedback from Amory for the feathers to take up more room

(Apologies for not posting this sooner, first I was late and then I was forgetful)

Irmak Citil

Description 

ROXANNE DIMARUCOT

I chose the Lad Who Went to the North Wind. I chose it because it had a lot of fun, simple elements that I thought would be great for the idea that I had of doing a limited colour palette. I will try to attach my sketchbook progress onto this as well because I couldn't upload it since it was a PDF file. I am also doing a flat 2D illustration because that's what I feel I am stronger at and I feel as though it really adds to the children's storybook vibe that I was going with. 

I first started with the North Wind character and I was really inspired by the anthropomorphism of objects from 30's style cartoons. I wanted to play with that aspect and I ended up with something close to like a cloud genie looking person but I think it plays out well and it's also a bit humorous how bulky but soft he looks. Then I wanted to try the widow which was pretty simple because it was basically just a poor-looking mother figure. And the lad was simple, since I just imagined him as a boy who was just minding his own business but also a little annoying since he kept going back to the North Wind for his things. The struggle after that was trying to make a scene that wasn't too "cliche" where I just placed everyone the way it makes sense, and to an extent that is still how I feel about my compositions. I don't think scenic spreads are really my strong suit so this is nice to start practicing my way around it. As I said before, I wanted it to be a 2D composition and I really like the orange one the most because it makes the most sense to me. I put a tree in the gutter to frame both sides and I did my best to make it make sense as separate pages as well. 

Here is the thumbnailing sketches...

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yjPhwwMTV2OmOAnFqodzH9MRdztYcE4J?usp=sharing

Lin Jiang

I am going to illustrate the story "Urashima Taro and the Princess Of The Sea". I felt sad while I was reading it as I know a fisherman is always facing danger from the ocean. I once read a Japanese children's book which tells a story about a boy who was afraid of water and he decided to become a farmer. I guess these fairytales about disappearing fishermen came from the families who lost their beloved ones, so they imagined their son went to the palace of the ocean and he will come back one day, but the parents cannot see him again. It also reminds me of a Chinese folktale that tells a story about a princess who drowned and became a bird, the bird hated the ocean because it took her life so the bird wanted to fill the ocean with pebbles. The story of Urashima Taro is moving, so I'd like to work on it.

My sketch is the scene when Taro saw a silverfish guard and the first gate of the palace.

Kit Liu

• young vs old
• innocent vs evil
• pure vs impure (intentions)
• hungry vs greedy
• big vs small

Yingyue Ma

Hansel and Gretel

D Logan

After some research, it seems that the version we were given is a more modern iteration, popularized I think during the Meiji period. I tried to see if it was set in a specific time period, but it apparently has been told since the 8th century, and there don't seem to be any other markers that would denote the era, so the tale is sort of timeless.

Some iterations make specific notes on the importance of familial relationships in Japan, especially when Urashima Taro wonders if he should leave the palace and return to his responsibilities in the village, and some claim that the moral of the story is something about teaching kids not to disobe their elders. However most iterations don't seem to make note of this and regardless, I'm working with a different interpretation. Without the little Aesop's fable type addendum, this story really reminds me of stories about fae trickery. The unexplained gift of the jewel box seems very much like a kind of wordplay centric trick, and the time dilation/alternate realm aspect also invites the comparison to stories of the fae. Reminiscient of the bit in fae folklore where if you consume fae food, you are trapped in their realm forever - open the jewel box and you can never return. With this reading it definitely gives the princess/the denizens of the castle a more malicious feel. So this is the vibe I'm drawing on for this work. I also wanted to work with the visual of a threshold being crossed, like a waygate into another realm, which I tried with torii, or something akin to that just covered in coral/gemstones, but couldn't get it to work with a horizontal format, so I tried playing around with other visual markers for that sort of idea.

The story I chose for project two is "TATTERCOATS" from "The Arbuthnot Anthology Of Children's Literature".The scene I chose is the most romantic scene in the story, where the prince is announcing to the king that the little girl is his favorite. The first sketch tells the story from the perspective of the little girl and the prince as the protagonists. The second sketch briefly tells the story from the perspective of the elf, which is the shepherd boy.

Vera Liu

The story I chose was “The Two Travelers”. Although there are different versions of this story, the central idea tends to always be karma - the good one gets rewarded and the bad one gets punished. Unfortunately, it does not always happen in real life.

I want to blur the lines between the good and bad. For my interpretation, I decided to illustrate how the good traveler takes revenge. He told the bad traveler about his magical encounter with the birds, after commanding the birds to gouge his eyes out. I chose doves for the sake of contrasting the good traveler’s change in character.