“The Little Mermaid” - Hans Christian Andersen
*I messed up when the theme week started and did something else last Sunday, so I’m doing one more public domain story to even things out. Wouldn’t be fair for me to do six and everyone else do seven!
I think everyone knows this story :) sad though it actually is.
You know that tale of how a boy killed 7 flies in one swing? He told his town, and they thought he was some badass cause they thought he meant enemy soldiers or bandits or something. Then they get pissed when the realize the truth. Well, what if those flies were really hardcore flies worth bragging about? I dunno…
“The Dungbeetle” - Hans Christian Andersen
Definitely NOT one of his more well-known tales, haha, but I like bugs and I really like beetles! The titular dungbeetle is born in a stable where they keep the emperor’s golden-shod horse. The dungbeetle asks the smith for golden shoes as if he’s entitled to them (he is not a very nice character), and so the smith tells him to “bug off.”
He doesn’t deserve them, but I thought it would be amusing to paint a dungbeetle with little gold shoes.
Genie from Aladdin.
“The Ice Maiden” - Hans Christian Andersen
She sails on the thinnest spruce twig down the rushing river and leaps from cliff to cliff surrounded by her long, snow-white hair, wearing her blue-green dress that glimmers like the water of the deep Swiss lakes.
I could have made her all thin and traditionally graceful, but who says a maiden spirit can’t be heavier of body? She is connected to glaciers, after all, and we all know those are the farthest thing from small.
“The Wild Swans” - Hans Christian Andersen
The wicked queen/stepmother tries to make Princess Elisa ugly and surly by enchanting three toads and placing them on Elisa in the bath. However, Elisa is too innocent and pure for the black magic to work—instead, the toads turn into poppies.
Puck from “A Midsummers Night Dream”.
Little John and Fryer Tuck from Robin Hood. Awww yeah cell phone pic.
“The Bell” - Hans Christian Andersen
But he went steadily deeper and deeper into the forest where the most wonderful flowers grew. There were white paradise lilies with blood-red stamens, sky-blue tulips that sparkled in the wind, and apple trees whose apples looked exactly like big shining soap bubbles!
Andersen got pretty, uh, creative with his natural imagery sometimes…one day I’d like to sit down and do soap-bubble apples some justice, haha.
Had a cool image in mind, but got frustrated and rushed it. Bah, deadlines.
