The Melonland Fairytale Illustration Project

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Whats this about?

Since this board is crowded with great graphical artists, I thought it might be nice to attempt a more elaborate collaborative project as a kind of showcase. An idea that came up recently is that it could be nice to create some kind of illustrated fairytale collection.

How to participate?


Search a fairytale available in English language that you'd like to illustrate, or pick one that you already know and like (Theoretically, you are also free to translate or write one yourself - but this might be a bit much). The text should be available under a public domain license, so that we don't run into trouble for using it (To illustrate this: fairytalez.com got a huge collection, but it is not always clear if the texts can be freely used - if you want to make sure, stick to Gutenberg.org as a source; I will link some collections at the end of this post).

Create an illustration. I recommend to try to go for 2400x2400 pixels as a canvas; you are - ofc - free to use any other format, though :). There are no limitations regarding the tools, the style, or techniques you use (but please stay sfw).

Once you are finished, post a link to the text (or a txt file containing it) and the image you created in this thread.

Given that there are any submissions, I'll start to bundle them to a PDF on 01. June 2025 and upload the resulting file here under a CC-BY-NC-License (By partaking, I assume that you are fine with this - if you want to create and post an illustration but don't want to be included in the collection, please explicitly state it in your post).

Have fun!

Sources for Fairy-Tales


If you have further recommendations, feel free to give me a note, and I shall include them here!

Zitkala-Ša Native American fairytale collector.
The Arabian Nights Entertainment
Jacobs Collections English, Celtic, and other European Tales
Hans Christian Andersen: Bitter-sweet Swedish literary tales.
Grimm Brothers: The German to-go-source
Hauffs Fairy Tales: Orientalist literary tales.

[candycanearter07]

I'd definitely need an example, I'm not getting what you're saying at all..

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I'd definitely need an example, I'm not getting what you're saying at all..

Alright.
Lets say, I want to illustrate the Fairytale "Rapunzel".
After reading the text, I decided to attempt to illustrate the scene were the enchantress climbs the tower using the girls hair as a ladder.

So, the resulting post here in my case would look like

I did an illustration for Rapunzel!

Did this help?

[kasperkat]

is this ongoing?

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

is this ongoing?

I haven't planned for the time after June, tbh. Theoretically, I would be willing to do continuations if there is some interest.

[kasperkat]

AH sorry I'm American I misunderstood the date...I thought you ended on January 6th...now I understand :3 sorry for my dumb american brain

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

That goes entirely on me, edited the date to be - hopefully - less confusing  .

[kasperkat]

tysm!! so sorry for the misunderstanding orz