"Fairytales from Saarland" - Calendar Illustrations

Für unseren Tischkalender 2019 waren mein lieber Kollege Ron und ich wieder auf der Suche nach einem spannenden und visuell ansprechenden Thema. Die Motive sollten den Schreibtischen unserer Kunden einen kleinen Farbtupfer verleihen und ihnen jeden Monat eine spannende Geschichte erzählen.

It was not easy to pick only twelve stories, because the variety of fairy tales was really wide.

Ich hatte zuvor dickes Buch mit Sagen aus den Regionen Saarland, Frankreich und Luxemburg gelesen. Also fiel unsere Wahl auf das Thema „Märchen aus dem Saarland“.
We selected some legends that seemed especially odd and such that would look interesting as a drawing.

In diesem Fall sollte der Zeichenstil detaillierter und etwas realistischer wirken (sofern das bei Fantasiewesen möglich ist). So sollte der Leser/Betrachter leichter in der „Märchenwelt“ versinken. Die Art der Beleuchtung war auch sehr wichtig, um eine besondere Stimmung oder „Andersweltlichkeit“ zu erzeugen.

Illustration

Calendar Illustration, Print Design, Character Design, Conceptart

Client
Own project
Year
2018
Task
Illustration, Print Design
Software
Photoshop, InDesign

Choice of stories

I am under the impression that most of the fairytales and legends have celtic roots, since there were a lot of headless creatures similar to the Irish "dullahan". Or such stories about ghostly washer women or grieving fairies, again similar to the "banshee" from Ireland.
I also found many stories about classical horror creatures such as "white ladies" - female ghosts in bright flowing gowns for example.
At last we chose a mix of very common stories about fairies or werewolves on one hand and very creative and unique ones on the other. Some of the stories are strange that we have never heard something similar before.

For example the tale of a fiery coach with a headless driver, that simply jumps out of the ground on some dirt road. There is also the story of glowing floating eyeballs and a mermaid that is physically connected to water lillies just like a weird kind of angler fish. Also, there is the story of a queen that was magically turned into a bumble bee queen and holds the key to unbelievable riches, that are buried in a mountain. And there is the tale about a white stag with flaming eyes, who's gaze can leave humans unable to move.

en_GBEnglish
de_DEGerman en_GBEnglish