#russian fairy tales

[vintage-russia]

Russian fairytale "The Frog Princess" (1914)

[sovietpostcards]

"Snegurochka" [The Snow Maiden], Russian folk tale illustrated by Irina Kazakova (1972)

[lionofchaeronea]

The Snow Maiden, Viktor Vasnetsov, 1899

[lepetitdragonvert]

Fleur de Neige / Snow Flower

Contes populaires russes en peinture sur laque

Éditions d’art Yarki Gorod

Saint Pétersbourg

2009

Artist : Nina Babarkina

[grrrenadine]

A piece I made for Of Folk and Fable Tarot — a collaborative project where artists drew creatures and stories from their cultures. This is The Magician, as represented by Ivan Tsarevitch, the Fire Bird, and the Grey Wolf, a classic Russian/Ukrainian/Georgian fairy tale. I love me a good-hearted wolf shapeshifter! 

The project has already been fully funded on Kickstarter (yay!) but give it a look if it sounds like your thing. 

[scriobh-an-iontas]

Ivan, the Grey Wolf, and the Firebird

I wrote a retelling of this russian fairy tale a while ago, and illustrated it using the LoveNikki fashion game. The story writing was straightforward. The image generation was ... not. Like, it took a LONG time to get it all done, longer than I thought it would.

I wish I could have drawn out the scenes myself, but my art skills are LACKING, so I worked with the tools I had. Anyway, I thought about making this into one HUGE post but I figure it'll be kinder to spread it out and just have a bunch of posts all linked.

Or maybe the huge post would be kinder, and now I'm going to torture you all.

ANYWAY.

Here is my retelling. I hope you don't hate it.

[garrett-strangelove]

The Daus (from Inscryption) in the style of Russian fairy tales

[captainbool-bool]

Сказочное Лукоморье. Александр наш Сергеевич Пушкин. Картинки от Капитана Буль-Буля.

Зарисовки из скетчбука.

Сказочное Лукоморье. Баба Яга и её новая избушка. Картинки от Капитана Буль-Буля.

Зарисовки из скетчбука.

[piroshky]

Pushkin’s Vasilisa the Beautiful, illustrated by Aleksandr Koshkin, 1994.  

[soleilpig]

пусть будет)

I let it be here)

[evilios]

The Mountain Craftsman

Created in the traditional style of Palekh miniature, this panel by a Palekh-born artist Kaleria Kukulieva features scenes from Pavel Bazhov's collection of fairy tales about the Malachite Maid also known as "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain".

She is a prominent figure of general Russian fairy tales and local Ural folk tales coined around the area of one of the oldest Ural-based copper mines. Having been in use since around mid-2nd millennium BCE, this mine would receive the folk name "The Copper Mountain".

The Malachite Maid is described differently in various sources. Most frequently she is a stone woman in a dress of malachite who guards the mines and the ore reserves deep in the heart of the Ural mountains. She is a benefactor of respectful miners and seems to favor talented craftsmen, but she is also a protective spirit of the mountain region that punishes those who take her patronage for granted.

In Bazhov's fairy tales, she's a woman of medium height, not very tall, and beautiful to look at. Her hair is black and braided, heavy and going straight down her back; the ribbons in it are presumably made of copper. In other tales, she can transform into or is inherently a green lizard with a golden crown on her head (currently depicted on the coat of arms of the town where the Copper Mountain is located).

Photo source: 🏺

[vintage-russia]

Postcards from the series "Fairytale types" (early 20th century)

Vasiliy Vladimirov (1880-1931)

[sovietpostcards]

Ivan Kuznetsov. Illustration for "Wolf and the Seven Goat Kids" (1973).

[artbypontpilat]

[lepetitdragonvert]

Swans Rescue

Artist : Rebecca Solow

[maysoulrose]

This is Vasilisa the Beautiful. A Russian fairytale, from a beautifully animated film I grew up watching and hold dear to my heart.

I love the art style so much, I tried to incorporate it into my piece here, while still adding my personal style and flairs to it!

I really loved mimicking this style with all the shapes and details. It was really relaxing just throwing in whatever I felt like. I also LOVE drawing water like this!!! Just squished ovals all over hehe.

I drew this with the intension of using it as an embroidery guide... so hopefully I'll do that!

Also, upon looking for my first fanart I did, I found that I did it exactly 10 years ago! It's nice to see my progress as an artist <3

If you want to watch the Soviet film it's here on youtube! There's probably English subtitles, but I just listen to it as it is and enjoy the visual storytelling.