good ol' artists block...

[Gadg3t]

So we enjoy tormen--I mean...challenging ourselves here at my haunt. Every year we choose a new theme and decorate around that. This plan was a lot better when we were only hosting parties....then I started going crazy with props :)

Problem is, this year we've decided to go with "FairyTales". The over all feel should be darkness/evil creeping through happily ever after, and I'm at a loss for ideas. I'm going to work in the black forest, Baba Yaga and a smoke(fog) breathing dragon....but I'm having a surprising amount of trouble coming up with other ideas, big or small.

instead of staring blankly at my sketchpad while listening to Wagner and Disney tunes I thought I'd see what other people might come up with. I'm not trying to just milk you for ideas either ;) There's an amazing variety of styles and directions here and I'm honestly interested to see where such an open and fertile prompt might lead others. Maybe it'll crack my artists block.

That is all.

[DarkLore]

You had me...[mystified]....at Baba Yaga. Definitely not a fairy tale my parents gave me at bed time.

Fairy Tales....for ideas...I'd pull images Shrek.

Rumplestiltskin (Troll w/spinning wheel.)
3 Billy Goats Gruff (Evil horned goats...w/ bridge troll)
3 Blind Mice (Rats feasting on one of the other fairy tale chars around a grandfather clock)
Four & Twenty Black Birds....coming out of a pie (holding eyeballs, etc)
Gingerbread Man (huge scary monster mud gingerbread man)
Three Bears (angry bears.....or cave with caves eyes)
Pinnochio (petrified corpse w/long nose)
Little Red Riding Hood (scared girl....big bad wolf)
Sleeping Beauty (corpse in a glass coffin)
Snow White...7 Dwarfs (dead girls w/seven Trolls)
Hansel and Gretel

etc.

[Gadg3t]

lol, my family is of Czech descent so I got all kinds of Eastern European folklore along side my Briar Rabbit :)

Those are some fantastic ideas though, I really like Pinnochio being petrified....I'd been trying to work on a scary puppet but not getting anything I was happy with....this is a great alternative.

[Sunkenbier]

You can also have the axeman chasing snow white.
Hansel and grettle being eaten bye the witch
The story time monster under the bed

[Spooky1]

Sounds like you need a wolf dressed as Grandma.

Just get a copy of the original Grimms Fairy Tales. They've been softened up over the years.

[hedg12]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__SUMNl1sjSc/Si3ai07nGQI/AAAAAAAAAHc/CPchXyihQWY/s1600-h/twisted-snow-white.jpg

[Fangs]

Don't know if this would qualify as a FairyTale, but the image that just popped into my head was the Great Horned King from The Black Cauldron. Here's a little link I found: http://rickwalton.com/freeu/brains/fairytal.htm

[tot13]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__SUMNl1sjSc/Si3ai07nGQI/AAAAAAAAAHc/CPchXyihQWY/s1600-h/twisted-snow-white.jpg


Very cool -

[scareme]

When I think of the "Happily Ever After" theme I think of them riding off through the woods with all the bunnies, butterflies, deer and forest creatures in the picture. Since you are already doing the forest you could have the butterflies looking dark and scary. The bunnies bloodied like the Monty Python killer white rabbit. The deers with rabies. And a few deat animals here and there. Something not quite right about the picture. And the prince and princess don't notice cause they are so wrapped up in themselves. Just my little nightmare, I mean idea about it.

[Frankie-s Girl]

oooh. We came up with some doozies on this thread:

http://www.halloweenforum.com/general-halloween/76907-fatal-fairy-tales.html
:D

[fritz42_male]

You are all scary, sick and twisted people!

I feel right at home. lol

As mentioned, the original Grimms are a great source of inspiration. I always thought that the Wizard of Oz was a good one as well. Tinman gets his brain, Lion gets his heart etc - all with nice gory props of the organs with Dorothy as the donor?

[Dark Angel 27]

When I think of the "Happily Ever After" theme I think of them riding off through the woods with all the bunnies, butterflies, deer and forest creatures in the picture. Since you are already doing the forest you could have the butterflies looking dark and scary. The bunnies bloodied like the Monty Python killer white rabbit. The deers with rabies. And a few deat animals here and there. Something not quite right about the picture. And the prince and princess don't notice cause they are so wrapped up in themselves. Just my little nightmare, I mean idea about it.

nice idea's scareme! you mentioned Monty Python and I immediately remembered the white rabbit! funniest moment in the movie...besides when king arthur battled the black knight and cutt of all his limbs...thank you so much for bringing that memory up...now i need to go watch that movie again! :lolkin:

sorry that i cannot be much help right now as i have done it again and worn myself out completely! good luck anyway!

[2dragon]

Winged monkeys with skulls in their claws would be great, a lot of children stories have very dark roots. I read a version of red ridding hood in childrens lit where the wolf was an ogre that feed the grandmothers ground up body to red ridding hood. The woods them selves were often monsters the trees and underbrush would grab victims.