Twelve Dancing Princesses is story from the Grim Brothers' book of fairytales. It tells of a group of twelve princesses who sneak out every night to go dancing in a different kingdom. Their father, the king offers up one of his daughters as a bride for anyone able to find out why their shoes keep getting worn down. A man with an invisibility cloak takes up this offer and follows the princesses to and from the other kingdom. The story tells of how the princesses and the man travel through groves of silver, gold, and crystal trees till they meet up with twelve princes who then row them across a lake towards the illuminated castle.
This cover illustration was created in December 2022
Originally I was intrigued by some of the more gruesome Grim Brother's stories as they simply suited my interests more. However, upon reading twelve dancing princesses I realized I'd read a version of the story before- though it was more inspired by the original fairytale than a direct rewriting. While looking at other artists illustrations of the story I also noticed most paid no mind to the detail of the trees being made of precious metal; though a few did give them a golden fall feel. So, I felt it appropriate that I create a piece that properly shows the journey which the twleve princesses took to reach the distant castle.
This illustration was originally meant to utilize line art to help highlight all of the details. However, while switching between layer visibilities I found that I was surprisingly pleased by the look of the trees without the line art. Seeing as I'd already begun experimenting with a lineless style earlier that year, the decision to go almost completely lineless was made; the exception being the figures in the boats out of fear of them losing their details completely due to their small size.