3DTOTAL just released their new Book "Character Design Collection: Fairy Tales & Folklore" and I contributed a chapter designing Sleeping Beauty among 50 other professional Artists from the industry.
Every Artist contributing to the book received one character to reimagine and design based on the original fairy tale story. My task was to design a new version of Sleeping Beauty, which should differ from the well-known Disney Version of Aurora.
The Book is available through this link! If you purchase via this link, I will earn a small percentage of the sale. It features 50 characters, 50 artists and 2,000 + drawings and sketches!
In order to make the new Sleeping Beauty Character differ from the well-known Disney version, I decided to slightly change the story and make her more of a heroine to support female empowerment.
Rose is as beautiful as her floral namesake. Though a wicked witch cursed her to prick her finger on a spindle on her sixteenth birthday and die, a good fairy is able to partially reverse the curse, stating the girl will instead fall into a deep sleep for one hundred years. Wishing to protect their daughter from harm, the king and queen send their baby away with a handmaiden and huntsman.
Rose leads a semi-normal life growing up outside the castles walls. The huntsman teaches her how to defend herself and use a bow and arrow, Weile the handmaiden teaches her grace and decorum. Approaching her sixteenth birthday, Rose is curious of the life she left behind…
I really enjoyed working on the sketches for the book, so I decided to also work further on my designs. I tried to find a matching color scheme for the character and story. At first I went through a lot of saturated greens, yellows and browns to make Rose match with the environment, as she's living in the woods. However, when I tried those muted Reds, Greens and Browns, I really liked how elegant and vintage the designs looked. The muted palette really made Rose's hair pop and it worked nicely with the "old fairy tale" / medieval style I wanted to go for.
In terms of Design choices, I obviously got inspired by roses! I tried to integrate the beautiful appealing shapes of roses into her design such as the hair. The shape gives her face that flattering look, while still looking confident and strong. Also her outfit uses lots of straight VS curve shapes to underline her elegant but yet smart personality in order to remain that female and princess look!
Don't forget to check out the other amazing contributing artists who designed more characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, Elves, Trolls and many more!
