Folk Tale Week 2024

A journey to reclaim lost truths

Folk Tale Week - one of my favourite times of the year. I’ve always loved folk tales and fairy tales and it’s always such a joy to see the many ways in which people interpret the prompts.

I was unable to spend as much time as I would have liked in the planning of my story and creating of my illustrations this year but was determined to join in. I really enjoyed catching up with the the Folk Tale Week recording on Sarah Dyer’s Patreon with the inspiring Andrew Mcmillan - it gave me a real boost and I immediately got into jotting ideas down for each of the prompts, feeling my way to a kind of thread with which I could weave them together.

Next came some thumb nails followed quickly by coloured roughs … at least for prompts 1 - 6 along with the hope that a solid idea for how to portray ‘Blossom’ would come as the week progressed. I still really wasn’t sure what to do right up to the day - and would have liked more time to play with the prompt before completing the illustration … but I was pleased that I managed to create an illustration nonetheless.

I let that my colour roughs looked cohesive together - but was worried whether I could keep the same atmosphere and character when scaling up to do the full illustrations given that I planned to use coloured pencils. I was also pleased with the limited(ish) colour palette I had chosen - rather than being tempted to use ALL the colours! Can anyone else relate?

Given that I was only able to start creating my illustrations the day before Folk Tale Week began, I was astounded that I managed to (more or less) post each of the illustrations on time. I think maybe the tight deadline helped me to complete the illustrations and also did not leave me much opportunity to overwork the illustrations. Here they are all together:

Day 1: MIST

A mist cloaked the woods in a terrible sadness, concealing the path, like the truth that had been lost.

Day 2: GATE 

An otherworldly light streamed through the gap created by the ancient trees - a gateway to The Beyond. 

Day 3: BLIGHT

Even here, in The Beyond, the blight had spread through the woodland, bringing death and decay to the very edge of the path.

Day 4: TRAIL

The trail of leaves led to the base of a hill on which stood a magnificent Oak tree - the Tree of Knowledge, enormous and glowing in a golden light. 

Day 5: DEPTH 

Into the very depths of the tangled roots, they climbed to the very heart of the Tree of Knowledge. 

Day 6: BONE

The bones seemed to speak; “As above, so below, as within so without.”

Day 7: BLOSSOM

A light seemed to blossom out of the bones, growing up and outwards - the truth and knowledge of the ancestors woven into a beautiful pattern.  

The End

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of the Folk Tale Week prompts.

I loved seeing everyone’s work and can’t wait for next year!

Thank you to the hosts:

@debrastyer 

@jennifermporter 

@kalyquarles 

@louve.draws

@matejalukezic 

@rachaelschafermakes

You can see more of my work including behind the scenes sketch book scribblings on my website - please do come and say hello.