The Dark Fairy Tales of The Grimm Brother's

I have always been interested in dark characters and fairy tales and also the deeper connotations of their stories so this is the route I've decided to take within my fairy tale book. My initial ideas were to look at classic fairy tale stories and characters and spin them on their head, using the darker deeper elements of the stories to create complex characters that exist in a more evil plot. As I have chosen to display my looks and stories in a book format I’m going to add text to the book to run with each character, perhaps snippets of the original stories or symbolic lines that explain who they are, where they've come from and why they are there.

I began my research process by looking into different types of fairy tales and children's stories. Quite quickly into researching I came across the fairy tales originally published by two German brothers Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, otherwise known as 'The Grimm Brothers'.

The Grimm Brothers published over 100 children's stories in the 19th century well before they were remade into the more lighthearted Disney films that we know so well now. In comparison the original Grimm Brother's stories were much darker and had themes of violence, sex and cannibalism. With these themes in mind I thought it would be a successful idea to use these dark versions of the well known fairy tales such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel to show readers the hidden, less known side of fairy tales and through make-up, special effects make-up, styling and hair the darker, more violent elements to each character.

The brothers wrote the fairy tales in German but here is a link to the English translated stories - 

http://www.worldoftales.com/fairy_tales/Grimm_fairy_tales_Margaret_Hunt.html

These stories weren't suitable for children and were in fact very grim, showing stories of extreme violence. In the original story of Cinderella, the two ugly sisters cut off parts of their feet to try and fit into the gold slipper, after this their eyes are then plucked out by birds. Also in the recent Disney remake of Rapunzel it fails to mention that she becomes pregnant by the Prince and then later he jumps from the tower into a bed of thorns that causes him to become blind and unable to see his children. Through researching into many of the Grimm's tales in their book 'Children's and Household Tales' it is apparent that violence runs through most of their story lines.

For me to create a successful and professional looking book, I felt that I should use 5 of the original Grimm stories to design 10 characters that will be included in my book, this way I can concentrate solely on these characters and put all of my attention into creating 10 strong, visual characters. After reading through a number of their tales I've chosen my 5 fairy tales, I have chosen these specifically because they are the most well known of the tales and will hopefully receive more positive feedback from an audience that are already familiarised with the stories, characters and plots. 

Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, 

Rapunzel, 

Hansel & Gretel, Snow White & Rose Red