Alex CF’s Mythical and Nightmare Specimens
Alex CF painstakingly creates these cryptozoological specimens encased in bell jars and elaborate, gorgeous display cabinets replete with the paraphernalia, notes, and mementos of the scientific ventures that captured these exquisite specimens. He almost creates complete miniature scenes around the specimens: there are reliquaries, study cases, vampire slaying kits, portable bio-aetheric animation laboratories, coffers, and sarcophagi. The specimens are drawn from literary works, including Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Dante’s Inferno, H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness and Chthulhu Mythos, as well as folklore and legend. The array of allusions to classical eerie fiction is delightful.
He reimagines and renders these cryptic, bizarre, mythical creatures and beings, sirens, faeries, mutants, succubi, devilspawn, atrocities against nature, resulting in specimens that are disturbingly lifelike and real enough to touch. They are repulsive and yet alluringly detailed. The displays also come with beautifully drawn illustrations, which are as fascinating as the specimens themselves.
Tags: alice in wonderland, anatomical illustrations, anatomical-themed, artifacts of the past, autopsy, babies, bizarre, chthulhu, corpses, creature, creepy, cryptid, cryptozoology, eerie, exposed anatomy, fairies, fairy tales, fleshy, gory, grotesque, hunter/hunted, illustrations, macabre, monsteresque, mythos, natural history, religious imagery, sculptures, sideshows, sinister arts and crafts, taxidermy, vampires, vials, victorian, vintage, visceral, vivisected, weird science projects
Lost Fish’s Alice
These beautiful images are from the book Alice, à travers le miroir, a French edition of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There illustrated by Lost Fish (see my previous post on her).
Tags: (twists on) traditional art, alice in wonderland, children, cute little girls, dollflesh, fragility, historically inspired, illustrations, innocence/menace, lolita-esque, lost fish, neo-victorian, pop surrealism, porcelain, precious, queens, red and white, surreal, sweet/melancholy
Another trailer for Alice: Madness Returns
Here is a trailer, featuring gameplay, for Alice: Madness Returns, which was released earlier this month (making it the fifth and final trailer).
Alice: Madness Returns is released in the U.S. on June 14, and in Europe on June 16, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
I’m so looking forward to this!
Tags: alice in wonderland, american mcgee, colorful, cute n creepy little creatures, dark fairy tales, dreamscapes, gloomy color schemes, hauntingly beautiful, horror video games, innocence/menace, insane asylum aesthetic, insanity, madness, neo-victorian, psychological horror, surreal, trailers, victorian
Trailers for “Alice: Madness Returns”
Several months ago I posted the short teaser trailer for Alice: Madness Returns, the upcoming sequel to American McGee’s Alice which will be released on June 14th of this year. Here are three more trailers which give an enticing taste of the game:
Tags: alice in wonderland, colorful, dark fairy tales, dreamscapes, hauntingly beautiful, horror video games, innocence/menace, insane asylum aesthetic, insanity, madness, neo-victorian, psychological horror, surreal, trailers
Fairy Tale Art by Courtney Brims
Detailed, delicate, and meticulously crafted, the beautiful, gently surreal drawings of Courtney Brims portray twists on fairy tales, featuring maidens entwined and fused with nature. She cites her influences as “Victoriana, ghost stories, old photographs, daydreams and nightmares.”
Tags: alice in wonderland, animals, flowers in hair, illustrations, little red riding hood, modern fairy tales, nature, realism, snow white, soft color, surreal, victorian, woodland creatures, woods
Brandt Peters + Kathie Olivas
via Circus Posterus
Tags: alice in wonderland, animals, cute n creepy little creatures, pop surrealism
Death and the Maiden: The Art of Abigail Larson
Abigail Larson creates beautiful, Gothic-inspired illustrations, often depicting her favorite literary themes: the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, H. P. Lovecraft, Lewis Carroll, and fairy tales such as Beauty and the Beast.
Her neo-Victorian drawings, done digitally but emulating the look of ink + watercolor (her original medium), are highly stylized, fluid, haunting, and arabesque, appearing to be effortlessly graceful and detailed. The figures are gaunt, highly articulated and expressive. Sketchy and with an almost jerkily delineated look at the same time as they are meticulously precise and polished, these alluring illustrations effuse personality, and are perfect as modern interpretations of classic Gothic tales.
Abigail Larson has cited some of her biggest artistic influences as Arthur Rackham, John William Waterhouse, and Edward Gorey. See below for some more of her work!
Tags: abigail larson, alice in wonderland, death and the maiden, edgar allan poe, gothic literature, illustrations, modern fairy tales, neo-victorian, posters
Nicoletta Ceccoli’s “Incubi Celesti”
These hauntingly beautiful, ethereal portraits of Alice in Wonderland-like figures clad in blue are from Nicoletti Ceccoli’s new body of work, fittingly titled Incubi Celesti (or “Heavenly Nightmares”). This collection is currently displaying at the Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome, Italy, until December 23rd.
Tags: alice in wonderland, cute/creepy little girls, innocence, modern fairy tales, nicoletta ceccoli, otherworldly, pop surrealism, rabbits, surreal, twins
Alice: Madness Returns
American McGee’s Alice from 2000 is one of my favorite video games, because it’s just so stylish. A short teaser trailer for the sequel, titled Alice: Madness Returns, which is set to be released sometime in 2011, has surfaced.
Tags: alice in wonderland, american mcgee, horror video games, madness, victorian
Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll
Here’s the trailer for Marilyn Manson’s upcoming movie Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, which is scheduled to be released sometime in 2010. Alice is played by Lily Cole, who also stars in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
It looks interesting, to say the least. I have no idea if it’s any good or not, but I still want to see it.
“I want to take the children’s story that we all know, and discover the horrifying roots that grow beneath every one of its childish metaphors. The characters may be absurd and wrapped in puzzles, but the author himself is the story that I find painfully close to me. Lewis Carroll is far more complex than the world’s narrow perception of him as a quiet deacon, a mathematician, and a loner, simply obsessed with photographing young girls. He was possibly one of the most divided souls living in his own hell that the world has overlooked.”
—Marilyn MansonTags: alice in wonderland, lily cole
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