Earle's inspirations

I've created a new board on Pinterest - found here - where I have collated a variety of artwork in styles that influenced Eyvind Earle's work on Sleeping Beauty.  As I mentioned in my previous post, Earle was inspired by Tres Riches Heures de Jean, Duc de Berry, Persian miniatures, Japanese prints, Durer, Breughel, Jan van Eyck, and Gothic art.

 Tres Riches Heures de Jean, Duc de Berry perhaps inspired Earle more than any other source. It is a particularly lavish book of hours -a collection of prayers to be said at the canonical hours. Eyvind Earle took key points of his colour palette from here, the lapis lazuli blue of the banners, the yellow-green of Maleficent's flames, the shell pink and paler blue of Aurora's gown. You can also see the flat perspective than Earle uses as well as the tendency for geometric shapes and straight lines.

In this example of french tapestries you can see highly detailed foliage designs that have very similar shapes to those used in Earle's forest scenes.

Eyvind Earle mentions how he emulate the style of Jan van Eyck by rendering elements in the foreground with same crispness as those in the background.

 

I also found this great example of how Earle transforms real life castles into his art style, by flattening the image, breaking it up into simple geometric shapes, and creating regular spacing between the trees.