The princess dreamed... Snow3

Black ink on sketchbook paper.
References--
Princess: the lovely Lockstock (I don't mean to use her all the time, it just happens! She has an incredibly versatile and usable gallery) [link]
Princes: various poses by Cobweb-stock [link] (again, I didn't set out to use his stock exclusively, and actually spent a lot of time searching other stock for poses, but Cobweb-stock just had the best pictures!)

I used Google image search to find reference pictures for the bear, the castles (I combined elements from a few different castles), the sea serpent, the ship, the roses, and the cottage, but all were really heavily modified. The fish in the border were based on a pottery pattern I saw in Japan.

This is the third illustration I've done for one of my short stories, a retelling of Snow White. This one took the longest to do--it took forever to sketch, and forever to ink.
Previous illustrations:
In that summer [link]
The queen [link]

I'm very proud of myself. *pets* Pretty please full view and coo over all of my little obsessive compulsive details?

This is Snow after she has fallen into her enchanted sleep. The seven dwarf brothers placed her in a boat and let it sink into a flooded valley, where the ice formed over it like glass. As Snow sleeps under the water, she dreams of seven other brothers, princes from another kingdom. One by one they leave home to seek their destinies:

The princess dreamed .

She dreamed of the eldest prince as he rode out among the apple blossoms and found a maiden trapped in a tower. The princess dreamed of the words they exchanged, the looks and soft smiles, and in her dreams realized that they were falling in love. Ah, she thought in her dream. So that is how it is done. But when the prince tried to rescue the maiden he was blinded by her keeper, and set to wandering, and after seven years of no word the prince was mourned as dead by his father. In her dream, however, the princess saw him alive, if weakened, and making his way slowly through the darkness to the place where his lady waited, though he had yet long ways to go, and that day would not come yet.

And the princess dreamed.

She dreamed of the second son as he rode out among the blackberries to seek a dragon, saw in her dreams how the prince slew the dragon and took his gold, but saw also how a dread curse lay on the treasure so that misfortune followed him and he could not reach home. The princess dreamed of a breaking of the curse, but the prince clung to the treasure, and that day would not come yet.

The princess dreamed.

She dreamed of the third son as he rode out during harvest, among the wheat, and heard as he heard it the tale of a princess, locked sleeping in a castle, and heard how he resolved to rescue her. The princess wondered what this other princess dreamed of, and if she wearied of dreams. But though the prince was brave and true he was swallowed up by the brambles guarding the lady's sleep. In her sleep, that other princess was sad.

And the princess dreamed.

She dreamed of the fourth son as he rode out beneath the blue summer sky, and watched as he sought to find great fame and fortune, but he was discourteous to a fairy lady of high rank, who locked him within a hideous beastly body. The princess dreamed of the distant, desolate castle where he had gone alone, and where he slowly learned to live within his new body, and taught himself great magics, though he could not change his form. So she dreamed for him a courageous young woman who would come to him and break the spell, someday, though that day would not come yet.

The princess dreamed.

She dreamed of the fifth son as he rode out into the spring rains, going to seek his brother, but the same disgruntled fairy trapped him, and he became a bear as black as pitch. The princess dreamed of how the store of gold he had taken on his quest was stolen by a goblin, and of the winters the bear prince spent alone in the distant forest, and she dreamed for him a warm cottage, as safe as the caves of the dwarves, where a kindly mother and her daughters would befriend and care for him. She thought the daughters, too, might break his spell, but that was not her dreaming, and that day would not come yet.

And the princess dreamed.

She dreamed of the sixth son as he rode out while the autumn leaves fell in search for knowledge, but he asked a riddle of Death's daughter and was trapped upon her skeleton ship until she should come upon the answer. And that day would not come yet.

The seventh prince (who will have his own illustration later) is brought by Snow's dreams to wake her.