Fan art for "The Princess and the Hedge-pig", one of many original fairy tales by the brilliant early twentieth-century fantasy author E Nesbit. So many of Nesbit's fairy tales are fun and funny and clever, but Hedge-pig (just another name for a hedgehog) has long been my favorite. Our heroine, the Princess Ozyliza, who can fight and shoot as well as any Prince Charming, is ousted from her throne. Her enemies attempt to assassinate her with a barrage of arrows. But her childhood friend, a strapping young baker's apprentice, throws himself in the line of fire, is repeatedly impaled in the back, and, to save his life, a good fairy turns him into a hedgehog. From there, they set out to win back her kingdom.
Nesbit often writes with an eye for humor, so I wanted to capture a bit of silliness in this.