Northern dreaming

Probably going to change one of the covers to this, once I get the lettering done.

As in: more time to do this right now since I don’t have to work today, not as a holiday subject.

This took me a couple of hours, and was inspired by a photo on a news story about a storm which hit England just before Christmas. Since I’m into fantasy the human figure acquired a cloak (plus I botched the legs and was too lazy to fix it – ah, a billowing cloak will hide that).

This is also my first attempt ever to paint a stormy sea. Water can be difficult. Not too bad. Hey, maybe I can have a career painting these and selling them on the market (I’m too lazy to try the other traditional, which would have been door to door, although through internet is of course always an option nowadays).  😉

Well, here is the end result. Stone coming alive. Not my best work. I think I have to redo this. 😉

Although perhaps I will first try something a bit more colorful, I have been doing these night scenes a lot. Maybe something seasonally appropriate. Like a Christmas tree. Or just an angel. I think the wings of this one aren’t half bad.

Oh well. Practice. Then practice some more.

This is one of the paintings I didn’t like. I painted a bit more and it’s better now, although I’m not going to be using it for anything. Maybe I’ll see if I can sell it in one of the local net auctions. If not it will probably end in trash sooner or later. I don’t have the space to keep my practice works, most of them anyway, I keep a few of the better ones around and try to get rid of the others in some way, but if nobody wants them, yep, trash.

I did the mausoleum freehand and it’s a bit wonky, the head of the vampire woman is a bit too large and so on. Lots of small stuff rather than one big problem.

The colors aren’t quite that bright in the actual painting.

Yep, the painting turned out to be more difficult to make than I had thought it would be. I have painted objects or shapes in the mist, both daytime and night time mist or fog, a couple of times before, but I used oils then. Now I tried to do it with acrylics, for the first time, and acrylics do require a somewhat different approach. So two failed attempts, and then one tolerable. I will use this as a cover, for now anyway, at least it’s better than the rather horrible photograph I have on the second vampire story right now. Can always change later.

I would prefer to use oils, I like them better and since I have used them a lot more I paint better with them, but one problem is that that oil paintings don’t scan well, not on the cheap multipurpose piece of… well, it works, anyway. Photographing an oil painting might work, only my current camera is even worse than the scanner, so until I manage to buy a better one it is going to be scanning. And with acrylics on paper I can get a decent, if not actually good copy online. If I knew how to use the graphics editing programs I have better I could presumably do something to make them look better, but while I have improved slightly I’m still far from proficient.

So, here we have a vampire on a misty (or foggy, but misty sounds more romantic) graveyard.

Right. So still something else. I’m trying to get the hang of acrylics so I’m painting a lot right now, but lots have ended up in the ‘this is not quite working’ pile. Some are probably salvageable, some not.

Reasonably happy with the colors. The color gradations look smoother on the painting than on this scanner image, the process heightens the visibility of the brush strokes, and even slight differences in color become noticeable. I really have to learn how to use those damn graphics programs, it would be nice if I knew how to make the scan represent the painting better.

Hiisi has no completely accurate English translation, although I suppose goblin isn’t too far off if we are talking about the small devil or troll like creature the word can also mean. Originally it seems to have meant a place of worship, a holy grove or a holy tree or rock, but with the coming of Christianity the word gradually got the meaning of a sort of a devil. There is no single idea of what they were supposed to look like, but horns and tail seem to be rather usual, as well as hairiness. Perhaps something a bit like a satyr, or a cross between a satyr and a dwarf, with a bit of a werewolf thrown in as claws and sharp teeth are also sometimes mentinoned – usually they are described as small in the stories, although there are occasional giants too. They pester people in the woods, and they can kill, although usually they attack only from behind, if you turn to face them fully they are supposed to retreat. As is usual for Finnish folklore, they often are also rather stupid and easily fooled. So perhaps the best idea would be something like Gollum, only a scarier and hairier and more animal like version, something that when confronted will pretend to be small and scared and possibly beg for mercy, but will jump you and tear your throat out if you make the mistake of turning your back to it.

And now I’m getting the itch to try to tell a story about that picture. Well, maybe… after a few weeks, right now I’m still a bit too scatterbrained to write well. But I’ll make notes.