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Description
I bought acrylic paints! Woohoo! Also, I'm sick. Not so great. But I finally painted this that I've been wanting to for some time. It's the thing that has traumatized so many Finnish and Swedish and possibly Japanese kids. Maybe even others. Ladies and gentlemen: MÖRKÖ! Or MÅRRAN! Or THE GROKE! Or something else, depending on your language.

She is a character in the Moomins, and she is very scary even to the people in Moominvalley. And the people in Moominvalley are barely scared of anything. She's actually not evil at all, she's just very lonely and she just wants a friend. The problem is that she is very, very, VERY cold. So cold that if she ever hugged anyone, they would freeze solid. Also, if she stands in one place for too long, the ground will be so dead that nothing can ever grow in it. It really doesn't help that she has very creepy empty eyes and that her only means of communication are wordless growls. I used to be terrified of her when I was little, and we never kept any Groke-episodes of the Moomins on tape for long. Also, everything with the name Mörkö was automatically scarier than it would normally be (and yes, "mörkö" is a fairly common way of referring to any kind of random slightly monstrous creature, such as the Boogeyman. The Boggart in Harry Potter was also mörkö in Finnish). Even now seeing her gives me shivers, even though nowadays I really like her. SHE'S JUST SO SAD! SHE'S FOREVER ALONE! I think she's sort of a personification of winter depression. Yes, winter depression is so common in Finland that someone (Tove Jansson, who is awesome) created a personification for it!

By the way, am I the only one who is concerned of her fingers? She's super cold and her fingers are black. Does that mean they're really frostbitten and about to fall off?

Painted with acrylics. The little creatures are done with markers and that's probably why I forgot their shadows. I'm stupid.

The Groke is the creation of Tove Jansson.

Description
I bought acrylic paints! Woohoo! Also, I'm sick. Not so great. But I finally painted this that I've been wanting to for some time. It's the thing that has traumatized so many Finnish and Swedish and possibly Japanese kids. Maybe even others. Ladies and gentlemen: MÖRKÖ! Or MÅRRAN! Or THE GROKE! Or something else, depending on your language.

She is a character in the Moomins, and she is very scary even to the people in Moominvalley. And the people in Moominvalley are barely scared of anything. She's actually not evil at all, she's just very lonely and she just wants a friend. The problem is that she is very, very, VERY cold. So cold that if she ever hugged anyone, they would freeze solid. Also, if she stands in one place for too long, the ground will be so dead that nothing can ever grow in it. It really doesn't help that she has very creepy empty eyes and that her only means of communication are wordless growls. I used to be terrified of her when I was little, and we never kept any Groke-episodes of the Moomins on tape for long. Also, everything with the name Mörkö was automatically scarier than it would normally be (and yes, "mörkö" is a fairly common way of referring to any kind of random slightly monstrous creature, such as the Boogeyman. The Boggart in Harry Potter was also mörkö in Finnish). Even now seeing her gives me shivers, even though nowadays I really like her. SHE'S JUST SO SAD! SHE'S FOREVER ALONE! I think she's sort of a personification of winter depression. Yes, winter depression is so common in Finland that someone (Tove Jansson, who is awesome) created a personification for it!

By the way, am I the only one who is concerned of her fingers? She's super cold and her fingers are black. Does that mean they're really frostbitten and about to fall off?

Painted with acrylics. The little creatures are done with markers and that's probably why I forgot their shadows. I'm stupid.

The Groke is the creation of Tove Jansson.