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DanielaIvanova — Shaman
#blond #blue #christmas #deer #drum #girl #glow #light #magic #moose #music #purple #red #reindeer #saami #sacrfice #sami #shaman #sketch #snow #spirit #winter #wip #woman #woods
Published: 2017-11-18 15:20:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 20743; Favourites: 727; Downloads: 68
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Description
Photoshop CS3, Intuos3, probably 30+ hoursProgress steps on my Artstation: www.artstation.com/artwork/rNq…
I've been fascinated recently with the culture of the Saami, who are the native people of Scandinavia (not unlike the Indians for the Americas). A Saami shaman was a spiritual guide able to traverse the hidden realms, inhabited by the spirits of the dead, the spirits of nature and gods. A shaman's drum was not only used to help induce the trance-like state needed to communicate with the spirits but was also a kind of map used for predictions. Each drum is inscribed with different characters and is unique to its owner.
As with any pagan culture I find it utterly inspiring how different everyday "rituals" gain a huge spiritual significance in a certain context - such as music, or the communication and relationship with animals.
Big thanks to everyone who helped me along the process with tips and critique.
Submitting it to 's awesome Best of 2017 contest . Go and submit your own best work of 2017, too!
EDIT*: I won!
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Comments: 247
You are absolutely right! I really DON'T have any clue how hard it is! But it is definitely worth! I like me some nice colors!
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Me, too! I'm a sucker for colors
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This is amazing!!
I love the colors, the concept, the way you drew the girl... Everything! Plus you taught me a bit about other people in the world
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Thanks so much for the compliments and yay! I love it that you read the bit about it. I'm super excited about different cultures and my main goal was to give it a bit more recognition.
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you convey an amazing feeling ! <3
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What kind of feeling do you get form it?
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a mixture of peace and "magic" as in when you're a kid
it feels like a tale, something like that
it actually reminds me of russian fairytales haha !
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That's kind of fitting since there are parts of the Saami people who live in Russia. Actually I wanted the girl to look a bit Russian, too.
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well you did a great job at that !
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Beautiful! I recognized the Saami outfit at once, I'm from Finland
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Oh you did? 
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Yes, I was thinking that "this looks so much like a Saami outfit". And she even has the shaman's drum.
I don't think I have any Saami relatives since my family is not from northern Finland
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Oh yeah, I was completely fascinated with the drum!
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This is very atmospheric. I like how you drew snow on the back - this green and pink tone.
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Thanks! I was also super excited to add multiple colors to the snow.
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Beautiful and interesting piece. It stands out from other Christmas-themed artworks. Good work!
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Thank you! Maybe it's because it wasn't originally Christmas inspired, but it has snow and coincides with Christmas so ... 
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This is gorgeous, original, so creative and so well done!!!! I adore shamanic societies and cultures.
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Awww, this is such a sweet gesture! 
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This is absolutely amazing, the details and composition are great. I like the whole thing with her hair, elk and northern lights.
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Thank you so much for the compliments, you're so sweet. Were you familiar with the Saami people before?
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Yes, I actually found out about them when looking up reindeer 3 months ago.
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Wow, really? I only recently stumbled upon them. They are absolutely fascinating. Somehow the hype about them being in Frozen had flown by me
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I know right? Their colourful clothing and traditional religion are really cool in my opinion. What do you find fascinating about them?
...they were in Frozen??
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Absolutely! The first thing that grabbed my attention were the costumes, too. I wanted some practice drawing clothes and I looked into traditional costumes, was planning to do something from Indonesia at first but I got really lost in the regional differences and then I found the Saami. To be honest the costume was pretty challenging, especially in terms of color. It's a miracle I got all those difference colors to work, it amazes me I managed to pull it off, it looked like an abomination when I did the first color splotches 
Yeah in the beginning, the ice-cutting song. It's not the same look, to be sure but it's still Saami-based. You can see those cute shoes with curled tips.
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Oh gosh, the only reason I haven't drawn the Saami are the colours. You really nailed it there, when I tried to do it the colours were just garish.
Same! I love fantasy. I'm a cultural anthro major just because I'm into that stuff. What's your favourite pagan religion?
Ah, I had to see the clip again to notice. Nice eye!
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Oh haha tell me about it. It was honestly a struggle. I think the trick that finally worked was just mixing the blue and red together which brought them both to a more desaturated, more purplish shade. If you color pick them you would realize both are quite far from how they look on photos but somehow in this environment they don't look so different.
Oh, wow, so you're way more well acquainted with that stuff than me. I'm just a fan, haven't really delved in detail in many cultures. It might sound biased but I'm very partial to my own culture - slavic beliefs and spirits and such. The western fantasy is already a bit overused for me, a little too sugarcoated, too, while eastern european culture is still quite unexplored and darker. I love how they incorporated it in the Witcher universe. How about you?
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Ah that was a good idea, I will be sure to remember this next time I try to tackle a Saami outfit.
Slavic stuff is very unexplored, I agree. I'm trying to find out more about it. All the western European stuff has been overused too much for my taste. I love me some Lord of the Rings but after that came out there were too many copycats. :/
I love Slavic, Asian (from the Philipines to Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia. Basically the whole continent), Mesoamerican and Polynesian. That stuff is so different from what I am used to, especially in fantasy stuff. Some of the Asian stuff can get really, really dark so that's cool, too.
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Maybe it's a good thing they haven't been well explored. Hollywood tends to sugarcoat and whitewash a lot of traditional material and I feel that people are getting a bit sick of it, what with the "trendy" rage against cultural appropriation. I was kinda afraid of that myself with this piece since I had only a few articles and an account from a friend to rely on to make it as authentic as possible. It's actually a first from a series that I might potentially extend to other cultures (Indonesia was my other pick, but I got lost in regional differences 
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aw you're welcome!! look forward to seeing more from you! ... i was wondering if i can have your honest opinion of me? .. this is one of my recent self portraits taken outside!, fav.me/dan59j7
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What exactly is it that you want to know?
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I am curious how people view me!..curious if i could have a completely honest opinion?
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Well, my first thought is about curiosity - specifically what drives you to do it.
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i like that style! 
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Wooow! Such amazing work! The coloring is beautiful!
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Thanks so much for the compliment!
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I've been waiting for this to be finished. Worth the wait, it looks incredible!
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So glad you like the end result!
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