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zorm — Tuonenlapset
Published: 2006-12-01 20:56:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 7442; Favourites: 76; Downloads: 77
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Description
Edit: Contrast fixes and whatnot.Oh look, more blue skin. I'm afraid you can never get rid of it in this gallery.
Adapted Finnish/Scandinavian mythology. In Tuonela, in the courts of Death, lives Tuoni's kin (Tuonen väki, Tuonenlapset). I drew them rather Drow-ish, because the whole Drow fiction obviously draws its inspiration from the parallel Norse myth of Svartálfar, black elves, who also dwell beneath the ground.
The giant's skull relates to a tale about the Jatulis, which were a race of giants that once inhabited the northern parts of Finland, but slowly faded into extinction or became Hiisi's folk.
I may edit this if there's something wonky. The first pic I circulated through Conceptart.Org's WIP board, and darn it I got some excellent advice there. XD
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Comments: 38
Awesome painting, of course, but — "blue skin"? It looks quite purple to me.
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Aye, I'd say there is absolutely nothing wonky in the illustration. It is very consistent by nature, indeed.
However I think these siblings (perhaps a brother and sister, both are carrying similar kind of weapon) are both more like Nordic Hiisi folk instead of traditional characters of Tuonela (the Underworld).
I believe there were only two clearly "male persons" in Tuonela, the first one being the Tuoni Himself (the Lord of the Underworld) and Lautturi (The Boatman ruling over the River of Tuonela).
Tuonetar (the Queen of Tuonela) is the wife of Tuoni and has given birth to two daughters, the first being Lovetar (the Goddess and source of all diseases) and Kivutar (the Goddess of pain caused by all of those diseases).
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This is so beautyfull! The whole athmosphere is just breathtaking!!!!!
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That guy looks a bit too muscular in my opinion, but I love that lady. Especially her hair *_*
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Wow! This is amazing! I actually thought they were some kind of drow before I read the description. Well done! Keep up the good work!
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Awesome picture, you definately do a lot of detail considering I can see where the males......thing is, XD.
Very nice though, I want your talent, dang it!
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gorgeous, once again. Nothing really I would nitpick about at all. The background is perhaps a little too blurry, but because the characters attract all the viewers attention its pretty irrelevant. Your attention to detail is, as usual, brilliant.
And I personally love your style of doing so many individual hairs. It works especially well with your character Khran, cos his hair is just huge! hehe.
5/5 stars
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I'm always so amazed at how well you do the anatomy, especially of the muscles 
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You know, you really don't need to draw in every strand of hair on the characters' heads for it to look nice. In fact, it comes off as looking fake-looking when you do. Using very thin lines on anything makes the surrounding area look fuzzy (on the water, for example).
Also, the woman doesn't seem 'grounded.' The shadow areas on her seem very washed out, so she looks like she's floating in the picture.
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I'm looking into the woman's contrast when I get some time. Someone actually gave me a paint-over of the parts that'd need stronger shadows. Might try to fix my hair-drawing technique in further works. I did already tone down the hair detail in this from what it originally was, but maybe my current methods would work better in just close-up shots.
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Very beautifully done
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Excellent anatomy as usual. I love how you draw women. And thier hair has so much texture!
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Very good. The detailing on the metalwork, especially the axes, is exceptional.
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Beautiful artwork as usual. Gonna be harsher this time than I usually am. Sure you won't mind... I love your detail and sense of depth, but always find your backgrounds looking a little blurry or gauzy, almost like they're objects covered in painted cloth. And I find it hard to believe that any male has that muscle potential. Looks a little over the top to me, even in comparison with what I've seen of bodybuilders. Love the texture of the skin and water in this though. Beautiful.
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Thanks.
And I find it hard to believe that any male has that muscle potential. Looks a little over the top to me, even in comparison with what I've seen of bodybuilders.
Yes, that'd apply when it comes to humans, but you have to remember that creatures such as these hardly share the limits of human physiognomy. 
As for the background... the blurring-out is a technique I've taken from several other artists to add the sense of depth to the picture. This somewhat mimics how the human eye (and camera's lens) behaves: beyond a certain fixed focus point the shapes begin to fade out both line- and colorwise. I don't recall the exact stepping, but it was not linear. I did post a draft, where the background was much sharper, to a forum. But even before I applied the usual fading method to it, I was told to blur it out in order to bring more depth into the surroundings. Right now I don't know any other technique either as of how to create the particular effect.
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Fair enough. I've just never envisioned mythological beings as looking any different than regular humans, and believe that their superstrength is just a power or a trait, like their muscles are twice as efficient or something. Superman doesn't look any different than anyone else, and he can lift tonnes with very little effort. It's that sort of thing, for me at least. You're welcome to disagree of course. I do applaud your renditions of muscle though.
For perspective and all it works, especially in the small view. In full view it maybe looks a little too blurry. 
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Well, frankly, it's quite the opposite for me, as I've used to hearing myths and stories about giants and shapeshifters and dwarves and who knows what critters ever since I was little. The Finnic-Scandinavian mythology portrays oodles of creatures so unlike one another that it's almost difficult to assign any 'standard measures' to them. In Kalevala, for instance, Antero Vipunen is a speaking hill, and even Odin in the sagas has an 8-legged horse. XD
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I never really heard those sorts of stories but I did read a lot of mythology growing up (not a lot of Scandinavian, I'll admit). I never really got the image of completely different appearances, though.
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Well, the thing probably is that when you've used to imagining everything different from the actual reality ever since a wee kid, it's harder to assign standards.
The myths up here divide into two distinct categories: the Norse and the Finnish myths. They do have a lot of parallels, but anyway. The previous is more studied and translated, whereas the latter is about twice more complex (due to the Finnic peoples having a lot longer history than those of the Germanic origin) but less studied, and most of the books are available only in Finnish. Kalevala, which is the Finnish national epic, has been translated to English and gives a slim-ish overview of the Finnish mythology.
Here are some good starting points:
Finnish mythology: [link] and [link]
About Kalevala: [link]
Kalevala in English: [link]
Norse mythology: [link] and [link] and [link]
The Eddas, Icelandic sagas, etc. [link]
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Meant to say physiology, not physiognomy. My English doesn't flow when I'm about to go to sleep. x|
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Hey, coming up with physiognomy and typing it correctly when you're about to go to sleep is a pretty incredible feat anyway. I wouldn't worry about it. I do similar things all the time and I grew up speaking English.
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Hymm.... Drow-ish you say? Hymmm... Yeah,it`s look like that
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You never do anything the simple way, do you? LOL. Not that I mind. these are awesome.
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I'm rather fond of the hair. Do you do every strand, for it looks like that.
I like the little mushrooms in the background.
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very nice. I liked learning a bit about mythology too.
since I believe you once asked for criticism, I'd like to see the light and dark (especially dark) played up since they're underground.
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Very cool
I likes drows <333
....
I'm registered there...have been too chicken to post anything yet XD
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As usual, I'm awed... by your skill, your percision, your attention to detail... wow.
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Thanks.
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It must have. I have a problem with anatomy in general, male anatomy in particular.
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