Never Wake a Sleeping Dragon...

Today I made not just one but eighteen images.  I made a small flip book on post it notes...but then I couldn't find the cable for my video camera so I scanned the post it notes and put them together using adobe image ready.  This animation is not terribly fancy, but it is animation and I think I may want to do more of it...hopefully it'll get better as I go.

Selkie

In honor of St. Patrick's day coming up I wanted to create an image of one of my favorite Irish myths, the selkie. Selkies are seals that can shed their skin to become humans.  I created a photomanipulation of a selkie that I think came out beautifully, however I cannot share it here.  Unfortunately one of the stocks I used in this image has pretty restrictive rules and I cannot post it out of deviantart without written permission, I have asked for this permission but who knows when or if I'll be allowed to share it on my blog, so here is the link to the image, please visit and I apologize that I can't post an image today...I'm beginning to think making photo manipulations for this blog will have to stop; I do not like this feeling that I do not own or only co own the image I spent hours working on.

Back to Basics...

I'm reminded today of the feeling I had after I came back from my honeymoon, a week after my wedding was over and a year's worth of planing had come to fruition and was just...over...it's a very "now what?" feeling.  I'm proud of my alphabet and it was very fun and challenging to do...but now what?  I may do another themed alphabet eventually but for now I've decided to go back to basics and do some simple sketching with pencil, today I drew an elven maiden I call her Indilwen, named after the model I based this drawing on  whose name is Lilly; Indilwen is elvish for lily.

"Z" is for Zombie

Last day of the alphabet! Wow, not sure how to go back to the "just do whatever" format, but I don't have to worry about that till Monday.  Anyway, Z is for Zombie which according to Wikipedia can be either a fictional undead monster or a person in an entranced state believed to be controlled by abokor or wizard.  In popular culture we usually lose the idea of a wizard controlling the zombies and being in a entranced state, the popular version is more of a permanent transformation.  I find both ideas very interesting as well as the cultures these ideas have come from.

"Y" is for Yeti

The Yeti or Abominable Snowman is an ape-like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, India and Tibet. The Yeti mythology is very new to the West as it first appeared in the 19th century.

"X" is for Xana

Wikipedia tells me "the xana is a character found in Asturian mythology. Always female, she is a fairy nymph of extraordinary beauty believed to live in fountains, rivers, waterfalls or forested regions with pure water. She is usually described as small or slender with long blonde or light brown hair (most often curly), which she tends to with gold or silver combs woven from sun or moonbeams." There are theories that Xana is a derivative of the Latin Goddess Diana,  deities crossing cultures...have they been talking to Daniel Jackson? (yes, that was a SG1 reference) 

"W" is for Werewolf

So far this last week of the alphabet is getting pretty heavy on the monsters, but I like it. According to Wikipedia "a werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope  is amythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely, by being bitten by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse."