My favorite folklore stories

Well, this past few months have been eventful. Juggling school and painting is hard and will drive you absolutely insane, but I did it, so I rule. Anyway, the second series I made is based on Scandinavian stories that I love. I've been reading these stories and books since I was about 12, and they have a way of sucking you in. Here are the demon creations!



Nøkken
Acrylic on canvas
28" x 20"
2011

This painting is about water trolls called nøkkens, and they're pretty mean. They prey on anyone depressed or lingering by a lake. They also like to shape shift to trick their victim into believing that they're king beings, like a lady or a horse. Then... They face their doom.



The Treasure Bringer
Acrylic on canvas
20" x 28"
2011

This one's about a poor farmer who sells his soul for a helper on his crops. The kratt will either bring you riches and happiness for life, or turn on you and make the rest of your days miserable. That's what happened to our farmer who, unfortunately, freaked out and abandoned the kratt just as he finished creating it. As much as he tried destroying it, it wouldn't die. Which only caused the farmer's death in the end.



For Long Springsday
Acrylic on canvas
20" x 16"
2011

This one's pretty inappropriate, let's just start off. A girl is told to save the family's meat for the spring time. A vagabond overhears the mother tell the girl, "You have no sense or reason!" When he comes back, the mother isn't to be found. The girl is naive and doesn't realize that she's talking to a bad man. So, she gives him their food. And even after he's already taken all of that... He finds a way to sexually take advantage of the girl, and she never realizes what's happening. I had a hard time figuring out how to make this damn thing safe to look at. But hey, it worked.



The Human Soul Coming Out as a Fly
Acrylic on canvas
16" x 20"
2011

This one's actually pretty sweet. There's lots of variations of this story with different animals. As one person is sleeping, the person they're with notices a small animal coming out of their friend. That animal goes on a small adventure and finds its way back to their human. That person then wakes up to tell about an adventure they went on in their dream, which was really them as that small animal. A fly isn't cute or anything, but there you go.

Coming up with the concept for the series was fun, but executing the whole thing was nerve wrecking. I drove myself mad, I was close enough to becoming the Happy Mask Salesman from Majora's Mask! And while I'm not completely happy with everything, I'm glad everything's finished and looks presentable. Deadlines really kill your motivation to make things pretty. But I actually wanna paint something new now? OH GOD!

Just enjoy, everyone.

Last one! Augh!

Sanguine
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 18"
2011

The Humors are done! There! Okay, I still gotta explain this one.

Sanguine is the good humor. It has its life together, sleeps 8 hours a night, and eats lots of broccoli. So, you can trust this one to not go nuts on you! You can also hate it from afar because they're just so damn good at life.

Its substance is blood, its element is air, they are emotionally stable and sociable. Yeah, go ahead and hate them. They'll produce too much black bile one of these days!

PS: Working on two other paintings right now. I got a deadline to January for four paintings. Yeah... It's fun, trust me. Oye!

I've never actually seen snow before.

Melancholy
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 18"
2011

Now we got #3 here, the moody humor. And it's quite fitting, since painting mulch is... Yeah. Let's not mention such things.

Melancholy is probably the most well known of the humors. From Albrecht Durer's etching, to the Smashing Pumpkins turning the word into a fun album title, people seem to relate to it. Melancholy comes from a person producing black bile more than anything else, from the gall bladder. Its element is earth, and the qualities are cold and dry.

Something very green to go with Earth Day...

Phlegmatic
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 18"
2011

Number two is here! After an insane amount of time trying to get a proportionate shoulder and chest area, it's ready to take its place in the series. It's the quiet, thinking part of all this, as phlegmatic temperaments are introverted and thoughtful.

By the title, you know the substance is phlegm, which is produced by the lungs. Its element is water, and the qualities are cold and wet. The background is kind of obvious with that, as well as looking like the color of snot itself. Icky things like that can be pretty, too!

The first painting of a long series...

Choleric
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 18"
2011

The process of this painting began on April of 2010, so trying to finish this has been pretty long. Due to a computer dying, I had to retake references and kinda start from scratch. But finishing it has helped me put a foot forward in getting this series done. And the series? It's about old timey medical theories!

The four humors, or four temperaments, are elemental fluids linked to one's state of mind. Not that it's actually true, but those kooky folks coming out of the B.C. times didn't have much of a mind for the human body.

The four humors are sanguine, choleric, melancholy and phlegmatic. An even balance of these fluids keeps a person healthy and stable. An imbalance will cause disease, disabilities, and basically insanity. You know what they did to cure that? Drain the excess fluids. Like I said, folks back then weren't too bright...

Choleric is characterized by an emotionally unstable personality, while being aggressive and extroverted. The substance is yellow bile, produced by the spleen. A choleric person's element is fire, so you could assume that a person with this personality is angry and touchy. Just how I felt while trying to complete this!