Commission – Aerie and Mark’s Adventure

Art by StarTwo

Onwards to the marked “X”!

Today we’re sharing a commission we have made for PinkythePink -a wonderful Artisan Crafter with an amazing skill to make miniature bead dresses among other things!- depicting characters of her own creation used for Dungeons and Dragons: Mark Murcry and Aerie Evergreen.

This commission was wonderful to work on and relatively fast to complete. Not only for the flat colours with simple gradients type of colouring but specially thanks to the extremely well organized references for both of them, from what they’re wearing, their personalities and even a specific pose.

May their adventure begin!

★stay inspired★

A Portuguese Folktale: Story from Below the Ground

Art by StarTwo

One of the most wonderful things about folktales is how at times they become fragments of universal tales and mythology from places far from its origins, preserving old wisdom and wonder where science and logic can’t reach.
Today’s tale bares similarities in its themes with Lucius Apuleius’ Metamorphoses in which is included a story regarding the overcoming of obstacles between Psyche and Eros and their union at last in sacred marriage.
So here begins…

Story from Below the Ground

A Portuguese Folktale – The Ingratitude of Children

Art by StarTwo

He that gives his goods before he’s dead, take up a mallet and knock him on the head (Scottish verse)

Elderly people who trick their ungrateful children into caring for them is yet another recurrent theme in the world of folktales.

The first records of such tales appear in the Middle Ages and spread across Europe, but the theme also appears in places as far as Kashmir and Sri Lanka.
As for the Portuguese version, we found one nearly identical to the German story, though the latter is shorter and provides dialogue to the characters, and also sets the number of daughters to three, unlike the Portuguese version, where there are only two daughters (guess the Portuguese decided to be more cost-effective).
Let us narrate the StarTwo translated adaptation of the next folktale.

The Ingratitude of Children

A Portuguese Folktale: The Magician ~ Lines

Art by StarTwo

This is the linework where you can see clearly all the elements we picked for this Magician’s apprentice illustration.
Each one of them is meant to link to the story, so make sure you don’t miss it by reading the tale and see the full version of the original illustration. You can quickly go there by clicking on the link below!

Click here to see the story and full colour illustration!

★stay inspired!★

A Portuguese Folktale: The Magician

Today’s folktale was first transcribed in 1879 and it’s a recurrent theme in folktales around the world, this theme being of a magical restraint.
It also happens that similar versions of this tale can be found in Russia, Italy and Great Britain and here from Portugal there are two main versions: one from the south of the country and another from the north.
We present to you our translation (and adaptation) of the southern version since it’s a bit cheekier, in our opinion!
Without further ado, let’s begin!

THE MAGICIAN

Creature Feature – Enfield ~ Lines

Even if it feels like Autumn just begun, with Halloween gone by it’s starting to feel like Winter really fast.
We’re holding ourselves to the current season though and as we try to appreciate roasted chestnuts and sweet wine, we’re sharing our Enfield’s lines with you.

By giving ourselves the challenge of creating a humanoid version, we tried to come up with a design that also felt modern and intriguing. Usually there’s a set time-length for these illustrations and we can say that this one pushed our time slot to the limit!
You can check our complete post about these Irish Chimeras and the colour version of the illustration here.

★Enjoy roasted chestnuts and stay inspired★

An Irish Mythical Creature – The Enfield

Myths and legends, there are so many of them throughout our immense world. Many came into existence as a means to interpret nature’s strength, the divine, the unexplained. But some also came from the need us humans have for security and protection. From such want, the Enfield was born.

Enfields are a lesser-known type of Chimera, a mythological creature made up of body parts of other animals. They are known to generally have the head of a fox, the body and forelegs of an eagle and the hind and rear legs of a wolf (some variations also add lion and greyhound parts into the mix). They are mainly associated with Ireland although records also place them in England. One thing is certain, the Enfield is unquestionably Celtic and of great importance to its chieftains.

A medieval Enfield

In Celtic tales, Enfields had the role of being the guardian of the leaders fallen in battle. The Celts believed in giving their dead a proper burial ceremony which gave them a motivational disadvantage as their enemies would try their best to steal the bodies of the chieftains and, to put it into milder words, disgrace them. This meant, in Celtic culture, that the deceased would be cursed to never find peace in the afterlife unless properly avenged.

The want for a guardian of their fallen, made the Celts conjure forward the Enfield, a fierce defender to protect the lifeless body of their chieftains, remaining by the dead man’s side and protecting the body from anyone with ill intent.

But not our rendition of an Enfield!

Curious and eager, as all young things are, his path has yet to burden him with such a grave task as guardian of the dead. Mind you, he doesn’t shun his future, an Enfield is proud of his legacy and grateful to those who have chosen him. But it is pumpkin season now and the Fairy Queen bestowed upon her humble vassals the possibility to become human for a day and go enjoy human things.

So this is where we caught our Enfield, in mid-transformation from chimera to human, eager and still cautious about undesirable eyes catching him off guard. Tonight he shall feast on hot minced meat and pumpkin pie before returning to his elders and learn the ways of the guardians of the Celtic Chieftains.

Check out the linework here!

Happy Autumn once again and have a wonderful weekend and as always,

★ stay inspired!★