The Reward

Bart found another great animated film the other day. Enjoy!

The Maker

The Maker is a short film about a strange creature that races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life.

It is so sad and so beautiful. That's all I can say. You'll just have to watch it.

Fox dæmons

Just a drawing of a fox I finished yesterday. I can't decide whether I like the left or the right version better...

I think if we had dæmons in this world (as in Lyra's world in His Dark Materials) mine would have the shape of a fox. I you haven't read the Dark Materials trilogy yet, you really should. Seriously. Go buy it.

Catgirl

I made this catgirl somewhere last week. I imagined her as a blond at first, but she's way better this way. Maybe I'll do a series and make a blonde girl as wel :)

I'm looking for as nice oval frame in some kind of dark wood to put this pair in. Anyone know where to find one?

Mythology Monday: Pandora's Pithos

Did you know that the "Pandora's box" was not a box, but some kind of large storage jar? The word "pithos" was mistranslated! (I learned this from Percy Jackson) So actually it looked liked this:

So now you all know this you are ready for the story of Pandora (and her pithos).

Prometheus had stolen fire from the gods, which made Zeus very angry. Therefore he send an "evil thing" which would cause their selfdestruction. This was Pandora. Her name means "All-gifted", because all the gods worked together to create this plague for men.
Hephaistos mixed earth and water to create a figure that resembled the godesses. He also gave her a voice and the strenght of human kind. Athena tought her the useful things, such as needlework and weaving, while Aphrodite gave her grace, and the power to make men long for her and forget all about themselves. Last, Zeus ordered Hermes to give her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature.
With these final "gifts" Pandora was released on earth with her pithos. In this pithos all the evils for mankind were held, but Pandora did not know any of this. The only thing the gods told her was that there were very powerful things inside it and that she should not open it under any circumstance. But of course she became too curious and thus she released death, disease and all other evil things into the world. Only hope remained within the jar, and remains with mankind to this day.

{Pandora by John William Waterhouse}

All women descend from Pandora and have inherited her evil traits. Zeus also made sure women would be an unending burden to men. If a man chooses to live without a woman, he will die alone and childless, but if he chooses one he will have a life filled with endless strife.


I do hope my boyfriend doesn't share his opions about women with Hesiod...

Mythology Monday: the Beginning and the End of the World

I'm very sorry for this very belated Mythology Monday post. I was swallowed whole by the Midterm Monster and after emerging from its maw I had some serious demonstering en relaxing to do.
I think the waiting will pay off though, because this is one of my largest paintings yet and one of the most interesting stories: the creation and destruction of the world according to Norse mythology.

In the beginning there was only Muspell in the south, Niflheim in the north and Ginnungagap in between. Then, layer by layer, ice began to grow in Ginnungagap and Ymir, the first frost giant, appeared. Next the ice formed the shape of the cow called Audhumla. Four rivers of milk streamed out of her udder, and on this the giant Ymir fed himself. She licked the salty ice for nourishment, and with every lick she created the likeness of a man. This man was called Buri, and from him all the gods descend.
A grandson of Buri slayed the giant Ymir and together with the other gods he made from him the world in the middle of Ginnungagap. From his blood they made the sea and lakes, and from his flesh the land. His bones they build into mountains and from his teeth, molars and broken bones they made stones and gravel.
They raised his skull over the earth to make the sky and placed a dwarf to hold it up at every corner. These dwarf are called East, West, North and South.
Trees were made of Ymir's hair and from his eyelashes the gods formed Midgard, which would be the dwelling of man. Last, they threw his brains up in the air and these formed the clouds.
The stars, the moon and the sun were created from sparks that flew in from Muspellheim. They fixed places for the stars among the heavens, but the sun and moon were placed in chariots. Both the chariots are chased by a hungry wolf, and to avoid them they move across the sky.

Three grandsons of Buri were walking on the beach one day, when they found two trees. From these they created people. The first gave them breath and life, the second gave them intelligence and movement and the third provided them with form, speech, hearing and sight. They were given a home in Midgard.

The gods made a stronghold for themselves and called it Asgard and between this place and Midgard they build a rainbow bridge called Bifrost.
The ash tree Yggdrasil is in the middle of everything. The gods hold their court at it each day, and it's branches spread over the whole world. The root of Yggdrasil reaches down all the way to Niflheim, where Nidhogg gnaws at it.
All this will end, however, at Ragnarok. The wolfes will catch the sun and the moon.The Midgard Serpent will awaken, and with the help of the Giants and other monsters, it will bring the world to an end. Two people and a few gods will survive though, and their descendants will rebuild and inhabit the world.

The Midterm Monster

I could go on and on about how much work I need to do (al lot) and how stressed out I am (very), but this drawing says it all.

{Source}

Also, I really am too busy studying for my midterms... I'll be back on monday with a Mythology Monday post though!

P.S. You can read Hannah's full post on the Midterm Monster here. She's a genius. She also did a series on How to be a Hipster which you should read because it is really funny (and kind of confrontational for me...)

Mythology Monday: the Owl-eyed Athena

In many myths Athena is described as "owl-eyed" and this is how I imagine her as a girl:

According to the myth however, she sprang fully grown and armoured from the head of her father, Zeus.
This is the story of her quite remarkable birth.

When Zeus had defeated the titans and became the ruler of Olympus, he married his first wife: Metis, the goddess of wisdom. Though she was a good wife and a true equal of Zeus, it was foretold by Gaia that she would be the one who could bear a child strong enough to defeat Zeus himself. Zeus wasn't too happy with this news, so to prevent Metis from bringing forth this child, he tricked her into changing herself into a fly and swallowed her.
Metis, however, was already pregnant with Athena and, while inside Zeus, she began to forge an armour for her daughter. The hammering caused Zeus such a headache, that he asked Hephaistos to split open his head. Out of the crack sprang Athena, the new goddess of wisdom. Though she is also the goddess of warefare, strength and strategy, a woman could obviously never overthrow her father and Zeus' reign over the gods and mankind was secure.
An additional advantage of swallowing Metis, was that Zeus now had Wisdom inside of him. Therefore he became a much wiser god and he could go on to marry his sister Hera and have many affairs with mortal girls.

Athena, very unlike her father, vowed to remain a virgin. She does have a very cute little owl called after her, aptly named "Little Owl" or Athene noctua.

{Source}

Mythology Monday: the Hare and the Moon

This is a myth from South-Africa that explains the mortality of man and why hares have split lips (with no particular priority).


The Moon looked down on the earth and saw humans living on it's surface. The sight of them pleased the Moon and she wanted to grant them the gift of immortality, so she could always look upon them. Therefore she asked her companion the Hare to bring a message to the people: "As I die and am born again, so will you die and be born again".

But as the Hare traveled from the Moon to the earth, it got confused about the Moon's message, and when it came to the earth it said to mankind: "As I die and am never born again, so will you die and never be born again".
After delivering this message, the Hare came back to the Moon and told her what it had told the people. The Moon got so angry with the Hare for what it had done, that she picked up an axe, threw it at the Hare and split it's lip.

Though the Hare and the Moon have made up since then, I don't know if I can forgive him that easily...

A little bit of red

Here's a little list of of lovely little things with a little bit of red :)

A bird cage wall decal to brighten up a plain wall :) 

A set of pretty little pillow cases with birds. These would look so good.. well.. anywhere!

An unusual bookmark for the stranger kind of books...

I don't wear rings because I always think they look weird on me, but I think this one might suit me!

A lovely print about living in the forest.

These are listed as espresso cups, but since I don't drink coffee I'm pretty sure they'll hold my tea as well :)

 I really really love these earrings! I love fairytales, I really like red riding hood and wolves and the paintings are originals!

I hope you enjoyed my little list :) It makes me wish I could buy something though... :P

Papercut notebooks

 My classes are starting in two weeks, so I really needed a diary! I bought a plain looking one and made my own cover :)

As you can see I didn't really think about letters being mirror imaged when you cut from the other side, but I decided not to dwell on such trivialities...

I really got in the spirit of papercutting, so I made these two:

The bunny chase...

...and the dreamy fox.

My creditcard should be arriving soon and then I'll just have to make some better pictures and I'll be ready to open up my Etsy shop!
I also gave my friend from school her notebook and she told me that her friend really liked the notebook I made for her and used it as a travel journal on her trip to Japan! I'm somehow really excited that something I made went to Japan :)

Awesomeness

I'm such a procrastinator... I still haven't gotten round to wiggling my memorycard out of the other laptop... But I do have something important to tell you! My absolute favorite comicdrawer (is that a word?), Madeleine Flores from Little Love Monster, has an awesome kickstarter project. She wants to circumnavigate the world and write a comic about it!

Here are some comics by her to show you how cool she is! (Just click to see them larger!)

I think she is a great person with an amazing creative mind and she really deserves to go and do this! All her experiences will be bound together in a book, which you'll get a signed copy off if you pledge $50 or more!
If I could I would donate all the money she needs, but as I'm a pretty poor student she'll need your help too...
You can read more about her project and the cool rewards you get here! Please support this amazing person :)

I'm back!

Well, actually I've been back since wednesday, but I needed that day to get used to being home, and yesterday I worked on some more notebooks. I actually wanted my first post to be filled with all the pictures of the great holiday I had, but my memorycard is stuck in the other laptop... So instead of sorting through all my pictures, I've been working on a new look for the blog. First part: the Header! I like it way better then the last one.
I want to change the background too and make everything look a little more professional :)

Here are some in progress scans of the header:

I hope you like it too! I'll be really back soon with pictures of my holiday! As soon as I get the memorycard out...

Notebooks!

As promised, pictures of the new notebook I made! I actually made two, but when I finished the last one it was too dark to take pictures. This one is for my friend from school :)

I though I'd do some in progress pictures too, so you can all see of what high quality my notebooks are ;)

This some pretty paper I used. It is designed by Sukie.

This is how the inside looks without the cover.

And this is how I make the cover :)

The outlines for on the cover.

 I made a kind of Little Red Riding Hood, but this one likes to climb trees :)

 And an owl of course. Nothing is complete without an owl.

And here's Little Red with her wolf.

 And everything in colour!

I decided stars do make everything prettier.

So that's it! I hope you like it and I really hope my friend likes it :) The glue is still drying now, so I have to wait till tomorrow to see if everything went well...

This might be my last post in a while by the way! I'm leaving for Rome on Monday morning, after which I'm off to Venice and Berlin. I'm so looking forward to the warm weather, and icecream and pizza... And the weekend I'm in Venice, there's a festival going on! There's supposed to be lots of fireworks and gondola races and lots of other exciting things going on! I'll be sure to share all my adventures here :)
If you're going away on a holiday too, I wish you lots of fun! And if you're staying I hereby allow you to have fun as well ;)