pondělí 6. října 2014

Conjunction of the worlds

Its incredibly long time without any posting and i have now pretty lot of ideas what to write about, so lets jut start with a short contribution of my first tattoo design.
My friend and returning customer approached me and honored me with an opportunity to design his first inks. It was a great honout but also quite a responsibility, as it would be hard to imagine more personal art than this. His life story is strongly connected with Raven, so i went for this theme for one of his forearms. I was inspired by a ringerike style ravens and added some "viking baroque" to reflect the more organic technique and material than metal, stone and occasional wood or antler examples that survive to our days in decaying soil. We originaly thought about having two of them, slightly varying, but finaly the decision has been made to go with just one raven.
The other motive was much trickier to conceive, draw and it will be much harder to explain. But let me try this. Its a known fact, that J.R.R. Tolkien set his Middle earth in our world, not a distant planet or paralel universe. It was made, basicaly as our ancient meta history. I usualy invent my own art styles i use for Middle Earth artifacts, but when my friend suggested ME theme for the other hand, i was at unrest, because i as a style purist didnt feel its ok to have a viking style on one hand and fantasy on other (that weird i am!!). So while driving a long distance from Norway home, i found out the solution, that lays in the fact that Middle earth is our world. What if the svartalfar of the norse sagas are the descendands of Durins folk? And what if they preserved the stories of old? And is it too much to suppose that the dwarvish smiths were those, who inspired the germanic craftsmen? So i went and re-invented a ringerike style in slightly twisted way. added some elements, exagerated on others... So without moch more gibberish, i am presenting you a long gone tale of Trór, the king of the mountain and Smaug the firedrake. Note the ravens on the mustache - ancestors of Roac, and the Arkenstone as a crown above mountain kings head.