My Friend @nuclear333 Asked Me How I Shaded Hair And I Promised Her A Hair Shading Tutorial, Which Of

Slavic beliefs about treshold and hearth

The negative role of the treshold

“Together with the door, the threshold co-created a part of the border between the two fragments of space. It was placed in a point where the continuity of the boundary was breached. The importance of the threshold resulted from its dual nature: the separation of spaces and the chance to move between the two created areas. In symbolic thinking, the threshold could be identified (and metonymically replaced) with the critical points that occur when switching between two states of affairs (e.g. nature/culture, night/day) or personal statuses (e.g. childhood/adolescence, single/ married). Being a fraction of the boundary and the exponent of its crossing, the threshold had the characteristics of a border area, and therefore it was ontologically insecure. And so, because every crossing of the border was related to the risk of contacting the undifferentiated chaos of the underworld, or with touching the sacred, the threshold required special protection and the ritualistic behaviours.

The significance of the threshold in family rituals is quite clearly written in eth- nographic material. The threshold was one of the important elements of weddings or deaths, pregnant women were isolated from it. This boundary of the house did also need magical treatments. Apotropaic actions were also related to the thresholds of cowsheds and stables. The main motive of these activities was burying animals, coins, and/or unbaptized children underneath the threshold, or laying axes, garlic, brooms, knives, and/or herbs braided in a wreath on its surface.

Very few historical documents also describe the role of the threshold among Early Middle Ages Slavs. According to archaeological sources, its protective role (and, at the same time, protection over the whole house) can be confirmed by an auroch’s skull found in Gdańsk (circa 1230-1255), which was found near the south- eastern wall of a house, placed in parallel with it, in an alley between two hous- es; it could have been nailed to the top of the house as a hunting trophy. Wreaths made of twigs and hair could also fulfil an apotropaic function. A large number of wreaths made of phloem (9 pieces) was found during excavations in Gdańsk and Wolin. They were found on the streets, the square, and the vicinity of house walls in Early Middle Ages Gdańsk. Willow wreaths from Wolin were found near a wat- tle-and-daub house wall. In a nearby house some collections of wreaths placed on a corner peg were also found1. The wattle-and-daub buildings were built in the 11th and 12th centuries. They were 5 to 10 cm in diameter and were made of willow. A wicker wreath was in turn found in Szczecin inside a log cabin dating back to the first half of the 12th century. Identical wicker wreaths were present in Slavic buildings in Lund.

A possibly apotropaic meaning is connected with wreaths found in Gdańsk, Szczecin, and Wolin that were made of different materials, including horsehair. The incompleteness of archaeological material relating to the Early Middle Ages period does not allow to determine the exact role of this part of the house in apotropaic treatments. Deliberately omitted in this work is the ban on sweeping garbage over the threshold (the broom was treated as a cleanser), which is evident in ethnographic sources. According to Slavic beliefs the broom, when set on the threshold of a house or barn, defended the entrance against witches and protected from evil eyes.”

The symbolic role of the hearth

“The important part of the house was a place used for preparing meals and getting warm. According to ethnographic sources, the stove is a common component of beliefs and rituals. It was clearly a developed form of the hearth in the form of a fireplace and as such will continue to be considered, because fire was an inseparable companion of existence. Stanislaw Ciszewski assigned the following functions to the hearth:

1. it was a social environment and as such it merged individuals into a solidary group of people; 2. it was a symbol of life and existence; 3. it was a form of altar, and as such was an intermediary between a group of people and the spirits of their ancestors and the extrasensory world

The hearth discussed in this chapter has been treated in two ways: as a symbol of family life and spiritual life. The hearth constituted an integral part of life for a man and his family. It connected them to the extent that any important event was associated with it. In turn, the hearth manifested itself in spiritual life as the eternal worship of fire, seen as a god who must be adored. I am aware that this is an artificial division, but the clear application of it will help “organize” apotropaic magic activities connected with the cult of the hearth.

The fireplace or stove were a symbolic centre of family life, around which re- sided the guardian spirits of ancestors. Rituals associated with the hearth, which are the expression of a particular respect, have been observed in ethnographic material. The most archaic of them is the habit of “feeding” the fire, guardian spirits, clan, and family. These treatments are also confirmed by written sources, which speak about demons of destiny and a house spirit called uboże, which had to be taken care of by leaving food in right places. Also the available archaeological material of the Early Middle Ages allows to confirm the submission of different types of bloody and bloodless offerings near the stove and fireplaces.

Both atmospheric fire and the earthly one had sacred value, because the effect of contacting with them was the dissolution of all shapes, or, as a result, the liquidation of the opposition that characterized human oecumene: beginning-end, light-dark, right-left, and so on. This fire also had to be tamed by applying appropriate apotropaic treatments, which in this case took the form of prohibitions or commands with regard to handling fire. On the other hand fire, ashes, charcoal, or smoke were quite commonly believed to have purifying and protective powers. In the light of archaeological sources the worship of a deified fire within the house is probably the most difficult to detect. Over the centuries magical rites related to the worship of fire have changed. Perhaps the two vessels (from Wyszogród near War- saw and Radzim, Greater Poland Voivodeship) with special lightning-shaped and figural engravings on them were used during the protective magic rituals.”

Slavic protective magic in the Early Middle Ages on Polish territories by Joanna Wawrzeniuk

Seriously, where did Steve find that armor? I hope he didn’t steal it from an aggressive warrior or something…I don’t want him to get in trouble, ya know? It’s been a year since this tutorial is on Patreon, so I’ll post it for everyone now! (I have to work on a reptile scales or transparent materials tutorial one day tho)

Underwater tutorial: https://darhak.tumblr.com/post/642964456883765248/steve-why-is-he-always-like-this-metal-tutorial

Fire tutorial: https://darhak.tumblr.com/post/186828219798/thats-my-first-and-probably-not-last-art

Hi, I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I adore your arcana style cgs and I was wondering if you had any tips for replicating the arcana style?

m, this is a bit tricky to answer because I’m not confident enough in how I draw the style to make any sort of guide. But in trying to replicate it, I kind of noticed some things?

Note: I like to learn styles through deconstruction and looking at processes. I recommend watching the CG timelapse at 0.25x speed here (x) and looking at some of the CG process/concept art here (x)

Please forgive the rambliness of this under the cut. These are just the notes I make to myself when I try and figure out a style.

Czytaj dalej

I am so serious when I say if you want to learn about light, you NEED to at least look at modeseven’s tutorials. even if you’re not pursuing a painterly style, this is all essential theory that can be easily adapted to different coloring styles. notice how none of these ever say ‘light with these colors and shade with these colors’? notice how this is teaching how light works on a mechanical level, and reminding the audience to adjust the actual colors they choose by context? THAT is good advice.

(if you’re thinking ‘wow I want to study more of this persons art!’ I encourage you to do so, but proceed with the knowledge that modeseven draws pretty much exclusively weird as hell kink art. sometimes wisdom comes from horny places)

How to learn the cyrillic alphabet

The different alphabet often terrifies people who want to study Russian or Bulgarian or whatever language uses this alphabet, and sometimes even makes people choose not to study the language after all. 

I know how you feel, it terrified me too when I started studying Bulgarian. But what if I told you that it actually is very easy to learn? 

In this post, I’m going to show you how I managed to learn the alphabet in just a day. And trust me, this isn’t one of those impossible “clickbaits” like be fluent in language x in only 3 months. No, learning the cyrillic alphabet in just a day is very realistic.

STEP 1: DOWNLOAD THE CYRILLIC KEYBOARD ON YOUR SMARTPHONE 

The very first thing you should do, is downloading the cyrillic keyboard on your smartphone. Why on your phone and not your computer, you ask? Well, the letters on the keyboard of your computer won’t magically change once you’ve set your keyboard to the cyrillic alphabet. You’ll see the cyrillic letters on your screen, but not on the actual keyboard, which makes it harder to use. On your smartphone, you do see the cyrillics on the keyboard, which makes it way easier to learn and use.

The Bulgarian keyboard on an iPhone

STEP 2: GET A CHEAT SHEET AND START MEMORIZING THE ALPHABET

I didn’t use any textbooks or websites to learn the cyrillic alphabet. The only thing I used, was a cheat sheet with the sounds of all the letters. 

begin with the letters that are the same as the latin alphabet: a, c, e, k …

once I knew those letters, I memorized the letters that appear in the latin alphabet too, but have a different pronunciation: в, р, у, х …

The last step was to memorize the new letters: я, д, ъ, ц …

STEP 3: READ

Once I memorized the entire alphabet, I started reading a bit. I just went to a random wikipedia page and changed the language to Bulgarian (if you’re learning Russian, it’s better to set it in Russian instead). And then I just tried to read it out loud. 

You won’t understand a single word of it, and don’t be afraid, that’s normal. You’re just there to practice reading the alphabet, not to actually gain knowledge on the topic you’re reading. 

Don’t expect yourself to read as fluent as in your target language or basically any language that uses the latin alphabet. It will go rather slowly, but that’s normal. When you were 6 and just had learned the latin alphabet, you were a slow reader too. Don’t let this terrify you. 

STEP 4: WRITING NAMES 

When I was tired of reading, I started writing the names of friends, family members, classmates… and most importantly: my own name. By doing that, you practice your writing skills in the cyrillic alphabet. 

I do have to warn you, though: not all names can be written in cyrillic. I noticed that especially French names and names with a W in sometimes can’t be written in the cyrillic alphabet. 

Another tip I can give you, is looking for easy words in your target language (like good morning, hello, friend etc.) and trying to write these down. You can for example listen to the first Youtube video of Russianpod101 and try writing the words they are saying down. Afterwards, you can correct them, something you cannot do with the names. 

STEP 5: EXERCISE DAILY

The last and probably most important step, is to exercise daily. If you’re going to learn it in 1 day but then stop looking at it for a week, be sure you’ll have forgotten nearly everything. It’s important to repeat at least one of these steps on a daily base. 

Good luck with your studies!! If you ever need help, don’t hesitate to contact me! 😄

Jeez man, I really love the way you color. It's simple, yet everything is needed to know is there. How you do it

THANK YOU SO MUCH <3

Can't explain it all in words, so i made a tutorial. Hope it explains well xD

some people expressed that they would like to see my process on painting eyes, so I threw together a quick guide. I’m really bad at explaining things, but maybe someone gets something out of it. Some other information: - I use a lot of hard brushes when sketching and painting, most of them are textured. Usually I only use the soft round brush when adding big shadowed ares and light effects. - Most of the time, I paint on barely more then 2 layers: Background and character. I don’t like painting with dozens of layers and prefer to keep things simple. - I love to overuse too many colors. It’s just a stylistic choice, but I like the look of spashes of different colors everywhere, especially when they are slightly desaturated. (as seen on the second painting step)

A couple people have asked about muzzles and how I draw them, so I whipped up this super quick little guide. These are in my own personal art style of course, so play with the shapes and find out what works best for you!

disclaimer: I'm notorious for going off-model with my own guidelines due to my art style [especially in equines/bovines] and i'm vERY SORRY aAA;

I do hope this helps!! 😭💕

i literally love how your color and shade if it’s ok do you have any tips on digital coloring? you don’t have to answer this if you don’t feel like it :) thanks!!

hello friend!! i have a tutorial i made on twitter a while ago which is more or less how i make my colours more interesting. i still use the technique and in general it’s just a lot of colour adjustment nothing too special LOL here!!