Thursday 17 May 2018

CLXXIV. Legen: Peasant House

Finished that crooked house from last time. It's done for now, that is. I might go back to it after I have all four of them, just to add another little detail here and there. I feel it could use a spot or two of red or reddish brown, being all pale like that.


The roof is thatched with strips of teddy bear fur, soaked with water and PVA.




The ladder is balsa wood and toothpicks. Fiddly work, but such details give the house extra character.


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I also wish to share some lovely sources of inspiration and reference art that took part in shaping the visual flavour of the Legen project for me.

The art of Olga Dugina and Andrej Dugin. They were such a wonderful discovery for me. For now, I have two fairy tale books they illustrated: Dragon Feathers and The Brave Little Tailor. For these books in particular, the two Russian artists drew a lot from Bruegel and Bosch, along with their own twist. The illustrations are masterfully executed. Each and every page is loaded with detail, and even though these particular volumes are slim (each book contains a single fairy tale), one can pore over them for hours. I heartily recommend these, and while you're at it do check out the rest of their work. Simply fantastic stuff.

Last week I attended an SF & fantasy convention here in Zagreb, where I met up with one of the Legen collaborators from abroad. Vladimir, whose work you can find on Instagram (@vmkuriljov), brought me a gift: The Book of Giants by Petar Meseldžija. The book is crammed with paintings and drawings of giants, which will undoubtedly come in handy as I craft the rest of Nerod's Gargant horde. My copy is in Serbian, but it is available in English as well, if you want to enjoy Meseldžija's stories about giants along with the artwork. Thanks again for the book and pleasant company, Vladimir!

20 comments:

  1. That house looks great! How did you do the windows?

    I do like the artwork too. It reminds me a bit of Arthur Rackham.

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    1. Thanks!

      The windows are foil with insect net glued on top.

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  2. Aw yes! That house turned out great! Simple and yet detailed with all the characterful elements such as uneven planks, sticks laying around, rusty streaks on the wall and so on. I'm saving this for inspiration later - and I'm happy to see that you plan to do more.

    Oh - and using teddy bear fur on the roof - great idea!

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  3. More inspiring work. I enjoyed this post a lot.

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  4. Maybe I was just too attached to my stuffed animals as a child or something, but using strips of teddy bear fur as thatch seems kind of gruesome to me. The end result does work great, but I think if I were to do a similar project, I'd have to seek out a source of fake fur that wasn't already made into something.

    The ladder is a really cool little touch, and one I may well have to borrow at some point.

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    1. Cheers! I do understand how one might be uncomfortable with the idea of disemboweling a teddy to make its pelt into roof covering. I'm pretty sure you can buy the stuff on its own; there are people who craft their own teddies and other dolls, so I reckon they have their sources for the material.

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  5. This is wonderful Ana! It's just the sort of wonky building that should fill fantasy villages. I can't wait to see the next ones.

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  6. Exceptional! I love the weathering and all the little incidental details.

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  7. Simply breathtaking. I'm going to have a crack at this as well. Did you carve the basic form out of a single block of polystyrene or create it from sheets?

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    1. Cheers! I used 20mm thick sheet. Cut and pasted into desired form. So, it's partly hollow inside, but still quite sturdy. Some of the fiddly balsa details on the surface could break off, but the building itself can't collapse easily.

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  8. The cottage looks fantastic.

    Tony

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  9. Very inspiring piece of terrain.

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