Govan Old Stones Collection, Viking 'Hogback' Stones, Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow, Scotland

You’re walking down a long quiet road. It’s winter, snow covers the ground, the sky fades gray. All around you are trees that have long since dropped their leaves, cold and dead, waiting for spring. You stop beneath one, eye caught by a striking sight. Amid the bare branches you see a round bundle of stunning green leaves. Hanging down above you are dozens of beautiful little pearly white berries. The fruit tempts you, but you don’t dare touch. Instead you simply admire them. Life among the dead of winter. Mistletoe.

@slocotion Hi, here is my design for slocotion's patreon dyo doll contest. Her name is Haustoria of the Pale. I was very excited to put this together once it struck me. I thought of all my favorite fruits I could have used but then inspiration hit me as I was considering less common fruits and fungi. Mistletoe is used medicinally by some but the entire plant, including its cute white berries, is toxic. Since this is a longer post, I’ll include more notes on my design under a cut but to point out the most important thing, I’ve combined the nature of the toxic berries with some historical+mythological inspiration that I think echoes it nicely.

In Norse mythology, a well known story is that of the death of Baldr. Baldr was the most loved god of the Aesir, so when a vision of his death reached his parents Odin and Frigga, they did all they could to protect him. Frigga sent her servants all over the world to make every creature and thing vow to never harm a hair on Baldr’s head. All but mistletoe promised, too insignificant or too young to make the vow. After it was done, Bladr seemed invincible. Since nothing was willing to hurt him, the gods would sometimes gather around and throw things at him, watching everything bounce off without injuring him. Loki, jealous of the love and affection that was always paid to Baldr, came up with a plan to get rid of him. He had an arrow made of mistletoe and brought it to Baldr’s blind brother Hodr. He gave it to him to throw at Baldr as all the gods pelted him with objects and weapons. Hodr threw the arrow and, since mistletoe had never promised not to harm him, it pierced his chest, killing him instantly... And so Baldr was delivered to the depths of the land of the dead, looked over by Hel.

specific design notes under the cut thank you for looking!

Mistletoe is a very interesting plant to me. It’s not a tree or vine or bush, but instead its an evergreen parasite. The sticky seeds attach themselves to the branches and grow into it with a haustorium, which is a structure that lets them sap nutrients from the host plant. Haustoria’s name is a reference to this structure. “of the Pale” is a reference to not only the color of the berries but the pale gray and white landscape of winter.

Mistletoe berries are heavily toxic but also exist in winter, when other plants may be barren and “dead.” Because of that and their parasitic nature I see them as a sweet little balance of life and death. In addition to that, I use the split colors of the face/mask of Haustoria to reference the goddess of the land of the dead, Hel, who is described as having a body that is half black as death, split down the middle.

The structure of the outfit is inspired by Scandinavian and specifically Norwegian folk dresses, since I’m borrowing old Norse history for more inspiration, it seemed fitting. I also felt the style would be good to accompany the botanical and berry designs attractively.

The twin peaked hood is to further split the design down the middle, with little charms to show life and death.

I included white beads all over the outfit to represent the mistletoe berries themselves so they could stand out.

The dark side of her face is adorned with thorns and has three mournful black tears leaking down from her eye, as well as a hollow half of the center heart.

The light side is blushed and lively with shiny eyes, leaves shaped like the mistletoe leaves, red petals like the mistletoe blooms, three white dots to be the mistletoe fruit, and the center heart is full.

Her cape is white on the inside to represent the white of the berries and also the white of snow.

To cap it off, I do believe mistletoe is fitting for a plague doctor as they are still used medicinally to this day. :)

Thank you for reading everything and looking at my design! I’m very proud of her and I hope she doesn’t stretch the theme. And definitely more than anything else I hope you enjoy looking at her!

Jormungandr_2020- aga_ulan

Here's my interpretation of Jormungandr son of Loki.

My painting inspired my the black metal movement.

I created this using the brown paper provided by the school as well as black and white acrylic paint.

I wanted to create a atmospheric piece and felt that I’ve done and I’m very proud of my work.

College work, I finally finish it! I drew a children's book illustration about Thor's stolen hammer because it's one of my most favorite Norse Mythology story.

I didn't color all pages :''') but I'm still proud of these works. Here's a bunch of sketches and process below

Skoll and Hati: Wolves of Norse Mythology - Created by Jeff Langevin

Prints available for sale at the artist’s shop.

sigyn painting ^_^

Odin and Huginn

some Hel studies in pencil (ref for the poses provided by @kingcholera)

A painting I made early 2016 for a mentorship.

This is an interpretation of the Arthurian legend of Gawain and the Green Knight; I started without a clear plan for a story, and I let the process guide me along the way, ending up with some Norse Mythology influences.

This piece was significant for launching my career; It got me quite a bit of entry-level jobs, and helped get me seen as an artist. I may redo it one day.

Very excited for what 2024 will bring in terms of opportunities, Cheers!

“She is calm to my chaos. She is patience to my anxiety Hope to my despair”

An absolute pleasure visiting The Whithorn Trust Museum and Iron Age Roundhouse yesterday. Really helpful guides and some fantastic artefacts on display; a really friendly venue!

Thorn | CC-9333

Clonetober 2022 #11

＊Numerical designation is the artist's own headcanon.

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PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, TRANSLATE, OR OTHERWISE USE MY ART. To share, please reblog! Reblogging is the best way to support this project and the artist.

❀ You can see the rest of my art through the Masterpost pinned to the top of my blog!

Marisha Stormblade///Dovahkiin

Made an official ref sheet for my Skyrim main character.... She's a tank who strikes fear into the hearts of all who behold her lol

Rune Stone pictures were originally posted by @forndom.

This mood board collection was assembled by @gifts-of-heimdall-runes.

My favourite part of Dislyte is the one person I saw question why there are so many furries in the game.

Like… do you know that most of the gods… most of the gods are Egyptian (gods commonly had animal heads), or Chinese (gods and figures commonly were animals or plants), or Greek (gods commonly turned into animals)

What did you expect? You thought Sobek, the Egyptian Crocodile God, wasn’t going to be a crocodile?

Honestly, I think the creators showed great restraint, all things considered