"Freyja"


VERY different from my usual.  It's late and I'm tired. Been up since 4:30 am and it's 11 pm.  Time for some sleep.

EDIT: Since I was too tired to write up anything about this awesome Norse goddess...  Freyja (Freya) is the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, creation, war, and destruction.  She is obviously beautiful and desirable and all that, but she also is the Queen of the Valkyries.  She possesses the Brisingamen, the golden necklace made by the dwarfs.  She is also said to be able to shape-shift into a falcon, and has a falcon feather cloak.  She drives a chariot/sled pulled by ... this part is the coolest ... two silver cats! (Though they remain nameless...) She also has a boar she flies on when she is not running with her cats (Oddly enough, the boar does have a name.).


Detail view of her "costume" -- I based the armor design around the falcon feather cloak with feather/wing motifs repeating on the helmet, breast plate, and arm guards.  As for her necklace, Brisingamen, I gave chunky amber to compliment the gold.  Amber is said to be Freyja's tears that fell into the sea when she was looking for her husband (It seems he is often gone for some reason...).  Gold is also said to be her tears that fell on rocks.

I have to say, though, that the cat chariot probably was the single most compelling reason I wanted to make this picture.  I submitted this work to EMG-zine (an online publication about fantasy and sci-fi art and artists) just in time last night for October's theme "Scandinavian Mythology".

Comments

  1. fantastic as always! love the silver cats :D! emg magazine is ellen millions creation isnt it? do you take part in sketchfest also??

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  2. Thank you!! This was a lot of fun to do -- especially the kitties! XD Yes, EMG-zine is Ellen's monthly publication. She is also the editor/publisher who has been working on my upcoming coloring book. I have not been able to participate in Sketchfest to date. I seem to be always pushing for a deadline of one kind or another on Fridays...

    BTW, one of the future themes for the EMG-zine is "Steampunk" (Feb. 2012), so you should get your angel done before January 1st and submit. I'm going to submit mine soon. :D

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  3. thats so exciting! well i was going a practice of my steampunk character, minus the wings.
    i had a really specific idea for the wings picture, very loose, splattery...but its nothing i really know how to do well digitally. are you able to submit two in case i like both by january :P?

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  4. Yes, the monthly submission limit is 2 at EMG-zine. ^^

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