HOME | DD

Loulin — Mouth of the Gods

#creature #fantasycreature #pencil #creaturemonster #pencilfantasy #monsterbeast #ruin #sketchdump #temple
Published: 2013-05-13 12:56:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 1399; Favourites: 47; Downloads: 13
Redirect to original
Description

awarded KOSA:  
and featured here: kingdomofsweden.deviantart.com…

may 2013

Storytime!

...Once there was so much life in these halls. Even in the rooftop garden where the well stands. Now all are empty and almost dead. The spirits cry in hunger; no more rituals performed and no more prayers to be spoken...

The world turns and moves on, without fear and without faith. Soon people just hope that what they once heard is no longer true. But in distant dreams we will dwell in the end.

(This will be) our last envoy, one that will last forever when no one else will come, or even dare come. And all this before we forget ourselves. Before we are forgotten.  Before we turn into dust. The spirits cry. In hunger. And in anger.

Fragments translated from scripts, dated to year 80 831 ‘Etasian era’, found among the mountain ruins from what is thought to be the temple of Bellath Henon. I also suspect, given the ever so fanciful myths about this place, it’s written more as a dictation rather than a firsthand statement. During the excavation we also found, surprisingly, poetry among the fragile documentations. Much is just bits and pieces but some are complete. Here’s one:

Ghosts and Bone by skywards stone, a mighty source so rare
Crackling wall is soon to fall despite our watchful care

Temple rotten, soon forgotten. The well is almost dry
Ally needed, we all conceded. Ancient wisdom mustn’t die.

Last of gifts to us and thus in respect and primal fear
they called their wise and paid the price and gave us a volunteer

 _______________________________________

Artist’s comments. Yeah, sorry about the wall of text. Could write a whole story once I get going.

Technical stuff: Mechanical pencil – 0,5 mm & 0,7 mm aided by a HB pencil. Size: 59x42cm / 23x16in. Time: approx. 145 hours (45 h sketching, 14 h lineart, 86 h main work.) 

Since I had to buy a new and bigger drawing pad to accommodate the whole idea I had a hard time getting along with the new and slightly thicker paper. To think 30 extra grams per square meter would cause such trouble. 

It’s impossible to see every detail in the scan because the drawing is so huge. I’ve put together a few detail shots here: loulin.deviantart.com/art/Mout…

Related content
Comments: 24

Erozja [2013-09-08 20:34:48 +0000 UTC]

Hi! You have been FEATURED in my journal... Interesting – part 87

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to Erozja [2013-09-09 09:09:19 +0000 UTC]

Hello! 

Thank you for including me in your feature. I found some interesting things in there myself. 

Take care!


👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Erozja In reply to Loulin [2013-09-09 14:55:33 +0000 UTC]

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

VanessaBettencourt [2013-06-30 20:17:53 +0000 UTC]

Amazing work

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to VanessaBettencourt [2013-07-01 06:09:18 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much. Glad you liked it.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

petrova [2013-06-06 13:11:47 +0000 UTC]

Grattis du har fått en KoSa för detta verk! Motivering finns i senaste nyhetsbrevet. Du är välkommen att använda KoSa-stamp i din deviations description
Obs. använd plz-accounts länkat i description då du är ~member

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to petrova [2013-06-06 15:07:18 +0000 UTC]

Ett stort tack till nomineringen.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

petrova In reply to Loulin [2013-06-06 23:10:05 +0000 UTC]

Den var väl värd en KoSa

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

satanen [2013-05-28 16:24:34 +0000 UTC]

Fantastisk!!!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to satanen [2013-05-28 17:23:59 +0000 UTC]

Tackar tackar... Kul att du gillade den. )

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

DeepWoodian [2013-05-14 14:52:15 +0000 UTC]

NOW we speak about details...

You have spent a lot of time, patience and skill with this. There was even some frustration and pain. But the outcome is worth them all. Especially the background is great looking with all those stone and wood (or are they vines?) textures. And all those layers of shadows. Marvelous indeed. I can but weep and envy your pencil skills.

What comes to the connection between the excavated poetry and the picture. Is she the"volunteer"?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to DeepWoodian [2013-05-14 16:47:20 +0000 UTC]

Hehe... detail-mania ALL the way... (Ok, maybe not precisely all the way as I managed to keep the background/sides pretty empty)
I was aiming for wood but if you see vines, that's fine by me. And stone of course, love stone and marble. Needless to say I think I lost a few marbles (oh, the wit) along the way of the process.

Frustration, a lot of pain, some anger... and actually some joy as well when it all started to come back to me. It's great to just sit with the pencil in hand again and feel everything wind down and relax.

Large projects always sets my mind off down the story-spiral but as usual I leave much of the back story and mythology inside my own head. I like the viewer to do their own interpretation. But yes, she is definitely the "volunteer". More like a 'servant', unwilling but yet chosen out since no one else quite dares. The last sacrifice before everything goes to pot for beasts and men alike.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DeepWoodian In reply to Loulin [2013-05-14 17:09:03 +0000 UTC]

You call those sides "pretty empty"? Pfffft.... I would say that... not so empty

Definitely those are wood/trees outside of the balcony but those clinging to marble pillars seems more vine-like to me. Both are good looking so I am not complaining, just wondering.

And as we spoke about PJ's movies and those details you find on each watching time, so does your work here contain details which will reveal themselves to the viewer only when looking for the second time. Like the fact that those farthest pillars contains nicely made "hieroglyphs" as well.

And now that I start to think about it... is she perhaps another "volunteer" [link] or even the same? (not much resemblance I admit but the thought occurred)

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to DeepWoodian [2013-05-15 07:08:43 +0000 UTC]

Well... I could have filled the sides with endless of details as well - the shadow of a huge panorama. I figured a few simple trees would prevent me from doing that.

The 'hieroglyphs' were intended to be a lot more visible in the beginning (as might be seen in earlier WIP's). As the drawing progressed I'm glad I toned them down. It would have been too cluttered otherwise.

I don't know... Is she another 'volunteer'? Since I'm always striving to do better than the last one I tend to think of it more as an alternative and improvement of the one from 2011. If I had to put them chronologically I'd say the 2011 one is a lot more further back in time than MotG.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Typthis [2013-05-13 22:55:19 +0000 UTC]

It looks amazing, well worth the effort I think.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to Typthis [2013-05-14 07:04:23 +0000 UTC]

Thanks a bunch. Glad you liked the finished result.
I think it's safe to say that I won't be doing a mega-project like this again for a looong while.
(Also thanks for ing.)

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Typthis In reply to Loulin [2013-05-14 07:08:21 +0000 UTC]

Mega projects like this deserve respect for the shear effort put into them.

I know the feeling. You'll probably end up doing one in a couple of years again. That's what I'm up to at the moment.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to Typthis [2013-05-14 07:21:33 +0000 UTC]

Haha... Exactly! All the pain and effort completely forgotten I'll think: Hmmm... I need a challenge, how about something that fits an A2? That'll be a good idea.

Good luck on your own mega project. Hope it turns out well for you.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Typthis In reply to Loulin [2013-05-14 08:44:34 +0000 UTC]

You'll have another awesome idea stroll into your head and demand to be drawn.

I'll let you know when mine gets finished. It's still in the sketching/research stage.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

FlippingCat [2013-05-13 18:30:51 +0000 UTC]

Magnificent! You can tell alot of work went into this! - many pencils died during its creation no doubt.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to FlippingCat [2013-05-13 19:08:45 +0000 UTC]

hehe... perhaps not so many ordinary pencils as I work mainly with mechanical pencils. Nevertheless I'm glad you liked the finished result. Thank you.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

devilbloody [2013-05-13 13:33:46 +0000 UTC]

AWESOOOOOOOME CONGRATS, MY FRIEND

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Loulin In reply to devilbloody [2013-05-13 13:52:40 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much. Hope it was worth the wait.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

devilbloody In reply to Loulin [2013-05-13 18:36:30 +0000 UTC]

You are welcome It definitely was Great work

👍: 0 ⏩: 0