Pixie's Initial Sketching

Following Iain Mccaig's advice on Gnomon Character Design tutorial, I started initial sketches of Baltic Pixie (laume) to capture the intention(s) Next step, following his advice would be to find references of any relating subjects, copy them by redrawing and one again get back to the design with all the information gained.

So here are couple of drawings :

I feel it is only a starting point. These don’t seem to be sparking as designs, but are useful still, as I was thinking of Laume’s personality, which reflects in the posed drawings. I purposefully haven’t yet used any references, so to keep it lucid, as Iain Mccaig was offering.
Next posts will present some references and  probably more sketches

The Baltic Pixie Project Proposal

The Baltic Pixie Project Proposal

VIsual Inspiration: Style

This time it is exploration of visual style. First half of it are classical Baltic painters and the second part is a selection of  contemporary artists.


M. K. Čiurlionis was a Lithuanian painter and composer. Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau.

Kazys Šimonis cubist, expressionist. Stylized, falling in many different directions and beam lines to form fantastic images. His tendency was to to divide things into geometric segments.

 
V Dobuzinskis, an urban  painter.
 

 
S. Usinskas work is exclusively sculptural. Paintings have three dimensional feel and bold composition.
 

 
 
Other references include a Selection of Contemporary artists in various disciplines, such as photography, painting and illustration.
 

Visual Inspiration : Costume Design 2 and Fashion Illustration

I'm continuing to explore visual inspirations. UCA's fashion design student have directed me to numerous fashion designers, illustrators and so on. I'm showcasing here the ones I found most amazing.

More importantly, these examples are teaching ways of approaching design , creatin stricking costumes, it is helping to open up the mind when I'll be designing Queen of Pixies.

Garret Pugh

Style.com describes Gareth Pugh as the "latest addition to a long tradition of fashion-as-performance-art. Garret Pugh describes his designs as being about the struggle between lightness and darkness."
Pugh's collections are autobiographical rather than referential, and draw inspiration from Britain's extreme club scene. Pugh's trademark is his experimentation with form and volume, nonsensically shaped wearable sculptures distort the human body almost beyond recognition. He uses materials including mink, parachute silk, electrically charged plastics in his clothing.

Hussein Chalayan

chalayan is an internationally regarded fashion designer who is renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitude to new technology. He was educated both in Cyprus and London's Central St Martins college of art and design. Chalayan is inspired by architectural theories, science and technology

Issey Miyake , a Japanese fashion designer, known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.

Kenzo Takada

Japanese fashion designer has always worked towards a multicultural world, a world of colors and beauty, with nature as a vibrant, inexhaustible source of inspiration. Kenzo’s designs are based on values of life, energy, and a deep-rooted equilibrium.

Felicity Brown

An English-born fashion designer. The fashion magazine Vogue Italia noted: Raw yet refined, her design shows the amazing attention for detail and fantastic creative talent that have marked her career to date.

Another advice from fashion design student was to look at equally amazing and inspiring works of fashion illustrators. I was also looking for ways how designers comunicate their ideas. Often the drawings are not as descriptive, but rather boldly convey the feel of the costume. These is the handfull of fashion illustrators whose drawings didn't lack of character itself:

Visual Inspiration : Costume Design

Fashion is one of the sourcees for inspiration for  Baltic Pixie's (laume) character .

Lee Alexander McQueen a British fashion designer and couturier, known for his tailoring. His works are juxtapositions of strength and are infused with emotional power and raw energy, making it a provocative fashion.

Scuba diving was A. McQueen’s hobby and a source of inspiration for the his Spring Summer 2010 Plato’s Atlantis collection. It is one of his great fashion shows, exhibiting highly varied designs.

His work is fascinating for the designs  are very distinct from each other with types of material, chroma and tone values, shapes but at the same clearly fall under single theme for they evoke a particular feeling , that similar to what one experience surrounded by underwater life: cold underwater  holds unfamiliar alternate life forms yet fascinating and gorgeous.

I was looking at most of other McQueen's collections too and selected most inspiring examples to me personally. I use these examples to inform and inspire how clothing can contribute to sculptural form and add loads of character. I'll quickly discuss some examples.

in these images I found neckline and shoulders very interesting.

 these hold some great ideas of how texturing could be solved or what kind of elements can accompany the design

I am sure it will take some smart thinking what it comes to solving the scirt so it is both sueted to the desing purpose but doesn't get in the way when it comes to animating the character.

These images reminde of smart referencing to traditional folc clothing. Sort of reinterpretted and suited to the character. For example the heavy-looking traditional costume perhaps would need tweaking to suit playful and irrational Baltic Pixie (laume).

These Costume Designs hold fantastic ideas, it really frees up the thinking of how impactfull can a costume be.

Dragonflies are reference to Baltic Pixies as in baltic languages Dragonflie is called Pixie-horse (laum-zirgis). It seems that a. McQueen was incorporating some flies or peacock, for example, into his costumes.

I'd imagine Pixie's legs wouldn't be covered heavily with a skirt or heavy clothing in general, for I'd like to emphasise how morphed she is with chicken ( has chickens/roosters legs) . These images offer ways to emphasise legs.

A. McQueen  fascinating and very sculptural designs accompanied with feeling make them a very striking and memorable works.

Another source of inspiration, the amazing paper works of Nikki Salk And Amy Furry . Their work seems to defy the attributes of a regular paper, but at the same time it gives its elegance and fragility  to the aesthetics of the work . These wig designs simply teach how a character's hair can contribute dramatically. Thanks to tutor Phil for posting these .

I'm intending to post some more visual inspiration, looking at some classic painters and contemporary illustrators.

Monologue Script of Baltic Pixie - Laumu Laume Vaiva

"Queen of Baltic Pixies, I’m Laumu Laume Vaiva.

 

Late evenings one can see us sitting in the cobweb of the branches or hear our nattering in barns. Playful curiosities bring us to peasants’ doorsteps where we leave never-ending fabrics if one’s morality is well-kept... but were the peasant of a greedy kind…[what villainy my sisters do!]

Under new moon we gather by the riversides to dance and sing in groups of circles, but dare anyone steal a single glimpse! We’d tickle, tweak and maul the peeper!

We shape mountains, lakes and weave Rainbows - ‘Vaiva Strips’ .When we come to help with weaving, spinning wheels will go fast till breaking dusk! a peasant better bring enough of flax or substitute will be his hair, intestines and everything till nails left!

We switch babies and leave 'Laumikas', a little sack of hay straws instead. It grows into dwarf-child, big eyes and head.

So it is true, there is no certainty if we’re to offer help or cause great villainy , but spray of rowan or flexing pinkies are enough for peasant not to see which it’s about to be, as we’d shall stay away. "

What is Baltic Pixie (Laume)?

 This text is presenting a collection of analyzed sources to reach a degree of clarity about the character of Baltic Pixie (laume). After reading some folk tales one should get a flavor of what Baltic pixie is about. Also, some analysis work of renowned ethnographers helps to deliver the point more accurately. Various works of ethnographers J. Balys, N. Velius, L. Klimka and archeologist M. Gimbutas inform this text.

I was very lucky to get a chance to contact one of today’s most famous ethnographer in Lithuania Norbertas Velius, who directed me to most important sources and analysis works . I’m very grateful for the help.

Female Deities in Baltic Culture
Balts had retained the basic polytheistic religion of ancient Indo-European features. Their faith was important to the forces of nature, sun, moon, thunder. But particularly striking is feminine deity cult, female played an exceptional role in the Baltic culture. Next to image of Mother of the Gods there are numerous other female goddesses responsible for areas of the daily life.


What is a Baltic Pixie (Laume) ?

*from 'Laumiu dovanos ' (pixies gifts), N. Velius*
"One time a stepmother felt great hate to her stepdaughter and worked her off her feet with so much spinning,and weaving work during the nights. At one such nights thre pixies came to her and sayed, ‘as your stepmother makes you work so much, we came to helpt delivering her tasks " And Immediately they sat down and weaved all the stepmother had asked to and smothered her . Then going back to their ways sayed to stepdoughter :" She won’t badger you anymore’ . In the morning the stepmother was found dead."


Baltic Pixie (laume)is a nocturnal creature. They are protectresses of human morality: help people of good morality and excessively punished grabbers, and condemn the sloth. Etymologists argue that Baltic Pixie name means a being encouraging growth. According to J. Balys, Pixies are in fact a spiritualized image of nature - forests, mountains and rivers. They are mediators between earth and sky spheres. Pixie character is more mundane than any other Baltic goddesses. They’re often found lurking around people’s environment. Earthly Pixie’s are very temporal : beautiful, attractive, sexy, impulsive, irrational, longing for motherhood. They enjoy invading people’s homes for a visit, games and cause all kinds of villainy. The leading Pixie is of magical beauty and known as Laumu Laume Vaiva, she lives on the river bank in a sputtering slough.

S. Eidrigevicius Illustration

Laume, a dual being.
On one hand a wonderful worker - good at all women jobs, washing their endless fabrics in lakesides, sowing but especially weaving. The most diligent pixie-weavers weave rainbow which is called Vaiva Strip. Sometimes they are portrayed as tall giants forming mountains, excavating lakes, rivers, leaving imprints. Pixies often help poor women give them material goods.
However it is hard for them to stop the work , for example if they are weaving at peasant woman’s house, they ask for more and more weaving wool and if she finally lacked to bring any, pixie can weave her hair, intestines, till there’s only little nails left. While helping the woman with her baby having a bath, they can accidentally boil the child to death for pixies tend to be butter-fingered sometimes. They clip peasants sheep, swap or even kill children, trick men to follow them and then maul them, and in general act as pests intruding peasants space if they are not careful. Pixies can be dangerous especially to people of bad traits.

S Eidrigevicius Illustration

Pixie’s Appearances
In some descriptions, they have hands with long fingers and sharp stone nails. Teeth wide and long as a sword, and shaggy, unbrushed long hair. However, pixies are varying from cannibal and witch-like ones to beautiful woman-looking ones.
Some are similar to bears, brown cats, hairy brown mares. Or are much like beautiful girls with long hair and golden, white dresses, but is she was to take it off it would appears that her body and skin is like chicken’s , with chicken or rooster’s feet. Sometimes their head has goat's horns sticking out. There are pixies, whose lips are as thick, as sledge runners. Instead of clothing some pixies use hay straws.

Dragonflies
Dragonfly is associated with Baltic Pixies because in Baltic languages dragonfly is called Pixie-horse up till these days.

‘Laumberzis’
If you were to roam the woods, you may notice some strange rigmarole of Birch branches. that would be a tree called ‘laumberzis’. Baltic Pixies like to sit in these branch cobwebs.

Circle Dances
When new moon rises over the horizon, two, three or a group of pixies gather at the rivers, lakes, dewy meadows and have fun dancing in large and small circles. Their dance is believed to cause the rain. But woe to the person who will see them while dancing. At first they would start tickling playfully the curious visitor, then tweaking and eventually tearing and devour him, particularly true if the visitor is a man. Pixies are fatal to men.

Swaping infants to ‘Laumykas’
Most pixies are longing for motherhood so their weakness is infants. They steal, or swap cradles of anabaptized babies. Mothers find ‘laumykas’ , a magical bag of hay straws growing into a child-looking creature, instead of their own child. Such Laumykas remains a big eyed dwarf kid with a big head.

S. Eidrigevicius Illustration

Rowan, little fingers, metal ring or friendship

*from 'Laumiu dovanos ' (pixies gifts), N. Velius*
"Few pixies grew into habit visiting this one peasant’s barn. They would gather all and dance and sing all night. The man grew terribly tired from the villainy they cause, but didn’t know how to get rid of them. But not far away from him an old woman was living, she was to give the advice one time. She instructed him to make a hole and stuff it with rowan. Peasant followed her rules waited for the evening to come and see what would happen. Pixies, as usually showed up and were about to settle themselves in the barn. But as they were about to step in they stopped! “Look, the doors are shut”, saidf one of them: “So this isn’t our place no more…’ And all walked their ways. That night since, they’ve never bothered the peasant again. "

Pixies take spray of rowan as a sign they are not wanted in that particular place. So it becomes a way for people to protect themselves from unwanted guests. Carrying Rowan branch, or keep bending the little fingers, so for pixies to leave people alone. They are also afraid of metal rings . Other way is to gain pixies favor . For that to happen women  would leave some soap, or open the doors to bathhouses and so on, to return the favor, pixies leave silk ribbons and other treasures.

Norbertas Velius, a famous ethnographer in the past, was analyzing Baltic characters, and pixies as well. He reaches this summary: ‘ Fantastic odd and unusual creatures, portrayed with all the splendor , are active, threatening and even fatal to humans for they can take their life away. Pixie is personalization of threatening nature, especially water element, to a primeval man. Pixies embody the experience of an elemental and irrational nature and on the other hand, man’s ingenuity and the ability to harness the forces of nature to his own favor. What is exclusive to In Baltic pixies is the feeling of peaceful peasant-worker life and a spirit shaped by large flat lands with little contrasts.” (N. Velius, Laumiu Dovanos).

Having defined the character of Baltic Pixie (laume) now it will be the time to look at some relating visual references and think about extracting the essence for presentation text of Laume.

Baltic Culture; Introduction

this post is mapping characteristics of Baltic culture, including religion and art as well as other considerable and exclusive aspects.

 "The same way that Scandinavians are proud of being descended from the Vikings, the Irish – from the Celts and Germans – from the Germanic peoples, Lithuanians, Latvians and the Old Prussians can be proud of their ancestors – the Balts – and the reflections of their world-views in contemporary culture"  (A. Butrimas; "The Baltic Art" project)

The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea), defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. For thousands of lakes and swamps in this area contributed to the Balts' geographical isolation,  the Baltic languages retain a number of conservative or archaic features.

Over time, the huge area of Baltic habitation shrank, due to assimilation by other groups, and invasions. So the Old Prussians, Yotvingians, Scalvians, Nadruvians, Galindians and Curonians are now extinct and Among the modern Baltic peoples are Lithuanians and  Latvians.

In ancient written sources Baltic countries were described as swampy, mysterious lands, dotted with wooden castles, ever flaming holy fire, strange traditions.

The Old Baltic Religion

Pre-Christian religions and cults.

Its most characteristic feature –cosmicality, exclusion of human nature. The god for Baltic people was evident in all the phenomena of space and nature, on which humans depended, such as , vegetation, wildlife and life force. In Baltic see the world separated in two poles: Men's - Sky and its effects (light, fire, sound), together with the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars) and a female - the Earth, its plants, forests, fields, hills, rocks, water. Interaction between these poles stimulated life. This view gave the base for major Baltic religious ritual forms and mythology.

 In the old Baltic religion characters' features, their importance and the degree of individualisation is given the order of 7 mythological levels:

The 1st level has ten most important gods:

Ukapirmas and Thunder,

Patrimpas (god of rivers)

Patrimpas and Autrimpas (sea gods)

Pickles / Patrimpas (underworld god)

Pergubris (spring, vegetation god)

Puskaitis (ground elder personification)

Aušautas (survival, the god of life)

Pilvytis (asset-bearer).

Level-III includes creatures performing abstract functions such as happiness, fate, death - or characters that are known primarily from folklore, these would be Sun , Moon, Venus, Celestial blacksmith, Stars and others and so on.

Level V  characters from tales and spirits – forest, water , fields’ spirits and so on. Such examples would be Lauksargis (protector of home), Gabija (personified fire), 

Level VI often un-anthropomorphasized (not resembling a human) spirits. These would be  pixies, witches, giants, mythological bear, wolf, snake images and others.

Level VII - covers mythological hypostasis (underlying essential foundation) of a man . This level encompasses priests (Vaidilas), various symbols and ritual objects, sacred places and temples.

However, there seems to be no understanding of nothingness pass ones death. They believed that when man died, his soul passes into another body in a form of smell, steam, bird, butterfly, calf, and keeps the individual characteristics of the deceased. Or go to a high mountain and live the same life, or become a tree.


7 core principles of Baltic religion :

1.The world is generally alive. Life is understood in its wider form: trees and sun, water, rocks, are seen to be as a live as a man himself.


2.Principle of Harmony (darna). Balts see harmony (darna) prone to extinction , therefore it is vital to continuously reach for harmony.For this  traditional songs play a vital part as mantras for reaching harmony.

An example of such songs is Kulgrinda's Uztekeja Saulala Raudona ( Red sun has risen)







3.Respect to the order of Gods. As described before, there is a system of gods, some to be more important than other, but all of them to be greatly respected. Man can choose deity's, which a closer to his needs and hart.


4.The World is eternal . According to Baltic mythology, the world is constantly recreated by two opposing gods of light and darkness who create and change the proportion of Darna (harmony)


5.The Golden rule of Darna (harmony). The rule is inviting one to behave and act in a way one himself wish to be treated like from others. The rule is aiming to create space for unselfish love, compassion, refusal of revenge and at the end, darna (harmony).


6.Respect for Ancestors. Lots of rituals is dedicated in the name of remembering and thanking the ancestors.


7.Nature is Sacred.
Nowadays Romuva is the Lithuanian Expression of Baltic Faith.

Baltic Art:

To get acquainted with Baltic Art, here is material from  relevant books, websites and museums  presented  :

IV-VII was the centuries of emerging  Baltic applied art: decorative horn mouth, openwork belt switchboard or other details, horse bridles, pins and quotes.

Metal plastics is rich with zoomorphic decorations. Galloping moose, flying or sitting birds, twisting snakes, horses, and sometimes decorated with images of fantasy animals.

Complex ornamental compositions of Animal and human images in Baltic Metal plastics were probably created for magical ritual use.

Daily peasants, both men and women's footwear was bass Wysz 's pint. It is also popular with the birch, alder or similar solid, but lightweight wood-carved clogs. Leather shoes (čeverykos) was considered as a holiday footwear.


Amber

Probably the most distinct feature is the appreciation of 'Sun Stone' - Amber. In 98 AD Tacitus in 'Germania' describes  Baltic tribes living near the Baltic Sea as amber gatherers.Baltic people saw Amber as a magical stone which was connected with their rituals.

When Burnt, Amber is spreading a pleasant fragrance and when taken to hands is always warm. They have created legends around Amber . He was believed to have magical healing powers and to be a protector from evil. It was widely shaped into ornaments, amulets, ritual articles, related to the solar cult.

Traditional Clothing of 19th century

(selection of Lithuanian tribes)

The old Baltic culture has polytheistic religion with a  rich system of gods and deities, where people are invited to show great respect to them and choose gods closer to their needs. Their belief is reflected in their art works with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic ornamenting, ritual-dedicated tools and so on. Amber is particularly appreciated and taking a special place  for  it's spiritual, artistic and economical value . Also, mantra-like songs, such as 'Leliumoj'  are valued  as meditation practices.

Next Posts will be looking closer to Baltic Pixie and analyse some sources to understand the context of this character.

Sources:

The Baltic Art (EN)

Romuva - an Introduction to Baltic Faith (EN)

Amber Park Museum , Palanga (EN)

The History Museum of Lithuania Minor (EN)

Aistians and Germans (LT)

Zoomorphic Iron Age Art (LT)

Spritual Baltic Culture ( LT)