Neon’s A Doll A Day… Again (2020)

[davidd]

Your "trademark" beautiful velvety black background works exceptionally well with this book and figure photo! The books and Cleo appear to be floating in an endless void, which focuses the attention of the viewer on the subjects.

I love the way you achieve such distinct separation between your subjects and the background.

[Elfy]

I can imagine Cleo being interested in gothic architecture.

[Lejays17]

That is a beautiful shot - I can believe that Cleo is interested in gothic architecture, even though she's from a long time before that.

Books & dolls work well together - we should try to do some more of them as we have lots of both

[neon_jellyfish]

Thank you very much, everyone!


Day 285

Today I was exorcising dust from MH & EAH shelves, which lead to my whole living-kitchen-room getting infested with dolls. I thought it was funny, so I took some photos.



The window was full of dolls... The weather is actually overcast, the overex-position was caused by me trying to snap a pic against a direct backlight.



The coffee table was full of dolls... (and my orchids were having a spa day on the couch)



The kitchen counter was full of dolls...



Not even the trampoline was spared.

Kinda made me think that I have a lot of dolls... I wonder, if the neighbors knocked and I opened the door and revealed this glorious mess, whether they'd run away screaming...

[werepuppy]

Ahhhh such an interesting little snap into how you keep stuff clean.

Man I do need to dust the dolls in display boxes actually.. hmmm.

[davidd]

This is fun on so many levels! A glimpse behind the scenes in to the Neon Aquarium, for one thing! A hilarious Invasion of the Dolls for another: those must be enormous shelves to contain that army of awesome!

Using the sofa cushions for the "orchid spa day." I can assure you, that would end badly were I to attempt such a thing.

I spy a great grey beast lurking in the shadows!

And the trampoline! I'd forgotten about that! You mentioned the trampoline once, quite some time ago. Either you must have high ceilings, or you are of a diminutive stature. Or both. Or do you take it outside on to the balcony? Trampoline on the balcony sounds fraught with peril, so I hope not!

[Alliecat]

I was going to read that sometime, the "Rubaiyat". I have "The Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten" and it is so cute! Seems very cleverly derived from what I've seen of the original.
How delightful to see a behind-the-scenes peek, and the ranks of dolls are quite funny

[neon_jellyfish]

Thank you very much, everyone!

davidd - that's a fitness trampoline, not for jumping high and doing acrobatics, it's for workout, and it wouldn't even fit on the balcony, so don't worry!


Day Error 404 - not found

Sick shelfie again. The day started well, but then the weather changed and my blood preasure dropped.

[werepuppy]

Ah but this looks fantastic! River just seems to be welcoming the viewer to... I'm not sure where this place is. Maybe it's a music gig?

[davidd]

BLACK LIGHT RAVE in the NEON CAVE!

Epicness!

[Lejays17]

The behind the scenes shots are so neat - I’m reminded of ours when we do the Christmas Card shots with all the dolls on the front porch before being set up.

It’s a real excersise in organisation to de-shelve al the dolls to clean / tidy / rearrange them.

River’s definitely inviting people to the Black Light Rave!

[neon_jellyfish]

Thank you everyone!


Day 287

ADAW #40, that is, the one I wanted to post last week.

I wanted (and still intend to) to do Halloween-themed posters in October, but instead of the classic Halloween crew, I want to show you some of my local monsters and spookums.

The problem with all these is, as I whined about many times already, that there are no records left by the culture they originated from, and first records of the folk tales and legends featuring these creatures were written cca 400 years after a christianization, and medieval religion wasn't exactly open-minded, so all the old deities and supernaturals got turned into demons.


Hejkal

The first one I have for you is hejkal. It's a guardian forest spirit. Tales about hejkal are common, but also differ quite a lot from place to place. Some legends say hejkals are small, only a little above 1m tall (1m = cca 3.2ft), some say they're well over 2m (2m =cca 6.5 ft), and some that they can change their height and transform into stuff as they please.

The name hejkal is derived from hýkat = to bray. Hejkals bray and scream and screech unlike anything else. For no apparent reason, really, but I imagine it might be to chase unwelcome guests out of the forest. If you're stupid or drunk or both, and try to mimick hejkal's cries, he will jump on your neck and tear you limb from limb. When you hear their screams, just walk away. If you leave and don't make noise, they won't kill you. 
If you find hejkal in trouble, and you're good to him, and share your food with him or free him from poachers' traps, he will give you something valuable in return, most often a magic item, or he'll teach you some magic. Generally, there's one hejkal per forest, but even that differs from tale to tale.

There isn't really a consensus as to what hejkals look like, but it mostly ranges from really hairy men, either donning ragged clothes or running around naked, covered with their long messy fur, to a humanoid bear-like-something-or-another. Sometimes, they wear clothes made of various forest plants, or crowns made of fern.

Female counterparts do exist, but the tales almost exclusively mention the male ones. There is, however, one castle that's supposedly named after these ladies.

As the time went on, hejkals became less sentient and magical, and more savage and beastly. Partly because of the Church, partly probably because it's easier to make up stories about escaping bloodthirsty monster rather than befriending them and learning magic from them. Someone might ask about the magic, and that could be a problem.

This is just my personal theory, but from what I've read, Slavic supernaturals were never pure good or pure evil. They were like nature, which can be both cruel and life-giving. And they treated you like you treated them, they responded to kindness with kindness and to malice with retribution.

Hejkals are often compared to Pan, Satyr, Dusios, Leshy and other European creatures associated with forests, though as far as I'm aware, none of the others do the screaming thing (Banshee screaming is also different, it has a clear purpose). If someone saw one today, they would surely call him bigfoot. Sigh.

You can allegedly protect yourself by changing your shoes before you step into the forest (I think that must be a more recent one, people back then probably didn't own that many pairs), turning your pockets inside out or having a piece of bread on you.

We also have Hejmon, but that one is a local deity of Novohradské mountains, not supernatural species, and he's traditionally portrayed as very benevolent and kind to good people and unmerciful towards bad people. I guess the similarity between the names allowed him to slip under the radar and be spared total demonization.



I used Isi, because I didn't really have anyone appropriate.



I went with the hairy guy visage. This one is a bit emo, with his bangs covering one eye.

[werepuppy]

Now this is fantastic, and it makes so much sense to have Isi being the model here. I love the look of the doodle, and how you ex.plain the hejkal. Very cool!

[davidd]

Isi is a forest spirit of sorts, so quite appropriate.

You have really outdone yourself with this fantastic work of art!

Thank you for sharing the interesting lore that inspired this drawing.

I like the insert drawings of forest creatures and foliage.

Is that really what standard Isi's hair looks like if it is brushed straight and brought forward, or have you augmented the original hair?

[Alliecat]

This forum has sure been educational and very interesting! It is cool to read about folklore from around the world. Also interesting to hear more of an “original“ twist on stories that pre-date the “adaptations“ of other cultures.
I also like the blue and green colours in the corners of your doodle.
The black light effect was neat too.