Deep slumber of the young scouts tuck in their cozy cabin-like abode, the binary moon and the fleeting embers provide that soft warm light to keep them safe and peaceful
I’ve just finished this cozy drawing of Myrrku, LohummTi and the new Borival character (still deciding on the name) sleeping in the dead of winter. I also made an update to my Nivukti dictionary, adding a set of words that capture the beautiful, and frozen reality of its creatures. Here is a look at how the creatures divide their days and map the passing of time.
I. The Core Hours:
The standard day in the icy tundra is split into
- Vaglan (The Pale Awakening): Dawn. That icy grey blue hour when the heavy night sky begins to lift and the first morning fires are lit.
- Kambuur (The High Hearth): Mid-day. The brightest and warmest period of the day. Even if the sun is hidden behind thick blizzards, this is when the gates are open and manual work is done outside.
- Togrov (The Creeping Shadow): Dusk. In this world the light doesn't fade, it drops. It is a tense hour of retreat. The heavy wooden gates are barred, scouts return, and anyone left outside is left to the frost.
- Volmdur (The Deep-Dark): Night. A phase of absolute darkness and dipping temperatures. The village goes completely silent, and reduced around the cabin's dying coals.
II. The Twilight and Auroras
Beyond the usual cycle, the sky offers brief but beautiful reprieves:
- Nuuvrel (The Velvet Quiet): The flawless indigo twilight right before night falls. It is a quiet, meditative hour spent waiting to see if the dark will bring freezing darkness or the auroras.
- Syreva (The Flowing Light): The aurora hour. When the green and violet lights are visible. The light of the sky makes night-foraging and patrols possible. Sleep is optional.
- Brombyn (The Hour of Embers): The dead of winter night. The absolute coldest hours just before dawn. The fires have dwindled to gray ash and the creatures lie awake waiting for Vaglan.
III. The Weight of Winter
Time in the freezing tundra has an effect on the creatures feelings, leading to distinct ways of describing how they experience the cold:
- Lymbrin (The Spark-Time): A fleeting moment; a temporary window of favorable conditions be it light or warmth. A sudden, fragile gift that must be appreciated instantly before the cold reclaims it.
- Keldur (The Frozen Span): A long, unchanging, and heavy duration of time. It represents the psychological weight of mid-winter where days bleed seamlessly into one another.It is like a seasonal affective thing.
That is a total of nine new words added to the vocabulary of nivukti, I hope my cozy drawing had captured most of the ideas they try to convey.
Here are some screenshots I uploaded so you have an idea how I composed this sleeping scene and made it cozy.
I could have made a scouting scene at night to depict that time in the day but a sleeping scene gives that completion of a cycle and it looks warm and cozy. I used three of my characters and drew them from scratch but a highly detailed design will take longer that's what I was thinking about while sketching this
Then I decided to choose just one color for the rest of the drawing to save time executing my ideas. A warm orange is a perfect base color because later it will add more warmth which is badly needed for this scene. You can see the midnight blue color already added on the window I am already testing if this is the right shade for my night sky and I am glad I got it right the first time
The moon, stars, snow and frost in a glowing layer will add a punch of color and interest in this monochromatic composition. It was fun adding this layer my face lit up when I saw the sparkle forming
To give it more depth and give it that night time vibe I added a layer of shadows
Here I added another source of light to give definition to the silhouette of the three sleeping creatures, that is the moonlight coming from the small window behind. This light source provides that silver glimmer outline