The Beast - Nivellen
polycounter lvl 11
Never taken part in a competition before so I'm excited to get involved with this. I was first aware of the comp a few days ago and have been trying desperately to think of something cool to do since then. One idea was Nivellen from the Andrzej Sapkowksi short story "A Grain of Truth" which is basically Beauty and the Beast: Witcher edition. To be honest at first I put it in the maybe pile, because while I like the story, the beast described didn't come across as super interesting. But I couldn't really come up with anything I liked better and I did want to do something with a good beauty and the beast style story behind it so I've decided to give it a go at least.
Summary of Nivellen's story (spoilers!):
That was longer than I thought it would be. Anyway, apart from all that I also noted down all the descriptions of Nivellen. Which weren't that thorough to be honest but this is what I found:
-Humanoid
-Gigantic, hairy, bear-like head
-Enormous ears
-Wild bloodshot eyes
-Crooked fangs
-Under-bite like a boar
-Long red flickering tongue
-Hairy paws
-Quality and ornate though tattered clothing
-Baggy trousers
Other notes that have an impact on appearance:
-Food on demand
-Can also magically summon clothes that probably fit? (though they are described as tattered?)
-Mentions that even if Geralt stabbed him his weight would pin Geralt so must be fairly large
-Still fits in the house and uses the furniture though
I want to try and stay relatively accurate to the text. I also want to try and make it look like it would fit into The Witcher 3 game.
Was just doing some initial sketches but then I remembered I can't draw and got carried away with a basic anatomy sculpt. Will probably take a step back and get a mood board together or something. Not super happy with what I got so far, will probably play with the proportions in photoshop, maybe paint some clothes on. Should probably add hands first...
That was longer than intended thanks for reading and feedback always appreciated.
Summary of Nivellen's story (spoilers!):
-Sickly unattractive young man
-Father is leader of successful group of highwaymen
-Live in a manor secluded in the woods
-Nivellen inherits leadership of gang after father is killed
-Pressured into raping a priestess during robbery of a temple
-Priestess curses him and kills herself
-Nivellen wakes up a couple days later in his new bestial form and scares friends and staff away
-Also has magical control over the house, can light candles, close doors, summon food etc. (Dunno why a curse would have this awesome benefit but w/e lol)
-After years of solitude a merchant wonders into the manor's gardens and starts picking roses
-Nivellen mad cause they are his aunts super rare blue roses and Nivellen is all about roses
-Feels bad for scaring him though, so invites him in and gives him loads of gold before he leaves
-Another merchant turns up after hearing about this gold giving beast, he also has his daughter with him
-Nivellen being lonely makes a deal with the merchant for his daughter to live with him for one year in exchange for mad bank
-Ends up having loads of people take him up on this offer and has a string of hot girls live with him who think his magic mansion is rad and end up digging his swole monster bod
-They still all leave after a year though so he gets sort of bummed out again and stops taking visitors
-Shacks up with a rusalka (water nymph)
-Geralt turns up after finding two dead travellers near by (a merchant and his daughter)
-Geralt and Nivellen end up eating and drinking together and Nivellen tells Geralt the story so far (he's been cursed for 12 years at this point)
-Geralt mentions curses can be removed but Nivellen is afraid his new love would leave him if he were human and also being a giant healthy monster with chair leg crushing jaws is bad ass
-Geralt decides Nivellen is an all right dude so takes his leave but Roach (his horse) is like nah bruv his bitch be crazy
-Geralt the horse whisperer confronts the rusalka in the manor gardens and finds out she's actually a bruxa (high level vampire) who's been feeding off of Nivellen and bending his mind to her will
-They start to fight and then Nivellen appears and gets caught up in it and ends up killing her
-As the bruxa dies Nivellen transforms back into his human form, 'cause apparently breaking the curse required killing your true love or something.
tl;dr: Don't stick your dick in crazy; unless you're gonna fall in love and then kill her to break a curse.
-Father is leader of successful group of highwaymen
-Live in a manor secluded in the woods
-Nivellen inherits leadership of gang after father is killed
-Pressured into raping a priestess during robbery of a temple
-Priestess curses him and kills herself
-Nivellen wakes up a couple days later in his new bestial form and scares friends and staff away
-Also has magical control over the house, can light candles, close doors, summon food etc. (Dunno why a curse would have this awesome benefit but w/e lol)
-After years of solitude a merchant wonders into the manor's gardens and starts picking roses
-Nivellen mad cause they are his aunts super rare blue roses and Nivellen is all about roses
-Feels bad for scaring him though, so invites him in and gives him loads of gold before he leaves
-Another merchant turns up after hearing about this gold giving beast, he also has his daughter with him
-Nivellen being lonely makes a deal with the merchant for his daughter to live with him for one year in exchange for mad bank
-Ends up having loads of people take him up on this offer and has a string of hot girls live with him who think his magic mansion is rad and end up digging his swole monster bod
-They still all leave after a year though so he gets sort of bummed out again and stops taking visitors
-Shacks up with a rusalka (water nymph)
-Geralt turns up after finding two dead travellers near by (a merchant and his daughter)
-Geralt and Nivellen end up eating and drinking together and Nivellen tells Geralt the story so far (he's been cursed for 12 years at this point)
-Geralt mentions curses can be removed but Nivellen is afraid his new love would leave him if he were human and also being a giant healthy monster with chair leg crushing jaws is bad ass
-Geralt decides Nivellen is an all right dude so takes his leave but Roach (his horse) is like nah bruv his bitch be crazy
-Geralt the horse whisperer confronts the rusalka in the manor gardens and finds out she's actually a bruxa (high level vampire) who's been feeding off of Nivellen and bending his mind to her will
-They start to fight and then Nivellen appears and gets caught up in it and ends up killing her
-As the bruxa dies Nivellen transforms back into his human form, 'cause apparently breaking the curse required killing your true love or something.
tl;dr: Don't stick your dick in crazy; unless you're gonna fall in love and then kill her to break a curse.
That was longer than I thought it would be. Anyway, apart from all that I also noted down all the descriptions of Nivellen. Which weren't that thorough to be honest but this is what I found:
-Humanoid
-Gigantic, hairy, bear-like head
-Enormous ears
-Wild bloodshot eyes
-Crooked fangs
-Under-bite like a boar
-Long red flickering tongue
-Hairy paws
-Quality and ornate though tattered clothing
-Baggy trousers
Other notes that have an impact on appearance:
-Food on demand
-Can also magically summon clothes that probably fit? (though they are described as tattered?)
-Mentions that even if Geralt stabbed him his weight would pin Geralt so must be fairly large
-Still fits in the house and uses the furniture though
I want to try and stay relatively accurate to the text. I also want to try and make it look like it would fit into The Witcher 3 game.
Was just doing some initial sketches but then I remembered I can't draw and got carried away with a basic anatomy sculpt. Will probably take a step back and get a mood board together or something. Not super happy with what I got so far, will probably play with the proportions in photoshop, maybe paint some clothes on. Should probably add hands first...
That was longer than intended thanks for reading and feedback always appreciated.