Tomte

Leinadien

A mythological creature from scandinavia, my avatar depicts a tomte. They're similar to english gnomes but taller and more dangerous. In pre christian times in northern Europe people used to believe in an ancestor spirit, that protected and helped care for the farm and it's animals. The Tomte was worshipped as a minor god by the hard working farmers but they were known to have a bad temper and if provoked would act similar to the scandinavian trolls, maim and kill livestock or humans. Jenny Nyström is famous for creating beautiful pictures of these creatures, they serve as my inspiration. I'll try post a screenshot every day and any kind of criticism is appreciated. ☺

Day1:
Blocked out the proportions, I decided to make him 5 heads tall, the propotions of a toddler. No anatomy work done yet.

Leinadien

Day2:
Some rough anatomy, still far from done.

Maxilator

It's a bit hard to imagine a tomte's face without the beard (I'm swedish so I have some clue what you are going for) but I think it should be more squished and the nose should be a bit wider. Also I think the legs are a bit too long and lanky for what a tomte looks like in my mind.

Leinadien

Day3:
Hej ja han behöver ett skägg. ☺ As for the length of the legs, I went with the proportions of a toddler which is 5 heads tall, looks somewhat accurate if you look at most illustrations but there are exceptions and they're sometimes smaller. Haven't really started on the face yet, will have to find some good reference for it. Started to remove the strokes and updated the anatomy a bit, from the clavicles down to the ankles, any criticism on that area is much appreciated, haven't done the arms or the feet yet.

Leinadien

Day4:
Did the feet, neck and back. Think I'll have to go over the shoulder blades again they seem a bit too straight, the arms and head are yet to be done. Criticism appreciated.

Leinadien

I recently started to work on this again, it's almost done just need to use alphas and add finer details to it. Any criticism much appreciated.
https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/23/1fdm903lhubl.gif

lotet

Looking cool, if your gonna go for the classic Scandinavian style I wold change up the colors. the red and blue makes it look like a garden gnome. real "vättar/tomtar" was usually clothed in all gray/brown and other earthy colors.

Leinadien

Yes here are some alternate color patterns for his outfit, not sure which one looks best. 4 looks quite good, has a very clean look to it. Also added additonal detail to the clothes, but barely noticable on a distance. Want to avoid the all red look, he is not Santa.

lotet

I like 2 and 4 the most. though the green on nr 5 is very nice too, maybe try nr 2 but with the nr 5 green on the legs?

Leinadien

I decided to go for a greyish blue striped pants and black leather. A lot of neat pictures of them in slightly bluish clothes.
https://d2mpxrrcad19ou.cloudfront.net/item_images/196883/4428796_fullsize.jpg
http://www.jennynystrom.se/images/tomte_gra.jpg
https://d2mpxrrcad19ou.cloudfront.net/item_images/201784/4431304_fullsize.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5drOJ4Dibg0/TLVINXwL8BI/AAAAAAAAEDk/18jJWitK8zo/s400/image1_e39525acf4a08f58c079ef93aa28bfc1.jpg
Also modified the pose of the hands a bit and added hair cards, will have to groom that beard outside of zbrush later. Any more criticism otherwise I'll start retopologizing it.

lotet

lots of gnomes with those colors too, probably the most classic color scheme there is for them.  = P

It might be just me, but when I see the blue shirt it makes me think if garden gnomes first, not tomtar. and Im even for Sweden.  

Leinadien

His outfit has just a slighty hue of blue, it's almost grey. But when it's time to texture him I'll definitely try other colors, I rather choose something that looks good as opposed to what is "accurate". I have retopologized him, now just need to clean it up a bit, give him eyes, unwrap and bake the normal maps.

kohg

Looking forward to seeing this textured.