#knrm_avatar

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lyle of the wainfleet

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Arctic ocean na'vi!!

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My original alien species or a na'vi redesign?

Either goes! Also enjoy these proggress shots. Stage 1 is a traditional pencil sketch, the rest of the work I did on CSP with a drawing tablet.

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Are they my own na'vi-inspired species or my redesign of the na'vi? I do not know for sure.

I wanted to explore the idea of taking what I like about the na'vi and combining it with my aesthethic preference.

Also this is important to say now, because of what we're living through...

Joy is regeneration.

Joy is nourishment and nurture.

Joy is survival and allows us to keep showing up for our loved ones and communities.

Never wallow in horrors passively.

Act according to your ability.

Like is taught in the Quran, make it easy for others to do good. No judgement or bickering over small disagreement, but make it easy and encouraging for yourself and others to act. I'm not Muslim, but a Finnish neopagan, - but this teaching and people whom I've seen in real life show this example have made me think this must be good.

Live fully and experience joy.

Joy makes us stronger and more resilient.

We need that more than ever now. Yes, I mean because of all the fascism and wars.

Yet. Please know this. There is hope. ALL action, every person surviving, healing and showing up, stacks the impact.

Posting these sketches I greatly loved drawing, is what I do for joy today.

I do not give up on joy, even if my joy and action alike come togethet with grief.

But it's a relief to move with the grief and accept it, compared to repressing it until it feels like it breaks me every time I have to move.

It also gives space for connection, survival, hope and joy, to grieve what is happening.

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DONE!! (Part of my Avatar fanclan OC lore...) Kxasi's been caught in the middle of trying to assassinate Txe'lan'mo city traders overharvesting his home forests! Defiantly and with burning courage, they face their captors!

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Say hi to the Ta'kxener Tribe!!

These subarctic na'vi live in a boreal coniferous forest biome, - and a terrain scratched up into hundreds of lakes by an ancient bygone ice sheet.

They fish, hunt, forage, as well as herd a small number of docile lumbering beasts for their milk and manure that fertilizes the land for many edible fungi and plants that otherwise wouldn't grow.

They practice slash-and-burn-cultivation of certain plants, in small patches of land at once, leaving these spots with fertile ash and nesting sites for small animals requiring burnt tree logs.

Their sacred place is deep in the bottom of a lake, - and the entry into it is a dangerous, traumatic experience usually only accessed by their Tsahik, Tsakarem or important warriors. It leaves oneself changed forever, but bearing important knowledge.

(This character is basically my na'visona, so he has an Eywa-granted androgynous top surgery by the way...)

The Ta'kxener see their lakes and water surfaces as portals into other worlds, and are very careful when it's time to dive into their vast lake networks for foraging or fishing. Especially the muddy lake bottom is seen as realm of death itself, and dropping someone's hairs or nails there on purpose is said to ruin or kill them.

They worship a great, semi-bipedal omnivorous beast that lurks deep in their forests, - and say that sometimes an amalgamation of ancient ancestral spirits possesses one of these beasts to speak, - they call this the 'Forest Elder'.

Typical build of the na'vi variant Ta'kxener belong to.

Like other aquatic na'vi (reef, arctic ocean), - their ribcages are really wide compared to fully terrestial na'vi, - protecting their huge efficient lungs.

Their ears are completely furred-over.

Ta'kxener are inspired by Finnish folklore, folk magic, mythology and pre-crusades (a. k. a. precolonial before christianity got forced down our throats and withchunts wiped out immeasurably precious cultural knowledge that was like 99% oral tradition) era culture.

For the sake of cool factor and fun, big artistic freedoms are also taken. I decided that this is what I want my own na'visona to be, drawing inspiration from where I come from.

Research is carefully done avoiding endemic Karelian concepts or cultural traits, as Finns have a history of appropriating Karelian culture while ignoring our own culture.

I study this subject with care and passion and don't want to blindly borrow from the National Romanticism era art and literature, as these sources tend to be the appropriative kinds.

Instead, I do my own research.

My own family line originates from the Karelian Isthmus and has a Greek Orthodox -derived name, but they became North Savonian Finns hundreds of years ago, - and the isthmus has been Lutheran + Finnish-speaking for quite some time now (unlike the Orthodox, Karelian-speaking regions up North from it), as has been my family.

I am an Eastern Finn, and most strongly identify with being North Savonian, - as we are a melting pot tribe among Finns. This suits me as another side of my family is South Ostrobothnian!

Therefore I do not consider myself culturally any other than Finn + gamer + autistic gay nerd, - but yeah. I try to be mindful when doing any stuff related to Finnish or "Finnish" mythology / inspired / etc. stuff.

(No I don't think people need to present some freak pedigree when doing na'vi fanclans but you know? I am a FREAK. A sicko. A weirdo. I also have really bad OCD. Would you please understand? lol)

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Little ikran doodles~

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Na'visona concept sketches.

Iron Age Proto-Finnic look combined with artistic freedom and visual preference, esp. for the hair stuff.