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sgorbissa — selkie
Published: 2011-11-05 22:52:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 21018; Favourites: 259; Downloads: 1852
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Description
SelkieSelkie were supposed to be half woman/seal water nymphs able to shape shift from human to animal form thanks to a magical seal skin dress. In this picture i took a little liberty and made a classical mermaid but with a seal tail instead of the more common fish tail. Morphing the seal body upon the model was relatively easy, the difficult was to extend the background of the original model shot, that was in portrait scale, in order to obtain a wallpaper like scale.
Recently i did another photo manip. of the same theme, if you are interested sgorbissa.deviantart.com/art/s…
Hope you enjoy
credits:
model:selkie by faestock faestock.deviantart.com/
seal:Lone_Seal_by_ElisaStock elisastock.deviantart.com/art/…
gull:Gull_4_by_AvianStock avianstock.deviantart.com/art/…
shells and seaweed :Fisherman_11_by_carinaD_stock carinad-stock.deviantart.com/a… seaweed_by_texurestockbyhjs-d2zzec4 (sorry can not find the page!) SHELLS_01_by_goth_stock goth-stock.deviantart.com/art/… Shells_and_seaweed_by_NyanaeveStock nyanaevestock.deviantart.com/a… Shells_02_by_88_Lawstock 88-lawstock.deviantart.com/art…
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Comments: 65
You’re amazing work has been featured!
Mythology Feature
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Hulijing by toedeledoki
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Arabian Mythology - Djinn [Jinn], The Unseen by EmanuellaKozas
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Mythology is wonderful and eternal and is something that connects us all.
I hope you have enjoyed the beautiful artwork. Now please go and check out their galleries and give them some love. 
Let me know if there are any mythology art or literature pieces that you think should be featured (your own or someone else’s) and maybe I’ll put it up here.
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selkies are not water nymphs! their technically part of the fai (fairy folk). but theirs a big difference between all of them! water nymphs are creature resembling woman made completely out of water. selkies are water fai that have chosen nether the land nor the sea and cross the in-between.
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Of course selkies are not sea nymphs (Nereids or undines) different mythological pantheon: Irish/Nordic vs Greek/Roman. But both creatures have a similar role in the respective legends. They symbolize the sea dangers in their wrathful aspects (causing sea storms, stealing fish, damaging boats etc..) or the sea bounty in their good playful aspect (saving drawing sea men, helping with the fishing and so on). Also both creatures can be “tamed” by a strong mortal man and become supernatural wife (the seal skin stealing thing for selkies and the legend of Peleus that tamed kidnaped the Nereid Thetis fathering with her the hero Achilles). But it is true the sea nymphs being water/sea spirits should have a watery substantia even if they can appear as completely fleshy women. Selkie on the other hand are seal spirit or maybe seal old enough to acquire human intelligence, magical power and shape shifting ability. The idea of sea nymphs as water elemental spirits (with a more watery appearance) derive from middle age /late antiquity alchemy. In particular four class of elemental spirits were described: Gnomes (earth), undine (water), sylphs (air) and salamanders (fire).
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I just want to make sure you got it strait. I hate it when people say misleading info on selkies. that's all. you really did your research.
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That would be awesome if you did a tutorial. I'm trying to make fantasy digital art, and it's kind of difficult for me! Love your selkie by the way : )
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Thank you for your interest ! For what concern the tutorial maybe.. The problem is that so far only two peoples have asked me for a tutorial, if I get more requests I will think about it.
In any case (if you are interested) I can point you to a few excellents tutorials on DA that I used for my works....
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Awesome, I'll make sure to watch them if you make them! Thanks, that would be super helpful!!
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thank you! I'am glad that you like it.
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No problem, you deserve it!
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This is a lovely photomanipulation! It's funny, but I just happened to be wondering what a mermaid-styled selkie would look like before I stumbled across this. The long dark locks go well with the dark fur of the seal half. The scenery adds a nice touch as well.
Just out of curiosity, did you photograph the model at the beach in the picture, or was she edited in?
Anyway, nicely done!
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All my photo manipulations are made mainly using deviantart stocks. In this case the model picture was from an old stock of Faestock (named selkie !!) but a lot of editing was necessary, the model was wearing a simple dress that was covered completely in the final picture by the seal tail (making also the model appear naked). Also the original picture was in portrait size and a lot of work was needed to ”expand” the background horizontally to fit a landscape picture.
Thank you for the compliments!
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May I use this in an essay on selkies as a visual? I will cite you and will not make money off of it.
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As long it is a reasonable (no hate, racism and so on)non commercial project for me it is OK.
Good luck for your assay!
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I'm working on a dramaturgy for a show entitled "Of Myth and Mud" to be produced at a university in November. May I please use your image for my website glossary for the show?
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I do not have problem with nonprofit projects, I ask only to add crediting if possible.
Good luck with your show.
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This is a really effective photo manipulation of a selkie. Well done.
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thank you! Using photomanipulation I try to create photorealistic pictures of immaginary creatures. I hope to have achieved a fantasy realistic effect.
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Cool! I think you could have left out the seal though, the angle is wrong, and the selkie herself is interesting enough to look at.
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Honestly i think that the seal is filling the composition that otherwise would be a little unbalanced. But the problem is the wrong angle, perhaps i will correct this issue in a new version of the picture if i have the time.
Thanks for the compliments.
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wait so did you make the tail or just use photoshop?
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the tail was first painted in a flat color to have just the shape, i added a little of shading and then applied the seal body as a texture, with the warp tool to adapt to the tail shape. I tweaked a little with the layer opacity and erased the texture where not necessary.
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well it looks amazeing wonderful job ^_^
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thank you. Selkies seem to be very popular on DA.
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This is the first one I've come across actually
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Well this is true, there are very few photomanipulations of selkies, but they are very popular as i am reciving many fav.
by the way i am working to another selkie pothomanip., i hope to finish it soon.
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Ah I see ^^
Awesome o.O I can't wait to see it.
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i just uploaded it!
[link]
hope you enjoy!
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Thanks, I was afraid that the picture turned to be too soft, but in the end the atmosphere was right enough.
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transmits feeling cold for me, like a winter evening ^^
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This is really cool! this is such a creative and beautiful idea! I love it!
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Thank you. It is also, for now, the most fav. of my work even if i think there are a few flawn (the perspective of the seal is not right)
Perhaps i will do another picure selkie related as seem there are many mermaid/selkie fan around !
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