A happy holiday to you fine folks at Muddy Colors. Ahh my last post of the year, and what better way to end a terrifying 2020 than with a process video of the terrifying Christmas Witch known as Frau Perchta! An Austrian legend, who roams the countryside at midwinter, and enters homes during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany (especially on the Twelfth Night ).
If you are good, you may be visited by a beautiful woman who will leave you a coin… but if you are bad- you will see an old hag who will slit your belly, take your organs and replace them with trash! (And you thought Krampus was a bad-ass.)
I pay homage to a painting of another unrelated Perchta I found while researching. Seemed like fate to me! The White Lady of the Rozmberk Castles, is herself a ghost, but not our belly slitter. More of a benign ‘white lady’ phantom roaming the Czec countryside. But spooky+terrifying=awesome in my book! Enjoy!
Portrait of Perchta of Rosenberg (1425-1476). Found in the Collection of Telc Castle. Artist Anonymous. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images)
Love the work you share with us here. If you don’t mind sharing a little more, what line of Nikko nibs do you use? Do you prepare them in any special way?
Thanks for asking! My favorite Nikko nib is the ‘G-nib’ which is what was used in this video for the most part. But I use them all. For really tight thin lines I use the map nib, which is more like a crow quill. I do zero prep to the nibs, just dip and go! I am always amazed how long one dip lasts, and I rarely get a blob of ink. After I dip the pen I give it a hard shake to get of the excess.
Thanks Scott, in the past I’ve used Gillot mostly. And it was with regular india ink, it’s been a while at that. I wasn’t sure if the Acrylic ink was a factor in nib selection. I’m always game to try new tools so I’ll grab a few.
Love your process vids Scott! Always so satisfying to watch 😀