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[Almirena]

FINALLY...!

I have reworked the kolobok with its fingers crossed for good luck.

(Middle finger and index finger crossed. Ironically, this is now much harder for me to do personally, with my right fingers, because of the surgery that I had last year on my hand. I still need rather a lot of physiotherapy for that hand; I have exercises to do for it as well.)

This was a kolobok that has haunted me, in a way. When I first worked at it, I just could not create the hands satisfactorily in a way that maintained the cute innocent "look" of the koloboks, while simultaneously showing the crossing of the fingers. After a late night unable to sleep after taking my prescribed medicine, thinking about how to achieve the drought-stricken-farmer fixes as suggested by you, Aiwan, I decided to distract myself by taking another look at that never-satisfactory crossed-fingers kolobok. It's now done, and I think I am satisfied. (I will take another peek at it once it's uploaded.)

Here it is - a kolobok crossing its fingers for good luck. (The crossed fingers also signify hoping that all goes well; it is a symbol/gesture dating back to the crossing of index fingers to form a cross, as a way of invoking the power of the cross of Christ for protection. (That's an idea for another kolobok doing the crossed index fingers to ward off evil!) Over time, the gesture changed, and in English-speaking countries today, it means "hoping for good luck", and sometimes will mean "God's protection be on me/you". It can also be used to mean something else, if the crossed fingers are hidden (for example, behind one's back); in that case, it is used in a childish way when telling a lie, as a sort-of excuse or vitiation of what one is saying.

In Germany and in other German-speaking countries, I am reasonably sure that this same gesture is used in a similar way to the "white lie" excuse - as in, if one crosses one's fingers, the promise or oath being made is invalidated / vitiated.


_____________________________________________________

And... here is the revised Farmer in Hardship kolobok.

Many thanks, Aiwan, for your suggestions on how to improve this.




And another version of it with thought-bubble clearly delineated... I'm not sure about this, but it is useful if the background of a light-skinned forum is slightly blue-ish (as otherwise the rain doesn't show very clearly at all):

This post has been edited by Almirena: Apr 10 2019, 06:06 PM

[Almirena]

In 2021, Sydney (the capital city of NSW in Australia) will host the magnificent King Tutankhamun exhibition for six months.

Ten cities worldwide will hold what will be the largest King Tutankhamun exhibition IN THE WORLD - for the last time before it heads back to Egypt to be housed there permanently.

Here is my King Tutankhamun kolobok:

The flail worked perfectly; the crook was a little harder to ensure that it didn't disappear into the background.

(Incidentally, I didn't have to work on the basic face colour of the kolobok for the gold effect. It glows with a gilded look with the surrounding pixels giving it context!)


And here is the gilded wooden guard of King Tutankhamun (Wooden Guardian Statue of the King):

This post has been edited by Almirena: Apr 10 2019, 11:57 PM

[Almirena]

At the moment, I'm working on a little spaceship for a kolobok playing a joke by pretending to be an alien.

The kolobok will be sitting in the bubble, first of all looking like a "little green man" and flying over the ground - cut scene to two or three koloboks looking terrified as they gaze upwards - and then back to the "alien" spacecraft where the "little green man" is revealed to be a normal kolobok from earth, chuckling at the success of his joke.

(Or at least, that's the plan. I don't know for certain that I can achieve it.)



EDIT: And here is the kolobok-pretending-to-be-an-alien in his own sequence...

This post has been edited by Almirena: Apr 14 2019, 03:12 AM

[Aiwan]

Almirena, yes, the new farmer is noticeably better

[Almirena]

Almirena, yes, the new farmer is noticeably better

Thank you. You are the when it comes to wonderful kolobok ideas (as well as being the kolobok creator)!

[Reny]

Almirena, a lot of new koloboks I like your black sheep and the farmer, both... with bubble and without...
You are right, the finger-cross gesture in Germany means the same.

I am looking forward to your spaceship project. What a wonderful idea.

[Almirena]

(The alien scenario will take a while. It's quite complicated!)


Just a quick little ghost...

[Reny]

Very nice and funny, Almirena

[Almirena]

(I'm glad you like the little ghost kolobok. Perhaps in the future, I will make him pull off his sheet to reveal the live kolobok beneath!)

I became distracted by an Easter kolobok idea, which I've finally completed. The timing was quite tricky, as well as working out different ways to show the sadness of the women.
It is too large a file size to upload here, but I'll link from imgbb/ibb.



This post has been edited by Almirena: Apr 28 2019, 11:01 PM

[Reny]

Great Idea, Almirena I like how you worked out the sadness and joy of the women. 293 frames - wow!

[Almirena]

The number of frames was definitely intimidating!

(I just edited a few of those frames to make the women's movements a little smoother; it was a bit choppy and discontinuous moving from the weeping to the astonishment to the joyful segments.)

[Almirena]

For some reason, I have wandered off into big cat territory.

My own cat, a very imperious emperor-like feline of ginger magnificence, may have inspired this. He is a very adorable yet very cheeky cat.

At any rate, I have here a rather ferocious lion (based on my circus lion) and a snoozing tiger.



This post has been edited by Almirena: Apr 29 2019, 10:29 AM

[Aiwan]

Easter koloboks, this is probably not a smile, but a cartoon.
Our home "tiger".

[Almirena]

(Kolobok cartoon - a good point.)

That is a BEAUTIFUL cat! The expression on your "tiger's" face is priceless.


Here is my wild little lion of a cat.

[Aiwan]

Nice kitty

[Almirena]

I had another inspiration and had to create it without further ado.

It's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

[Reny]

Aiwan and Almirena your cats are beautiful Almirena... the Dr. Jekyll-Mr.Hyde - Kolobok - great idea und very well done.

[Almirena]

(I wonder if the Hyde slap of the bottle could be better...)


Here is a town crier saying "Oyez, oyez, oyez!"

This post has been edited by Almirena: May 4 2019, 08:45 AM

[Almirena]

A policeman and a policewoman (with Australian Federal Police uniform/hats):

This post has been edited by Almirena: May 7 2019, 04:13 PM

[Almirena]

Another kolobok that I had in mind for some time is Rapunzel letting down her hair.

At this stage I haven't added any hands; it may not need any hands showing as she lets down her hair. I will try adding hands later and see whether it's needed.

In the future I will probably add the kolobok prince climbing up Rapunzel's hair into the tower...







This post has been edited by Almirena: May 11 2019, 10:46 PM