Sofia Buob
personal make-up project
Other Inspirations
Ancient tribes haven't been the only things that inspired me on the realization of this project.
My tarots cards are based on the law of attraction and have been quite inspiring for me, with their beautiful illustrations portraying goddesses and angels. I do my tarots daily, as it makes me feel good to receive some positive advices, especially if is a day where it seems I don't know what I should achieve. Anyway there was one card in particular that I found important to remember for this project which is the card of the goddess Nemetona and is called : sacred space. There is a guidance book in order to interprate the cards. The message was the following and I enlighted the sentence that most inspired me:
Message from Nemetona : "your sacred space is within you now. By creating an altar or visiting a sacred site, you connect with the symbols and energy that have been infused with meaning and prayer over the centuries. Don't take these symbols lightly, for they're powerful indeed. When you connect with sacred symbols, you help your inner sanctity find a home in the outer world. You also tap in to the ancient wisdom and spiritual grace of the old ways. Explore spirituality through sacred symbols and sites, and allow your soul to joyfully meander among the various ways available to you to unite with the Divine. It's not a matter of how you connect, but that you do so frequently ".
My character is covered in symbols gifted by the ancient human spirits who created her, this card has reminded me to consider well which symbol to incorporate, find out their meaning properly and understand it, and says in better words what was the purpose of ancient giving her those symbols.
Another great inspiration comes from one my favourite book ( Ipotesi sulla Guarigione - hypothesis of healing ) and is a real deposition from an old healer :
The old healer Petaga Yuha Mani tells us : " ... I live in a past era... as close to the Earth as possible. Close to the plants, seeds, flowers, which I use as medicine. The Great Spirit has provided the humans to survive this way... So, me and my wife are living in a small hut : no electricity, no hydraulic system, neither roads... I don't receive prizes. A man leaves my house healed, and this is my reward...
Some men think about money, and how to make it. This is something that never comes to my mind.. we don't need much... the Great Spirit made flowers, rivers, pines, cedars; he takes care of it, allowing the wind to blow between them and breath his essence, he provides them water and he makes them grow..This doesn't mean I want to isolate myself. Somehow many can find the way to my hut... At the same time, I desire to retire more far away from everything, to live like the ancients... One day, I'll bring my house even more far between the hills, maybe I wont need my hut at all, and I'll become part of the forest. There the Spirit still has something, for us, to discover ... a very small flower, maybe. You can spend a long time to contemplate it...
Not a rose, yellow, white, artificial, big.I heard they are making a black rose.This is not natural. Those things are against nature. They make us weak. I refused them... Everything that it is nature resides in us, and all of us are in the nature. This is how things should be. "
I found the beautiful art work of Toni Carmine Salerno , illustrated in her book : Goddess, improved my Design ideas. Initially I was going to have a green skin base all over the body of my character, but looking at those images I though I wanted to add more colors into it ( in fact the back of Speranza is all colorful ). Here are a few images from the book
In order to get more into my character I also did a lot of sketched raffiguring dreams,some parts of my story and some inspiring sentences from different cultures, this helped me improve my design ideas as well.
Certainly, celtic music has also been a big inspiration for me, especially for drawing. I particularly listened to the song of Stellamara, " Kyrie Eleison ( a Gaelic blessing ) and really helped me focus on my project's ideas.