Huldra Art

The Neck or Näcken in Swedish is my new painting.

The background story: The Neck, Näcken is a male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, luring women and children to drown in lakes or streams. In some legends he plays totally naked and in others he wears more or less elegant clothes. He is a shapeshifter, but almost always described as very attractive.
If you brought the neck a treat of three drops of blood, a black animal, some brännvin (Scandinavian vodka) or snus (wet snuff) dropped into the water, he would teach you his enchanting form of music.
He was thought to be most active during Midsummer’s Night, on Christmas Eve and on Thursdays.

I used a stock photo from nobledeath-stock as reference for the neck. Photoshop CS2+wacom graphire 4 tablet. You can see a larger version in the gallery and also a closeup image.