The Making of Samodiva

Georgi Madzharov is a concept artist/illustrator from Sofia, Bulgaria who graduated with a master's degree in architecture from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy of Sofia. 

His work is tied to both sci-fi and fantasy, with one of his favorite motives being the merging of technology and magic. Georgi is currently working on his personal project 'Forged Souls' while transitioning from Architecture into the Art industry.

The Samodivas are jovial, dance-loving, nocturnal forest spirits. They lure mortals with their supernatural charm, leading them into a dance while consuming their souls.

Hi! I’m Georgi Madzharov, a Bulgarian artist currently transitioning from architecture into the entertainment industry. Let me take you on the journey of how my Samodiva came to be!

Design Concept

When I first read the brief, I knew I absolutely had to represent Bulgaria!

So I began digging into Bulgarian folklore, trying to find something characteristically native. I went through zmei (dragons), kukeri (costumed men, fighting evil spirits), and folklore heroes. 

Even though I had choices, none of them really fit my idea of what Bulgaria is. I wanted something elegant, yet wild, most likely forest-based (as I love the mountains). That’s when the Samodivas popped into my mind–they were nimble, flying, and canonically beautiful. They were exactly what I wanted!

First, I had to find a way to portray the energy and motion in the character and her jovial nature. The idea of a dance became integral in all of my sketches. The magical, gravity-defying hair was my interpretation of the lore, where the hair or gown are the sources of magic and flight for the samodiva. I also left her hands and feet exposed, as that reinforced the connection with the land.

Other important elements I wanted to include were the traditional Bulgarian dress, bells, and roses. I began researching their designs and uses, and their different elements (and learned a bunch of things I didn’t know).

Afterward, I started narrowing down on the secondary details.

Seeing as the samodivas fly, I gave her some decorative wing-like elements. The flower crown/ tiara was my reinterpretation of a bridal headdress. It had the added purpose of serving as a stronger visual link between her head and hair and gave her a more regal feel. Plus, it was a natural place to put the roses, which were one of the important Bulgarian symbols. 

The crown also extends onto her cheeks in a fang-like element, which, coupled with her blue-ish skin color and glowing yellow eyes, alludes to her predatory nature.

The color was kind of tricky, as flags are generally strong and attention-grabbing, so balancing the white-green-red palette took some time (and failed attempts). I decided to make things a bit easier–the hair became white, and that left just green and red for the dress.

The traditional small patterns (Shevitz) were the second ‘big difficulty’, as they are very prevalent in the Bulgarian traditional garments (and visual language in general). I had to contain them in a few key areas, so as to not clutter the design with visual noise (and to make the rendering easier). 

In the end, I put them on as smaller accents on her chest, skirt, and mainly on her flowy cloth wings. As a pure fantasy element in her design, the wings were a nice chance to make the patterns way bigger, without breaking the otherwise traditional feel of her costume.

And that was pretty much it, everything else was cleaning up the materials, proportions, and adding smaller flavor details.

Illustration

First, I started brainstorming some very rough ideas. They were messy and ugly, but they served their purpose in giving me an idea of what I want, what would work, and what wouldn’t.

In the end, I went with 1, but here are some of my thoughts on the other ones. 2, 3, and 4 were a little too action hero-oriented, which didn’t fit with the Bulgarian aesthetic. As for 5, I like it, but it has very different energy–stable, dominating, and aggressive, rather than elegant and flowing.

Going back to the idea of the dance, I wanted to give her a weightless, almost swimming motion through the air. I watched a bunch of videos of the Bulgarian ‘horo’ dance, to get a feel for the jumpy motion, but I decided to make it more gentle in the end. This zig-zagging path through the image also worked well with her hair, reinforcing the diagonal element in the composition.

You know how it goes from here–some pose and anatomy fixes, material rendering, light, background, painting things out.

One part that gave me trouble (and made me leave the image for a bit), was how to handle the shevitza patterns. In the end, it was pretty simple–I did them on a flat layer as a mask, then warped them to fit the needed shapes and painted them on the mask with a clipped layer. 

Another gray area was the time period I wanted to portray with the enemies. This was a problem since the very first rough sketches, where I drew some modern soldiers with fighter pilot helmets and body armor, but it didn’t sit right with me.

Sadly, I have merged these parts of the image (never thought I’d make a ‘making-of’), but it was quite the journey! I went through modern, slightly futuristic, and ancient designs, just to test things out. In the end, I settled on something that fit with the traditional costume as well, loosely based on early 20th-century soldier uniforms.

Some final tweaks and adjustments… And it was DONE!

Final Thoughts

Explore your vision, seek what you love and push yourself to do better! And never shy away from a design or illustration, just because they’re giving you trouble. These are the best learning opportunities!

My goal with the design was to capture the duality of a creature, who is both attractive and predatory while giving her a fun, careless attitude. She flows through the air with joy, without even sparing a look at her victims. 

It was a challenge (but a fun one!), as it was out of my comfort zone, being a forest night scene. While I was working on this, I did a couple of other pieces, exploring aspects from this one. In the end, I’m ultimately happy with how it turned out!

Thank you for reading my wall of text! I hope you had fun too and that it was useful!

Have fun and stay awesome!

Follow Georgi HERE.