Scarface

 Today I have been working mainly on this portrait of an angry viking holding a helmet. To create it I've put a lot of research visual as well as cultural. As you can observe ornaments on his cloak are historical as well as the brooch. The tape is made on special tablets and then sawn to rims of items of clothing or used to tie up things.
Examples of tablet weavings http://www.strojesigrid.zafriko.pl/pics/ozdobnik.jpg

 I have contacted some more proficient artists since I got stuck while painting the shadow underneath the beard. I thought it should have some colour reflecting from the blond facial hair but usually shadows are cool in colour temperature to pull them back into the image. In the end John Silva noted me that I should imply both have some of the beard colour impacting the cloth and then tint the shadow with blue. The results can be seen above.

John Silva' blog http://www.johnsilvaart.tk/

I used this website http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking_helmets.htm to source some knowledge about the viking helmets. The read is very interested and right away busts myths such as horned headwear. 

 I keep including knifes similar to this one on most of my paintings because in medieval Scandinavia every free man owned a knife, for protection, and for daily tasks. Slaves didn't have one, and often didn't have a belt or leather boots. The size of the Seax's depended on the wealth of the owner.