Ygdrassil's ash is of all trees the most excellent,

And of most ships Skidbladnir,

Of the Aesir, Odin,

And of horses Sleipnir,

Bifrost of Bridges, and of skalds Bragi,

Habrok of hawkes, and of dogs, Garm

[Brimir of Swords.]

I got it of Kamil Rabiega. It seems to be a nordic poem [drapa] or a part of a saga.

Point of Agression

I'll deem this image to be done until I'll sort out all the others. The atmosphere was influenced by the images from covers of Skyrim and Call of Duty: Black Ops. There probably is plenty more similar images, it seems that this type of lighting works well. It certainly gives this ominous and mysterious vibe. 

While painting it I started thinking about the story behind the image. Who is the viking? Why is he holding the helmet. Why is the helmet rusty. Is it an angry father that's about to punish his son for neglecting his chores and not cleaning it. Maybe, it's a darker story and the helmet belonged to someone who has been slain and was a kinman of the hero. Maybe he's a scavenger raiding a tomb. 

All these variables were passing through my head while contemplating the image. It seems the image is eerie enough to keep a viewer fixed to it for a while.

On the technical side of things I have been noted by Garret Arney-Johnson that beards usually are not pure blond, and tend to have this caramel colour with the brightest parts around mouth and chin and at the surface. In the end I pushed the colour of his beard. 

I would like to thank Garret Arney-Johnson for help with that. I got this crit because I posted my work on the Awesome Horse Studio facebook group called Team Awesome. 

Link - http://www.facebook.com/groups/awesomehorse/

Also, recently I have been reminding myself the basic rules of colour theory from this website: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

Morning Sketches

I am collecting the Northlanders comicbooks and I was looking through one subtitled Blood in the Snow. The book collects stories about Scandinavian warfare. Since most of my paintings are of manly men fighting to death with nasty objects. I probably have missed a certain fact that when vikings run out of good men, they would leave quite a few husbandless women. This state of matter would force them to go for the vikingr and pillage a bit. Scandinavian women were almost as bold hearted as their men.

Starting from left.
-The first image shows the Odins court with the chief god brooding on his throne. The chamber stands tall, at the back wall there is a valknut banner (valknut - three interlocking triangles, symbol of slain warriors.)
-I guess this is one of vikings charging a line of a shieldwall with an axe. I guess it might be a feud of two families or tribes.
-Valkyrie. The image shows halls of Valhalla the court of slain where dead feast and cheer. The Valkyries are Odins beautiful maidens that serve during evenings of celebration and bring dead to the after-world.
-Shieldmaiden. Her village is on fire a housewife picks up a sword of possibly her butchered husband and presses on. Her enemies are stunned by the fact that a woman put on a fight. Guessing Normans brought up in the Christian faith were accustomed to women being inferior than men. Norse women are equal to their men. However, she doesn't have much time, it's time to run or die of retaliation.

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.

I've been practising my textures and different materials. 

 This one is a tricky. I got stuck at this point. I want to include his arms and hands in the painting but I don't really know what to do with them. I guess the easiest way would be him holding some weapons or just showing blood on the hands. However I don't want more blood since the image with Loki has quite a lot of it.  I'll ask some other artists and friends for feedback on this piece.

WIP

Studio work, application of the feedback

WIP. I've researched viking sword hilts a bit. 

I follow my tutors advice and get back to my first version of the painting. It looks more dramatic this way. Quoting my life drawing teacher it's this moment of "oh shit". I think that it simplifies the composition and adds to the painting.

 WIP

Easter update

For the last week I was unable to upload the new updates to my blog so this will be a massive art dump post.

This time I focused on starting new pieces and finishing the ones I've started.

This is an image from the header of the blog. I've added the background and fixed the perspective, so the rule of thirds focuses on the face and the longboat in the distance. The lines lead the eye to the castle and return the focus through the clouds to the face again. I might change the placement of the castle because it creates a tangent with the edge of the painting. It's generally not good.

Wip


The main problem with this image I had was a slightly split lighting source, and the anatomy of the arm hidden underneath the cape. I fixed the hand, and added the belt around the sword.
Ulfheadnar - they were supposed to be a chosen warriors of Odin, so I make them look quite elitist. I want him to have a vibe of a barbaric king. I will also focus on the dragonhead and the carvings on it.
Berserker... I think I shoot myself starting with a midtone desaturated colours. Now I need to slowly build up on this.
In this image I've been working on the hog and girls clothes.
In this image I didn't really know what to put in the foreground. I've been experimenting with different things.


A sketch, I'll try to work on the textures in this image.
This image has a lot of symbolism in it. It's titled Baldrs' blood, the character featured on the painting is Loki god of mischief who killed one of other gods and was bound to be tortured by a serpent spitting poison on his face. I will add the serpent, as also Lokis symbol (two transoforming snakes) and the chains.