Monday 24 January 2011

How to draw a Viking...

Historical illustrations fascinate me , artists like Charles Keeping , Mike Charlton and Victor Ambrus uniquely bring history to life but not in a staid photgraphic way , there pictures breathe sweat and blood and move the viewer. Just google any of these guys and see if I'm wrong. Just as there are illustrators , the field sports many writers well worth your time , Rosemary Sutcliff and Henry Treece to name just two from my favourite period of the 1960's-70's. Whilst reading Treece's viking books last year I was fired to try some historical illustration myself which is the roundabout way of getting to the *why* of this post.

I wanted to draw an iconic image of a viking . Nothing fancy.No horned helmets. A warrior alone on a shore. The initial sketch was on paper and this was imported into Manga Studio. I set myself a new layer and totally redrew the sketch ( which you see below). Once happy I went straight into painting the picture on different layers before deciding to *ink* it at the end which binded the picture together. I'm quite pleased with it and if any passing editors want to offer me some historical work - don't hesitate!






2 comments:

  1. I would love to see you do a Conan Style image or a Masters of the Universe piece. I think it would be Fantastic! Love your work!

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  2. Cheers Ashley! I'm a big fan of Conan so consider your request as viable at some point! Thanks.

    ade

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