Lis's Viking Final - "Rán's Embrace"

Here is my final piece! Watercolor/acryla gouache/digital - I want to make the corrections in the painting that I made digitally. I just did them digitally first because it's easier to see what I'm right and wrong. Submitting it to Spectrum tomorrow along with two others!



I found some more great information about Rán here - http://reclaimingthedarkgoddess.blogspot.com/2010/03/ran-norse-goddess-of-sea.html

From the link:

"She has been called cruel, greedy and insatiable. She reigns over the the Underworld found at the bottom of the sea. Ran mated with Her brother, Aegir, the sea god, and they had nine beautiful daughters, the Waves... Her name means "robbery", and She could often be found lurking on the dangerous cliffs and, with the help of Her daughters, enticing mariners to approach; once within Her reach, She spread Her fishing net over them and calmly draws them down into Her realm.

"The Norse people believed that drowning victims were not admitted into Valhalla; instead, they went to Ran's realm of the dark. She was, therefore, also considered to be a Goddess of the Dead. If the dead had gold, they were treated well within Her deep sea abode, and the mead would flow freely... Ran represents water; and, as such, She controls the life force of all the creatures on Earth."

Craig's Viking Underpainting

Inspired by Petar Meseldzija I decided to do an underpainting for this piece.

http://petarmeseldzija.blogspot.com/2011/12/conan-commission-part-2.html

He, of course, has a lot of experience and I'm sure his handling of the thinness of the paint sets up a better underlayer than I've created here. Also I know a warm underpainting can set up some great contrasts and warm shadows but I simply used a grey palette made of Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White. This was an experiment in planning tone for me. I spent too much time blending the background instead of just laying it in but I'm happy with the way I simply blocked in the forms on the rest.

P.S. I had a family friend pose for the face and made my viking even younger. This will also contribute to a better expression on his face. I added a bundle of sticks on his back for a little storytelling ... "I was out collecting firewood when suddenly ..."

Lots of painting still to go!

Becca's Viking Painting - In Progress

Hey All! Soooo I'm a bit late on this thanks to some commissions, but I'm posting the progress to see what you guys think of where it's going. I need to darken up that shield and play a bunch more with the background... basically everything can use some more work, but I'd love your thoughts before I finish it up! Thanks! (Also FYI the colors look a lot duller here than on my computer! Ug. Technology. Anyone have suggestions for that too?)

Lis's Viking Teaser

So my viking painting is finished but I'm expecting a critique tomorrow and might have a few changes. I don't want to post it until those changes are done! Here's a teaser (:

Becca's Vikings - Underpainting!

Hey guys! OK so I'm just so excited about this piece that I wanted to share the under-painting (in progress). Yay!

Ragnarok: Fenrir Swallows Odin Whole Sketch

Sorry for the quality of the picture, this was as good as I could do right now.  Fenrir, the huge wolf, eats Odin whole as Valhalla is destroyed in the background by falling meteors or fireballs or something epic like that.  In the final I'm thinking Fenrir will be tones of red, pretty much the entire pice will be in a reddish hue.  Snow will be falling, people will be running out on the gates of Valhallah.  It's gonna be fun.

Craig's Viking Drawing

Here is my Viking drawing. I need to do a color sketch next and in it I will be paying a lot of attention to planning out the tones of the various layers involved here including all the atmospheric hazy levels. For now I'd love to hear which details of the drawing work for you and which need tweaking. I'm pretty happy with most elements but I'll let you comment first. Thanks!

Lis's Viking Sketch

So here's the final sketch... I will be printing it out lightly and then drawing it nicely with pencil. As you can see it has really changed! It was super horizontal and kind of boring before. Brought it into my mentorship with Rebecca Guay for critique. Super excited to paint this... hopefully painting it won't be a nightmare--in particular the water and froth. But if all else fails... photoshop! :P I need to edit the hand with the hair entwined around it... fingers are a lil weird.



And here's a color comp... but it's not really complete... it'll probably end up a lot different with more contrast and color, etc.

Becca's Viking Sketch(es)

Full size image

Cropped in close

Cropped a bit less, and flipped horizontally

Same as above, but not flipped.

Okie dokie, here's what I've got going so far! An intimate moment between father and daughter, before the father goes off to... somewhere in one of those sweet ships. The focus is really going to be on the girl, and I'm curious what you guys think about which direction they should be facing. I'm playing with cropping too. I'll be working up some tonal and color comps as well, and really trying to pay attention to maintaining my focal point - Jesper Ejsing recently did a nice post about this on the Muddy Colors blog. I'm avoiding going into a ton of detail until I've got the basics really hammered out - let me know what you all think, the more input the better!

Craig's Viking Thumbnail

After talking with everyone and getting their comments I wanted to push my thumbnail farther. I wanted more going on in the picture and more fantasy elements. I'm going for a drawing and painting that hopefully are more challenging for me. The scene is more dramatic but the viking is more subdued. A young man having a vision high on a hill as Valkyries ride an oncoming storm.