Ohhhh snap! It’s an update!

What’s up everyone, it’s been a while hasn’t it? Ha, sorry for the long delay but things have been busy as you can imagine. I’ve finished the Transitions series and will begin screenprinting The Descent and The Ascension this weekend. So keep an eye out for another post this weekend with photos of that. Down below here I have included the jpgs of The Descent and The Ascension along with another picture containing all three transitions. If I were to hang these pieces it would probably be something like that. Ok, so moving on from that I’ve completed the Yggdrasil painting but upon having critique today I got a really cool comment about how it looks like there is possibly the face of Odin in it, the bright stars on the right would be his good eye, the tree makes up the bridge of the nose, and the earth is kinda like his mouth with Niflheim inside it. So that seemed like a really beast idea so I think I’m gonna try to subtly add a ghostly face of Odin kinda as if he exists in the cosmos themselves. The last two pictures there are the very beginnings of The Death of Odin and The Death of Thor. I’m still messing around with poses and such but this gives you guys some sort of idea of where I’m possibly heading. For these two paintings though I’m going to try a new approach and complete them in black and white first before adding color. By doing this I think I’ll be able to focus more on my values instead of “oh shit what color do I use here” which seems to be something I worry about a lot haha. Well that’s all for now but keep an eye out for another update this weekend!

Yggdrasil update…

Got a base painting down and cleaned up the sketch a little bit. For a background I really wanted a space setting so I asked a good friend of mine, Khalil Riddick, to give me a tutorial sort on painting space. Khalil is an amazing illustrator and designer, definitely check out his page at http://khalilriddickart.wordpress.com/ and show some love. Also with the progress update, I have a quick sketch I did of Odin. Sorry about the quality though, I took it with my phone. He is in Asgard by his throne Hlidskialf holding the mystical spear Gungnir. I’m thinking of using this image as the introduction to my series which will show the deaths of Odin, Thor, Freya and Loki in Ragnarok. In each swirl coming off of Gungnir I would morph in the pictures from the series. Just an idea though, I’m not sure where I’ll go with it. Stay tuned for another update!

base painting

Back to the Norsemen…

Alrightyyyy, so here is a sketch I did of the world tree, Yggdrasil. They say that the roots of the tree would run down to the deepest parts of Niflheim and the branches were so high they provided shade to Odin’s hall. On the tallest branch an eagle is perched and between his eyes a falcon sits named Vedfolnir who watches all the realms. Opposite of that in Niflheim, a dragon named Nidhug gnaws on the roots of the tree trying to kill it, thus beginning Ragnarok. Now between the eagle and the dragon is a squirrel named Ratatosk who gossips to each other trying to get them to fight. I still need to render these figures in the drawing and will do so near the final stages of painting it. As for the style I am leaning more towards a map or diagram much like the theological paintings of the Renaissance. Hope you enjoy where it’s going so far!