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Hanesihiko — BBC Merlin: this is war (but i've got your back)

#arthur #fantasy #highfantasy #magic #merlin #war #bbcmerlin #merlinemrys #battle #arthurpendragon
Published: 2014-09-01 12:31:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 6151; Favourites: 179; Downloads: 63
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Description "Maybe you should back off a little, sire. Wouldn't want to singe that perfect golden mane of yours…"


"Why, Merlin, I had no idea you have such a fixation with my hair. Perhaps you ought to direct your attention to the archers over there though, they seem to be aiming for your head.”



Crossposted on: 
tumblr || AO3

(Please click the download button on the right-side of the page for the full size.)


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*rises from the grave* EEEEYAAAARGHHHHHHHHH

Err... yeah. More Merlin (BBC) fanart (obvious, my current obsession is obvious). As always, it all started simple enough: the urge to draw golden-eyed Merlin (as in, him using magic) and with Arthur being completely at ease with it. I figured, let's have them fighting side-by-side like total BAMFs. So that was the seed. Also had this image of scale-patterns on Merlin’s robes, which was the actual thing I was excited to do, ngl. The idea was that they're dragon scales since he's a dragonlord but then again.... those must be pretty tiny dragons hahaha. Logic fails.

I realised later, a bit hysterically, that I really needed to come up with a scenario to put them in and everything sort of escalated to the point of ridiculousness. Backgrounds/composition aren’t my strongest suits. Also there was a period of utter hell at work, I hit several metaphorical walls with the composition and such, and RL got in the way so many times… hence, this took months to finish because I’d had to steal time to do this. And sometimes I was just not in the mood. ;; It really shouldn’t have taken that long… but well. I tend to be really my pace when working on fanarts, lol. I kept moving and switching things around and that resulted in repaints upon repaints...

I had some hurdles with the fire-magic thing, which was supposed to look like actual fire but all my attempts at it just did not look right. So instead, I just settled on some abstract sparkles and swirls because it was taking too much time and I just wanted to get it done. -__-;  

Anyway, my hope is that you might discover new things whenever you see this piece regardless of how often you've viewed it, that it remains interesting and captures your imagination. That would make me really happy~ 



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Merlin Emrys, Arthur Pendragon
Merlin (BBC) 

Tools:
Paint Tool SAI, PS
Related content
Comments: 35

arsidoas [2015-04-17 18:47:10 +0000 UTC]

Wow.... JUST WOW. Great!

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Hanesihiko In reply to arsidoas [2015-05-15 15:33:41 +0000 UTC]

Thank you~!! <3

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arsidoas In reply to Hanesihiko [2015-05-16 09:24:55 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome.

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lilotti [2014-11-24 06:26:27 +0000 UTC]

O-Oh..Oh my, amazing, as always Hane! Very, very detailed background. This is just so amazing  

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Hanesihiko In reply to lilotti [2014-11-24 14:55:08 +0000 UTC]

Eeee thank you so much~!!  

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saikaistory [2014-11-14 08:33:41 +0000 UTC]

What in the world? Stop...this is. What have you done? This is--ohmygod the details! The shiny! The concept! ajdkfajdkakd~ there is too much awesome in this pic..you have crossed all lines! stop it right now! *stares at it unblinkingly* (omfg the thingies on his sleeves look like dragon scales! I...am going to stare at and inspect every glorious pixel of this!)

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Hanesihiko In reply to saikaistory [2014-11-14 17:21:50 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much!!! <333 I'm glad you appreciated the little details and design decisions. It truly means a lot to me when people notice them because I do spend a ridiculous amount of time attempting to get things to look the way I want them to (or as close to it as I can, at least). I love fantasy-themed wardrobes and often get carried away when coming up with outfits. xD;; Was indeed going for dragon scales with the patterns on Merlin's robes/sleeves hahah. xDD (Even gave him a dragon ear-cuff though it can barely be seen unless you peek at the close-up snapshots on my tumblr loool. As if the whole imagery wasn't telling enough).

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saikaistory In reply to Hanesihiko [2014-11-15 05:05:48 +0000 UTC]

You are most welcome! <3

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CartoonMaster07 [2014-11-14 08:26:29 +0000 UTC]

I can see this picture moving in my imagination! This is by far my favorite Merlin Fan art ever!

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Hanesihiko In reply to CartoonMaster07 [2014-11-14 17:24:37 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much! :'DD I was experimenting with motion blur and depth, trying to give the scene some illusion of movement. I've seen a lot of other artists do this and wanted to see if I could make it work. I'm glad to hear you feel that way! 

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CartoonMaster07 [2014-11-14 08:23:49 +0000 UTC]

Love this! i'd want to cosplay this Merlin, but my god soo much beautiful detail, it would be super expensive and a lot of work to make, lol.

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Hanesihiko In reply to CartoonMaster07 [2014-11-14 17:01:19 +0000 UTC]

lsdfghjksdfgh that's incredibly high praise, thank you! You're right, it probably would take a lot of work to cosplay this for real hahah but it's the thought that counts! <33

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thiagostudio [2014-11-02 03:51:14 +0000 UTC]

Shine *-*

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Hanesihiko In reply to thiagostudio [2014-11-02 08:05:31 +0000 UTC]

   

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nomicall [2014-10-12 11:28:38 +0000 UTC]

This is so amazing and everything I ever wanted from the show. God, the details make me want to cry! And all the dragons flying around in the background. Thank you for posting this!!!

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Hanesihiko In reply to nomicall [2014-10-13 11:50:40 +0000 UTC]

Oh nooo, thank you, for taking the time to leave a comment! <333 Your words gave me a much needed boost today! Ahh I can't help but wish the series was so much more than it had been. All that potential left unexplored! The only way for me to curb that nagging dissatisfaction is to do stuff like this. I just love high-fantasy and this was very self-indulgent, in a way, so it's always a pleasant surprise to get such lovely responses. <33

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CatalystOfTheSoul [2014-10-10 02:59:07 +0000 UTC]

HOW HOW HOW HOW HOW there is SO MUCH in this piece. SO MUCH. it's overwhelming. Ten minutes and I could hardly adsorb it. Seriously. Very incredible piece, insights a lot of staring and oggling. Incredible, really well done!!!!

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Hanesihiko In reply to CatalystOfTheSoul [2014-10-11 11:34:46 +0000 UTC]

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the lovely comment!! (>/////< )  

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ShinkonoKokoro [2014-09-18 07:34:13 +0000 UTC]

Wow. Just. Wow. This is stunning. The armour. The details This is incredible. I love it all. I love Arthur's crown, Merlin's scarf. Man, Arthur's quilted under armour. It's incredible.

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Hanesihiko In reply to ShinkonoKokoro [2014-09-19 12:43:02 +0000 UTC]

Omg, thank you so much for leaving a comment!! I love that you pointed out the parts that you liked, it's always nice to know what stands out to others when they look at my art. Ahahah now that you mentioned it, the quilted under armour was quite a fun, stress-free part of painting this. I've drawn Arthur with a crown that sort of circles around his head instead of being on top of it twice now. It just always ended up like that because I like drawing his hair too much and don't want a crown to obscure it. And Merlin's scarf was just self-indulgent on my part, it's just something I would really like to see/have but probably would not be able to pull off in real life.  

Thank you again, your words made my night~!

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ShinkonoKokoro In reply to Hanesihiko [2014-09-27 23:35:43 +0000 UTC]

Oh my pleasure! I'm so glad I could do so! I do love Arthur's hair. It's always great. And I haven't seen Merlin fanart in a while! So this was a wonderful surprise to my DA inbox. I was super impressed by all the detail work. It must have taken ages. And the metal effect on Arthur's armour and on Merlin's clothing (the sleeves and...cloak? thing?). It just really is incredible. 
And Merlin's magic DOES look like fire, just the tail end spark part of it. So. Awesome job! 

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Lefuulei-Art [2014-09-06 06:00:30 +0000 UTC]

my goodness, how ever do you fit so much beautiful detail into pieces like this?

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Hanesihiko In reply to Lefuulei-Art [2014-09-06 06:30:47 +0000 UTC]

I honestly have no idea, lol! I usually just have certain things I really want to add onto a drawing and just fill the spaces in-between to get to how I want the end result to look like. The details just develop as I go. Although sometimes they make the overall drawing look too messy/busy, details aren't always a good thing, and one of my biggest difficulties is learning to rein them in. It's a constant struggle to not pile on stuff. I hope they don't feel overwhelming here. Thank you for the comment~

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Lefuulei-Art In reply to Hanesihiko [2014-09-07 06:40:23 +0000 UTC]

The definitely don't feel overwhelming, it just looks like you spent SOO much time on it and are so very particular to how they look it's amazing. I'm wondering if you do the "closeup" technique? Like where you zoom in and just work one small area until you're satisfied then either move onto the next area or just zoom out? I've been trying to do that for a while and it doesn't jive well with my own style.

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Hanesihiko In reply to Lefuulei-Art [2014-09-07 11:15:25 +0000 UTC]

Ahh I guess you can say that! I usually have an overall form that's slightly better than a rough, first, and then slowly start refining that further, zooming in at parts which needed detailing. I don't really zoom that closely though, just enough to pass muster.  

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Lefuulei-Art In reply to Hanesihiko [2014-09-07 20:39:29 +0000 UTC]

Well color me thoroughly impressed! Then again, your art never fails to impress me. It's always so shiny and perfect with such endearing expressions and such glorious detail and... *swoon*

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detochkina [2014-09-01 23:57:50 +0000 UTC]

I'm in awe. What a magnificent, gorgeous piece. the details, the vivid colors, the dimension. This is just crazy how amazing it is! Top notch

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Hanesihiko In reply to detochkina [2014-09-02 12:03:42 +0000 UTC]

asjdkljdskasd thank you!! You are too sweet!   

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red-winged-angel [2014-09-01 21:58:16 +0000 UTC]

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Hanesihiko In reply to red-winged-angel [2014-09-02 12:04:38 +0000 UTC]

   

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red-winged-angel In reply to Hanesihiko [2014-09-02 20:06:47 +0000 UTC]

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Istriel [2014-09-01 15:14:49 +0000 UTC]

This gorgeous, full of detail, the coloring is amazing ! I love the lights and shadow here. Wonderful job !

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Hanesihiko In reply to Istriel [2014-09-02 12:05:12 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much~!! 

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Saya-Hinto [2014-09-01 14:48:41 +0000 UTC]

I love that show and you have some really nice art

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Hanesihiko In reply to Saya-Hinto [2014-09-01 15:15:57 +0000 UTC]

Aww thank you~! <33

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