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zorm — Varangian's Homecoming
Published: 2008-03-04 13:56:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 13241; Favourites: 220; Downloads: 1217
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Description
I DREW A WONKY HORSE.
IT'S SO MUTATED THAT INSTEAD OF NEIGHING IT WILL SAY BAA.Based loosely on an archeological discovery made on the iron-age burial grounds of Luistari, Eura, Finland. One of the graves held a silk-clad man from around 900 AD within, whose belongings contained jewelry and coins brought from the Middle East. He had likely been a so-called Varangian (eastern Viking) adventurer, who had followed the similarly named trade route from the far, cold north to the Byzantine Empire and beyond (and back again). The first parts of the route followed the southern coast of Finland.
Meh, make up your own story of the guy if you like.
Detail: [link]
Also commentplz. Silence is sad.
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Comments: 67
Amazing work, especially with the vibrant colors
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Cool! Makes me think of the Hellfrost RPG. (But then, hey, so does anything remotely Viking-ish and snow-covered, so I suppose that's not a terribly insightful thing to say.)
I love those rich blues on the Viking garb. Also, I'm intrigued by the blue-light ambient light casting on the shadowed areas of the horse. I can feel the cold! It makes me think a bit more about how I portray lighting, and wonder just how light WOULD be reflected off snow, in order to properly portray it. I LOVE the beat-up look of that shield. It looks like it has seen some use, and has been re-painted a few times.
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you have unbelievable talent.This is so awesome!!!
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Your drawing is very beautiful! I like the composition and the colors!
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Wow, I love how you did the silk/clothes and all the details on the various items. Plus, the background is amazing.
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Vau, todella kaunis ja yksityiskohtainen kuva! Olet lahjakas
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Kiitti. 
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This is awesome! A scene I hadn't even thought of concerning the Varangians, haha. Great job.
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The horse is not that bad. XD
I love the colors! They are so rich and vibrant!
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Nice work! I love the rich colours especially, and the background detailing.
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Great work!
You are right on the mark about talent and work. Talent is overrated, hard work is the trick. You obviously have done a lot of hard work!
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One little detail I can point out is that you very rarely see the grain of the timber on the front of a shield as they were painted and covered in a material so the enemy could split the shield by chopping an axe into it in line with the grain. The Varangian himself looks like a Rus Viking judging from the how he's dressed and the gear he has. Anyway, well done and if you want some inspiration for another Varangian, check out [link] and look through the gallery.
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Love the color of his robes. I can imagine the layers of silk.
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ei se hevonen mun mielestä mitenkään huonolta näytä, kokonaisuudessa todella hieno kuva
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Awesome. I've always enjoyed reading about the Varangians. The detail here is great.
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The scrollwork on the shield and man's sheath, arm bands, etc. look quite nice, I think. Overall this is a wonderful picture, from what I can tell.
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Erittäin hieno , Pidän historiallisesta suomen tyyllistä.
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Kiitti.
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Eh, the horse doesn't look overly wonky. I like the muscles you've drawn for it. And the hair, and the texture of the leather… Actually, that goes for the whole piece. I don't think there's anything I don't like about it. You've done great trees, great snow, great silk and clothing in general, great sky, great stone, and of course, a great mood as well. I can feel what the Varangian feels, to a degree, and I like when that happens
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(smiles) I might be able to =draw= a better horse, but certainly not paint it as well as you can. Closest I've come to that is Jenna's Candle , and it's not even close to being on the same level of skill as this lovely work.
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Well, like I've said to other folks down there, this is my first full-body horse and I need a lot of practice still to get them better (if I get interested in drawing animals more regularly). 
Maybe I'll repaint parts of this pic sometime later when I have the inspiration for it.
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(nods) Yeah, the perspective was far from perfect on it, but mostly it was an attempt to not have a blinding field of while behind Jenna, and to try my hand at the lighting of such a work. I didn't have my range of Prismacolor markers then that I do now, and if I could get a decent copy of the b/w scan printed out, I might actually try coloring it again, most all of it in markers this time. The mix of watercolors in with the markers was plus/minus on Jenna; worked great on HER, but the candle's light... sucked badly. (winces) And trying to get an even shadow outside of the light... Damn. That's so much easier with layers, where you can paint it everywhere you want them, then adjust the darkness/opacity to just right... and have beautiful, perfect shadows. Okay, not quite that simple, but... yeah. I've used some of the CG painting programs, the lower-cost ones. Being able to go back and repair errors without having to start over = much YAY! But I still feel more comfortable with a pen, pencil or brush in my hand.
I used to draw horses all the time. I'll try to remember to scan my oldest one that I still have, which was an experiment with drawing an all black horse and leaving white lines to define it. The head is WAY too small, the legs too long and thick... but I was still quite proud of it. Think I drew it when I was 12-14. My grandma kept it all these years, until she recently died, and it came back to my hand.
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Awesome! He must have some fur/leather on under the silk, I'm not sure how insulating it is. xD Ah yes, and after all his travails in the heathen south, he still wears that hammer of Thor.
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Yeah, he has warmer layers beneath. For one, you wouldn't want to wear a mail shirt upon flimsy silk. XD
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Ack, I thought the reigns were the horse's tongue for a sec, that kinda scared me. O_O
I'm feeling cold just looking at this. So pretty, though...
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