Final Portfolio Life Drawing 3

This is my final portfolio. The first half of this semester I spent my in class time drawing the skeleton. During this period I reached a break through in my art style. As you can see with the first leg bone shown as compared to those beneath it, my style morphed. I switched from charcoal pencil to straight charcoal sticks to help me move into a more expressive style. I brought this style into my work on the Norse gods. I was able to accomplish a special goal this semester, do art reminiscent of fantasy art without making my art look like generic fantasy art.

Siff Images

Siff written

I have finished my second drawing. Siff is the wife of Thor. She is know for her beautiful, long golden hair. She has always been my favorite of the Norse gods. She has long blond hair just like me. I admit to using myself as a model. She is very little known. My sources say that she is the goddess of the harvest and possibly a minor fertility goddess. She is best known for a story that concerns her long locks. One night well Siff was sleeping, Loki decided to shave her head/ cut off all of her hair. When Thor got wind of this, he rung Loki's neck, until he promised to replace her hair. Loki went to the dwarves and asked them to make her the most beautiful golden hair. He also made the mistake of telling them to make other gifts for the gods such as Thor's hammer and Odin's spear. If they made wonderful gifts, Loki said, they could have his head. They over did themselves and made the marvelous gifts, too wonderful. Loki told them that they could not have his head. It was attatched to his neck you see, and they could not have his neck. They sewed his lips shut and let him go with the gifts. Siff was given long hair of spun gold that would grow like normal hair. In my image I put her in a field of Barley, one of the crops grown in old Norway. I will post the images soon.

Hel Finished

Here is my finished "Hel". Below are more detailed photos. She is charcoal and white conte. She is about four feet by three feet. I did quite a makeover on her since my last post.

Hel

This is my newest piece. It is not finished. I am working on a charcoal drawing of the Norse goddess Hel. She is Loki's daughter and the goddess of the dead. She takes all who die of sickness and old age. She is supposed to be beautiful from the waist up and rotting from the waist down. I am wondering what needs to be changed on her.

Sketches for mre upcomming drawings

This is an image out of the Graphic Novel "Marvel 1602" written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Andy Kubert.The image has given me some great inspiration for Loki as a trickster god. I am considering using a similar pose for Loki.
These are some ideas for Thor and his wife Sif. Loki shaved Sif's head as a prank. Thor had Loki talk the dwarves into forging her new hair out of spun gold. This has always been my favorite norse story, possibly because of the length and blondeness of my own hair.

The two above are drawings for Hel. She is Loki's daughter and the goddess of the dead, specifically those who did not die in battle. Her top half is beautiful while her bottom half is rotting and corpse-like. I am picturing her in a venus-like pose. It is how most people would invision a beautiful goddess, except this time she is part zombie. I plan on have her dead as featureless figures surrounding her. I plan on sticking with black and white for this.

Odin

These top three drawings were some of my sketchbook sketches for Odin. The bottom is my final.
Odin is the All-Father of the gods. He is the god of the hanged (one story has him hanging himself to get ultimate wisdom), god of arcane magic, god of the wild hunt, god of the storm, god of the rain, god of the harvest, god of wisdom, and god of victory. He is the Zeus of Norse mythology in many ways. He collects half of those who die in battle (the other half go to his wife Frigg) where they prepare for Ragnarok in Valhalla where they kill each other every day, only to rise again whole and drink and eat together. Odin is also known for his eight legged horse "Slepiner," having two Ravens symbolizing thought and memory, having two hunting hounds, having a winged helmet, and for having only one eye (he gave it up for wisdom/ to see what would happen at Ragnorak). When he moves around in the mortal relm, Odin disguises himself by wearing a floppy hat to hide his one eye.
I struggled with how to show Odin. As the All-Father he is an impressive being. While he wanders the earth he is a wise old man with a big hat. I decided, having seen to many greek god pieces, that I did not want Odin to be shown on his thrown. An eagle horned norseman seemed to predictable. It would make a more interesting image to represent him in his disgused form. I took the compositional risk and had Odin face forward to make him seem stronger as he stairs straight at the viewer with his single eye. I kept Odin's ravens as the main symbols for what this form of him represents. He is a wise watcher more than a warrior in this image.
I chose to try out a different style with this piece. I tryed an additive style with touches of reduction. Here I also added a hint of blue in Odin's eye to emphasize it.

Heimdall

The two drop drawings are out of my sketch book. These are designs for Heimdall before I made the final piece below.
The bottom image here is the first piece I finished in my Norse series. Upon thinking of the Norse gods, one of the first things I thought of was the Bifrost Bridge. The Bifrost Bridge was a rainbow bridge the connected the world of the gods to our world. Many believe the Norse were looking at the Northern Lights. The guardian of the Bifrost Bridge is Heimdall. He has super hearing and sight, is known as the "white god," and carries a glowing sword. Heimdall is also said to be born of the several waves, one of them who may have been a ram. He also represents the cresent moon. The last and most important thing about Heimdall, is that he blows the magic horn that signals the begining of Ragnorak, the battle between the gods and giants that will end the world and the lives of most of the gods, and kill Loki in the final battle.
I originally wished to place him on the Bifrost bridge, but I decided that was too literal and iconic for him. I wanted to show who he was in a more suddle fashion that emphasised him and not other parts of the Norse mythos. I centered on the symbolism of the horn, cresent moon, and the ram. I wanted the ram horns and horn to have a cresent moon feel and complement each other, moving the viewers eye in the piece. The helm is of viking design based off of the helm found at Sutton Hoo.
I decided to experiment with a reductive style, covering the page in charcoal and erasing away my peice. Black and white seemed the optimal selection for color. I wanted these pieces to not look like the typical fantasy art.

Art From Drawing 3 (Spring 08)

"At the Museum" Acrylic and Pastel on Wood
"At the Mall 2" Acrylic and Pastel on Wood
"At the Mall" Acrylic and Pastel on Wood
"Joe" Acrylic and Pastel on Wood
"Al and Dash" Acrylic and Pastel on Wood
"Matt and Nina" Acrylic and Pastel on Wood
Last semester I was working on a body of work dealing with how we judge people on their clothing. For this I removed the person from the image and left just the clothes. I was experimenting with different surfaces and found I enjoyed using wood. I would paint on the wood, sand and carve away, and then draw my figures atop. These pieces were produced with acrylic and chalk pastel on pine. The bottom three are people I am know, while the top three are random people I snapped in public places.