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.