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Shield

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And they set a gold standard up
high above his head and let him drift
to wind and tide, bewailing him
and mourning their loss.

From Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf.

The funeral of Shield Sheafson, first king of Hrothgar's line.  I can hear people saying, 'That's not a long-ship.'  My thinking behind this is that this is very early on in the Viking age. Shield is Hrothgar's great grandfather in a far less rich and advanced age and if I pulled out all the design stops on this drawing, it'd leave little room for expansion when I (hopefully) get around to tackling the wealth of Heorot. We'll see some proper long-ships then!

It was also an reprise of a drawing I did nearly a decade ago now, and I wanted some of the same elements in there. Sea, clouds and sails all much improved! And I didn't wimp on the shadow.

Pencil, ink, whiteout, paint and digital. Comments welcome!
Image size
2963x2315px 2.56 MB
© 2014 - 2024 JamesYoungArt
Comments17
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rainsoaked's avatar
Great. I love that you've been very sensitive when translating this to digital - I like to see the pencil lines in there, it makes it feel much more 'storybook' in nature than cleaner image would be.