Hello my esteemed readers ♥
Today I am back with a brand new "Making of" post - I'll let you see how I painted an Aceo of the shieldmaiden Lagertha from Vikings in watercolor. I will also ramble a little about her and the show, so if you're only here for the art, ignore the text and simply take a look at the WIP photos *laughs* I also included some behind the scenes information about my "new" coloring style in the second half, so it might be worth reading for all those who are interested in it.
Ahhh Vikings - epic heroes, well staged (sometimes rather gory) battles, a great soundtrack, witty dialogues, authentic-looking sets as well as wardrobe and loads of drama, what's not to love about this TV show? Granted, the nudity and mature content can be a little hard to bear at times (I prefer my TV shows to be a little less...Well, naughty. It's one of the reasons why I never really got into Game of Thrones) and I'll admit that this was why I was a bit sceptical when a dear friend of mine first told me of Vikings, but as soon as I gave the series a chance, I was immediately captivated by the story of Ragnar, his sons, friends and foes. However, despite the fact that Floki's wackiness amused me and it was interesting to watch how Athelstan changed over the course of the episodes, there was one other person who caught my attention right from the start and who easily became my favorite: Lagertha.
Those who know me well, are aware that I'm generally rather picky when it comes to female characters and the reason for that is simple: it really irks me when women serve but one purpose, namely playing the damsel in distress. Thus, when I saw Lagertha in the first episode, being surrounded by a few awful guys who thought she was easy prey now that her husband wasn't home, I immediately knew she was special. Rather than calling for help or getting terrified, she kept her calm and eventually told them "You couldn't kill me if you tried for a hundred years", before...Well. Kicking their butt, so to speak *laughs* She's a shieldmaiden, after all.
Througout the entire series she proved time and time again that she's not only a strong warrior, but that her resolve and spirit is just as firm. She has to deal with so many struggles and difficulties, for example when her husband basically betrays her with another woman (urgh, let me tell you, I can't stand Aslaug =_=) or when she fights to reclaim the throne of Kattegat. She also suffers so much loss, both, when it comes to her family, but also whenever she seems to be happy and finds new love, said person ends up meeting a terrible fate D: (for spoiler's sake I'm not going to go into deeper detail here, but let's just say that the second half of the fifth season really broke my heart >///< Heahmund 😭). But still, even in the face of so much pain and sorrow, she keeps fighting, she never gives in and keeps going - sadder, but wiser.
On a more personal note, it's especially that latter aspect of Lagertha that really inspires me most. My own last relationship didn't really "end" well and though it's been many years ever since, I'm still unable to deal with what happened, so in a way, I can relate with what she's going through and really admire her inner strength.
But aaanyway! Enough talk, now that you know why I like Lagertha so much, let's get to the arty part of my entry :)
Thanks to an Aceo event themed around Vikings in the German Aceo community I finally got the chance to create some fanart. It's something I've been meaning to do for quite some time and aside of a card of Athelstan (and another upcoming one showing Ragnar's sons) I absolutely HAD TO paint Lagertha. It wasn't easy to decide on a scene though, let alone a design - she simply has so many nice outfits and don't get me started on her beautifully complex hairstyles. Whilst doing my research I eventually discovered wonderful close up pictures from the very episode that had reduced me to tears previously (Seasons 5, episode 15 "Hell") and since I adore her white hair, I finally decided to paint her like that, in battle. The background is also based on said episode, I utterly loved the contrast between the flames and cold, blue light, even though that presented me with a challenge: how the heck am I supposed to paint the fire?! I'd never done that, not on such a large scale. Yeah, I did portray mages with some flames before, but a wall of fire? Nope. In the end I figured the best way would be to to leave the fire white and add some colors later to make it glow.
In the following series of pictures you can see the whole process of painting the background. As per usual, I included some information in the captions :)
Well, who would've thought that I was ever going to use fluorescent colors on a painting like this? 😂 Originally I only wanted to use plain orange poster color because as I said, I wasn't happy with the rough edges and hoped some opaque paint might cover them up, but thanks to this 'experiment' the fire really seemed to glow even brighter.
Now, with the background finished, it was time to move on to painting Lagertha, this however, came with its very own, different challenges, which I'm going to talk about in a second.
Here's a close up of her face from a previous WIP photo - as you can see I took great care to leave hard edges here and there to define her facial features, plus I also added the same blue I used for the sky to the mix, amongst other colors. And that's where the other challenge I mentioned comes into play.
See...As of late I haven't been exactly happy with my way of painting characters. I've always strived to have a semi-realistic art style and even though I've changed the way I draw people by practicing a lot, the colors...Well. Remained flat and the skin especially was way too smooth. It was as though someone took a photo and put it through some blurry filters, just like those super-smooth celebrity faces you see on magazine covers - pretty, but not realistic. Of course I'm not aiming to achieve a photo-realistic style, don't get me wrong, but...No. I really wasn't happy with what I was doing anymore.
Maybe the change isn't quite that apparent to some of you, but if you compare this to some of my older paintings, you will notice that I'm really trying to be a bit more bold with the hard edges and the colors I use. I no longer paint the shadows first either and add more than one color to the "base wash" now, including some "odd" tones like green to desaturate certain areas, while glazing thin washes of red over areas like the cheeks or the nose, where blood would show through the skin. It's still not perfect and needs some more practice, but it's my attempt at painting a little more realistic. To tell the truth, I was already a lot happier with how I painted Lagertha's skin here - but it also took three times as long. 😅
Oh my. I made it - I finished painting Lagertha. But I do have to confess that the result is even better than I imagined. I'm so happy that the effect of the fire came out exactly as I had planned in the end and I learned so much when it came to painting the shieldmaiden herself. But this was only another step on my journey of improving my style of painting, I look forward to see how it'll develop in future - I will keep practicing ^_^
I do hope that you also enjoyed reading this post (or at least looking at the pictures *laughs*). As always, if you like, you can leave some feedback in the comment section - thank you so much for reading! See you soon ♥
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