Watch it with that thing!
Sure it's a little late, but I'm still considering it Sunday since I like to work late and expect people would read a Sunday post on Monday anyway.
Tonight it's just a pencil sketch, but what a pain it was working it up. I feel like I've been fighting as hard as these two to get the idea out onto the page. I tell ya, some days you can draw for hours and not come up with anything. It's one of the reasons I like going to a figure class. The poses are right there. You don't have to try and make it up from your own head.
It's also one of the reasons I started to read Robert E. Howard again. I need a few more ideas. And that gentleman had a whole ton.
You might remember R.E. Howard as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. Last night I started reading Bran Mak Morn: The Last King.
Bran was Howard's "King of the Picts". A race of "...small dark Mediterranean aborigines..." who fought the Romans. Great stories filled with magic and adventure. I haven't read any Bran Mak Morn in a while and I forgot how much I liked it.
I love Robert E. Howard's creations. His writing career was not long, less than twelve years, but he left us with some great characters and wonderful places. I would recommend his writing to anyone interested in fantasy world's of magic and danger.
Howard's characters have always fascinated me. I remember the first Conan story I read. It was a retelling of a Howard story done in comic book form by, I believe, Roy Thomas and John Buscema.
For those of you who don't know Thomas and Buscema they were huge stars in the comic book world during the seventies and eighties. Roy Thomas was (and still is) a great writer of all things Conan and John Buscema was a legendary comic book artist. He passed away a few years ago, but his work is held up as the standard for any comic book or illustration fan. He is one of the reasons I actually picked up a pencil when I was young. He is one of my heroes.
The story was called "The Tower of the Elephant." In it Conan goes to steal a jewel from a wizard and discovers, held captive in the tower, a being most likely inspired by the Hindu god Ganesh (It was an man with an elephants head. Laugh if you want, but it looked so cool). It was a fascinating read and for a boy of thirteen it was an eye opener on so many levels. I've been a fan of the genre (and Mssrs. Thomas and Buscema) ever since.
I love reading stories of adventure, of swords and sorcery. I love drawing them too, as you can see. It's fun to imagine being in those world's where one never knew what fascinating creatures or magic might lay just over the next hill or deep inside a dark a forest.
What must it have been like back in the days of the Roman Empire? To be posted near Hadrian's Wall in Northern England and not know what lay beyond? Or to be on the other side of that wall watching these strange soldiers from another land building the thing. Think about that. Think about how wild it must have been. When you could travel to, what to you and yours was, the edge of the world, stand there and know, that with one more step, you would be going where (as far as you knew) no one had ever been before. Whew.
I like to think that if I were born in another time I would have been an adventurer, an explorer of some kind. In a past life I was most likely a ditchdigger or some such, but I like to think I would have been more. Y'know it's funny, when ever you hear someone talking about their past lives they always seem to have been someone famous or some famous persons chambermaid. No one ever finds out they were a bricklayer or a janitor. What's up with that?
Anyway, tomorrow I hope to bring you more discoveries from the land of the barbarians. Hopefully, you are enjoying my little exploration of the subject along with my strange thoughts.
Cheers!
Tonight it's just a pencil sketch, but what a pain it was working it up. I feel like I've been fighting as hard as these two to get the idea out onto the page. I tell ya, some days you can draw for hours and not come up with anything. It's one of the reasons I like going to a figure class. The poses are right there. You don't have to try and make it up from your own head.
It's also one of the reasons I started to read Robert E. Howard again. I need a few more ideas. And that gentleman had a whole ton.
You might remember R.E. Howard as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. Last night I started reading Bran Mak Morn: The Last King.
Bran was Howard's "King of the Picts". A race of "...small dark Mediterranean aborigines..." who fought the Romans. Great stories filled with magic and adventure. I haven't read any Bran Mak Morn in a while and I forgot how much I liked it.
I love Robert E. Howard's creations. His writing career was not long, less than twelve years, but he left us with some great characters and wonderful places. I would recommend his writing to anyone interested in fantasy world's of magic and danger.
Howard's characters have always fascinated me. I remember the first Conan story I read. It was a retelling of a Howard story done in comic book form by, I believe, Roy Thomas and John Buscema.
For those of you who don't know Thomas and Buscema they were huge stars in the comic book world during the seventies and eighties. Roy Thomas was (and still is) a great writer of all things Conan and John Buscema was a legendary comic book artist. He passed away a few years ago, but his work is held up as the standard for any comic book or illustration fan. He is one of the reasons I actually picked up a pencil when I was young. He is one of my heroes.
The story was called "The Tower of the Elephant." In it Conan goes to steal a jewel from a wizard and discovers, held captive in the tower, a being most likely inspired by the Hindu god Ganesh (It was an man with an elephants head. Laugh if you want, but it looked so cool). It was a fascinating read and for a boy of thirteen it was an eye opener on so many levels. I've been a fan of the genre (and Mssrs. Thomas and Buscema) ever since.
I love reading stories of adventure, of swords and sorcery. I love drawing them too, as you can see. It's fun to imagine being in those world's where one never knew what fascinating creatures or magic might lay just over the next hill or deep inside a dark a forest.
What must it have been like back in the days of the Roman Empire? To be posted near Hadrian's Wall in Northern England and not know what lay beyond? Or to be on the other side of that wall watching these strange soldiers from another land building the thing. Think about that. Think about how wild it must have been. When you could travel to, what to you and yours was, the edge of the world, stand there and know, that with one more step, you would be going where (as far as you knew) no one had ever been before. Whew.
I like to think that if I were born in another time I would have been an adventurer, an explorer of some kind. In a past life I was most likely a ditchdigger or some such, but I like to think I would have been more. Y'know it's funny, when ever you hear someone talking about their past lives they always seem to have been someone famous or some famous persons chambermaid. No one ever finds out they were a bricklayer or a janitor. What's up with that?
Anyway, tomorrow I hope to bring you more discoveries from the land of the barbarians. Hopefully, you are enjoying my little exploration of the subject along with my strange thoughts.
Cheers!
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