Grendal

I originally drew this Grendal image before Christmas 2010. However, with Christmas being a little hectic and me having to catch up on some university work, the time passed in a blink of an eye. It wasn't till early February that I picked it back up again. This image is hopefully (time given) the first in a series of images that I want to illustrate from Seamus Heaney's transcript of the poem Beowulf. If you've not read this transcript, I highly recommend it. It was written some time between the middle of the seventh and the end of the tenth century of the first millenium. Having read it, it makes you realize that this is the birth place of todays archetypal action hero. Considering the date Beowulf was originally written, I find this amazing.

The image itself (at this moment) I'm happy with. I like the design of Grendal best. I kind of wanted to mix an ork with a bald baboon (those spiky haired bastard's scare me!) and I think to some degree I've achieved this. When I first set out on this image I wanted to tone the whole image in watercolour and then use that as a base coat to take into Photoshop. I wish I'd have followed through on that idea, but alas, I went down the old route of pencil-photoshop. That said, I feel I stayed away from making it look to plastic like and false, so that's some comfort.