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Submitted: April 7, 2007
Image Size: 280 KB
Resolution: 600×900

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Warrior Gritby ~aautio

Traditional Art / Drawings / People

Here's something I drew yesterday, and lo and behold: it is not a Tolkien illustration! Gasp!

Uh, well.. I suppose if I really wanted to make it one, she would fit my image of Haleth almost well enough to name it “wounded Haleth” or somesuch, but I will resist that temptation.. because in fact it’s Theja, a character of mine who has been around for quite a while in one form or another, but remained quiescent for a long time. I don’t know why the Muse saw it fit to compel me to draw her now, but it’s best not to think too much and just be grateful for each spark of inspiration, I guess..

Theja (meant to be pronounced something like [ðɛˈjɑ] in case you're wondering) is a mercenary and an adventurer (that is to say "vagrant"). The life of a warrior is not easy (and often short) and those who survive have to sustain many injuries and without advanced medicine, even minor wounds are often fatal because of inflammation. Theja is a tough fighter who bears many scars as proof of injuries she has overcome. This "puny arrow" will be no different.. (although that's bound to hurt – ouch!)

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_{I think this warrants giving away a little additional information.. You see, once upon a time (well, around 2-3 years ago, but anyway..) I was actually planning to start drawing a fantasy (web)comic featuring Theja and her three siblings among other people. I meant to place the story into a world called Astar, an rpg setting I had been working on – kind of brutal and nihilistic place.. “realistic” if you will. I wanted to take some of the gritty vivid feel of R.E. Howard’s stories, add some heroic legend spirit of tolkienian myth, mix in some very very few fantasy elements and create a kind of a “realistic and believable” Medieval-type world. Something without too many of the ridiculous clichés, anachronisms and nomenclature that have always annoyed me in most fantasy stories.

Obviously that never happened. As is usual for such over-ambitious endeavours, I never had the time and energy to finish the Astar project.. I hadn’t even had time to game anymore in years so it didn’t make much sense anyway. The final deathblow was losing pretty much everything I had written when my HDD died on me around three years ago. The comic/graphic novel was an idea to save some of that work by turning it into a background setting for a story. Well, that never happened either because of my inability to draw comics in the first place and more importantly, my complete lack of storytelling talent.. And of course, the obvious lack of time for such an undertaking – especially after I started working on my thesis.

The only part of the comic I remember actually storyboarding – about a dozen pages or so – turned out so violent, bloody, morbid and depressing it almost made me want to go out and shoot myself in the head. (No, I’m not serious, of course!). Worst of all, it was terribly clichéd – the thing I had wanted to avoid most of all! At best it might have made a halfway decent ending for the entire story or a full album.. but not something to begin it with.

So.. I came to my senses and that project never happened. But some characters do remain.. and I find I still quite like them. So, now that I'm reminded of their existence, be warned that I might just draw something about them again sometime!}
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No real surprises here: drawn with HB / 2B pencils on copy paper. Took me the whole evening, maybe 5 hours or so. Added highlights and the parchment texture in Photoshop, as usual.

I also took this opportunity to experiment a bit more with the background texture, if only to set the drawing (and it's possible followers-up) apart from the Tolkien-related artwork.. sort of "colour-coding for your convenience" or something..

I wanted a bit stronger parchment-like texture, so I took one of my old paper scans which I had initially discarded (back then when I made the current paper, I felt it interfered too much with the lineart), mixed it with my paper template and tinted the whole thing with burgundy to get a stronger colour.

I think it looks good on my high-end LCD, but let me know what you people think of it.. I've noticed my usual paper looks rather yellowish on some monitors even though it's supposed to be closer to the colour of pale skin / untanned leather – so I'm just guessing this one might look somewhat orange to some of you (while reddish brown would be correct)? If it looks really bad I might need to tweak it.

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~Thorgar Oct 26, 2012

simply epic

~ForTheLoveofSatire Jul 7, 2011

Incredible detail and emotion! Would you feel comfortable submitting this image into the Battle Ready Womyn group? [link] Were a group dedicated to realistically armoured women warriors and respectful interpretations of them and feel this artwork fits group qualifications. Hope you chose to contribute! (This would be best submitted into the Metal Ages and even, Featured folders).

~Lady-Of-The-Pen Jul 26, 2011 General Artist

Lol I was just about to suggest this for the Real-Armored-Women women group [link]

~jimmymyself Oct 15, 2010

Great with the details.

~jimmymyself Aug 24, 2010

Awesome work. Good detail.

~OldSchoolGM Aug 22, 2010

Great to see an image of a warrior woman who isn't wearing a chainmail bikini. She's a real warrior, and she's obviously badass. Two thumbs up!

!illpick1later Jun 16, 2010

i know just what you mean when you talk about the ambitious project that you wind up disliking. anyway, to this pic! it's gorgeous. her mouth and eyes are perfect, and she's actually wearing actual armor. obviously, this is a must-fave.

~dranor44 Jun 5, 2010 Student General Artist

you dont pull it out!
you push it thru smash off the tip then pull out!
lol what ever the pic is really kool^^

!white-zinfadel Oct 6, 2009

awesome job on the armor. i never have enough patience to draw all the links in chainmail, it definitely adds a lot to the work in the end, great job!

~Staminator Jul 16, 2008

I like this piece, I really do. I have actually been searching for two or three days for a picture of an honest-to-god warrior woman, one who was not just a sexy model dressed up.

You, sir, win. This is a gritty, realistic merc about to go through the painful task of pulling a broadhead arrow out of her arm.

Kudos.

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