Ol' One Eye, finished

Well, this is done. I'll send it off to my client today.

Here's how this went in my household. It helps to know that my partner is a secular pagan whose religious tradition is Odinism. When I was discussing this with her, she suggested that Odin needed a big floppy hat and that he should be young and "hot." When I showed this to her she seemed disappointed. First, because I didn't do the kind of floppy hat she expected (I thought it made him look like Gandalf rather than Odin), but also because she couldn't tell how well-hung Odin was. "Perhaps I should have had him writing runes in the snow?" I said. "That would have worked," she said.

Whatever.

Brush and ink and pen and some white paint on Bristol board. The original is 11"x17".

Ol' One Eye

This is a work in progress. The client wanted a drawing of Odin with his ravens and wolves, but didn't want him in a warrior aspect. Research told me that he was going to need a big hat, but I didn't want a hat that would make him look like Gandalf. The outfit is based on a Viking coat from Birka, while his belt buckle is patterned after the great buckle from the Sutton Hoo ship burial. It doesn't look very "viking" by the popular imagination, but this is actually pretty heavily researched. The hat, I admit, I kitbashed from a couple of historical sources and probably doesn't resemble anything real. In truth, I'm tired of drawing fur. I've drawn a lot of it this year. Check back when this is finished, by which time, I'll be tired of drawing snowy branches.