As someone who comes from a heavy Germanic and Norwegian background, I thought this would be a great chance to draw on those influences in the fantasy genre.
From an island (based on high fantasy with said Norwegian and Germanic influence) littered with warring clans, Sigrid is part of a farming and herding community in a valley beneath a great range of mountains. At one point, she and a group of villagers journey into the mountains in search of the fabled Himmelskjold shrine where the gods were said to place an extraordinary power within one of the mountains. During this journey, the group is forced into a series of winding caves by a group of rival clan raiders and Sigrid is separated from the group. Wandering the caves, she stumbles upon Himmelskjold, where in the middle of a large domed cavern there is a black anvil with two ancient, rusted axes with the heads buried in the center. With raiders closing in, she puts a hand on either handle and pulls them free, a burst of fire and lightning that create decorative scarification symbolic of the gods on her forearms, but simultaneously blinding her. The mythical axes, named Styrke and Rask, imbued with the powers of fire and lightning respectively, aid her in defeating her foes and enabling her to protect her village.
I started with a basic list of topics, narrowing them down to what kind of warrior I would create and what kind of powers he/she would have, then what weapon(s) they would yield. I based the color scheme on said powers the type of world they would inhabit, like what technology would be available to them. I was thinking of a people based in a time equivalent to the middle of Earth's Bronze Age. With that in mind, I started out with the axes first (as I'm pretty partial to melee weapon design). First the silhouette and the basic shapes of the axes were roughed out, then narrowed down to the ones that appealed to me most. The lineart has been finalized and I am now rendering those out in PS.
Updates will be posted shortly showing my process. Thanks for visiting!
K. Cota
