ART WAR 5 | 2D Submissions | Art World War | Sweden - Midsummer Shield-maiden | morecado

Character based on Swedish culture.
Combining our traditional midsummer celebration and vikings, she leads the charge and represents Sweden in the 5th Art War.

Name: John Dahglren
Email: Kuya.Dahlgren@gmail.com
Website: morecado.com
Twitter: twitter.com/morecado
Instagram: instagram.com/morecado/
ArtStation: artstation.com/morecado

Concep Sheet & Final Illustration:

I don't have that good of an idea what I'll create just yet.
Picked Sweden, because it's my home country.
I'll start with some general research first.

I think I'd enjoy trying to combine the look of vikings (both real and fantasy) with various elements from the traditional midsummer celebrations (obviously not the one from that weird horror movie).

Going for a female character would be the more interesting choice in my opinion. Might be because the midsummer dress mixed with some viking stuff sounds cool to me.

Not planning on going hard in on too many versions and variants. I just want to draw something, lol.

Ok, so after getting down some of my initial thoughts on canvas, I'm 100% sure I want to go for some kind of commander/shield-maiden type of character. Someone who leads the charge. I mean, I haven't heard of vikings that ran solo raids (pretty sure the Swedish vikings were more merchants than raiders, but nevermind that).

I have a soft spot for strong and physically built women (that still have a feminine look to them). It's such a cool look, so I'll go for that.

I think i'll try a mix of image two and three for the charcater. Perhaps I'll explore some outfit options before moving further into illustration.

I think I've already decided on a bunch of stuff by now, such as colors and her laurel.
Here are some general thoughts, from left to right:

1. The wolf head adds more personality than just the fur on it's own. The lack of flowers could be made up for with weapons/tools (that have flowers on them).
2. The chest piece is the least interesting one, but it looks pretty nice and sleek. Overall, feels like the least daring design. Shape variation is pretty meh. I'm not sure I like it.
3. This one really mixes the two and the result was something that sort of doens't fit into either of my inspirations. I quite like that. If I can sharpen those aspects and bring it all together, I think it'll turn out nicely.

Plan going forward:
Use the design on the right as a base and try to "complete" it. The design on the left is a good indicator of when it leans too far into "midsummer girl with viking gear", which obviously wouldn't be a good "mix" of the two.

To-Do:
1. Final Design
2. Final Splash

I hope I can make it in time. Work got me running low on free time.
Anyways, today I managed to sqeeze in some weapon design for her.

Initial thoughts:
1) The laurel is part of the polearm, one way or another.
2) The weapon belongs to someone leading the charge.
3) The weapon should look used. (Got to look a little roughed up to fit a viking.)

How they were met in the final design:
1) Laurel is attached to the tip, giving the weapon some interesting shape distribution.
2) Polearm doubles as banner, without looking too fancy.
3) Broken tip, laurel falling apart, banner is a mess - this thing has been on the battlefield.

I'm not to concerned about giving her a shield. I mean, I most likely will, but I don't think it'll be important enough for me to go too deep into designing it. It'll match the rest of her gear, that's about it.