80%? That's not too bad then.
I can work with that, lol.
Fingers crossed for uncranked judges!

Seeing as my drawings were featured on the Cubebrush social medias, I feel extremely motivated.

Here's what she'll look like, save for some pattern work I have yet to do.
I'm kind of just banking on that the painting process just "works out" and I can get all the details down at that stage.

There's still some refining left to do on this sketch, not to mention the back view, but as soon as that's done.....

Paint time baby!

Threw on some rough colors, just to see what it'll look like.
I quite like how it's looking so far.
Will go forward with this.
I'll limit the pattern work to the cloth going down from her belt (is it a loin cloth?), the shoulder strip and those bands wrapping her tunic right below her shoulders.

I wonder... Is it better to adress the back now or do it after I've painted the front?
One option would be to paint the front, then make a copy of it and paint over that.
The other one would be to have a back view with flat colors only, but that requires lineart of the back - which I'd probably want to have done before I start painting.

Giving a Swdish person blonde hair and blue eyes is a bit stereotypical, but I do think it fits well in this particular design - considering the colors of the flag. A bit of a design freebie there, for sure!

I went with the 2nd option, so I had to draw the back before I began painting.
Might go over it with some touch-ups here and there by the end.

For now, enjoy the progress I've made so far on the front view.
I'm happy with how she looks, as I wanted her to have a bit of a masculine face. I mean, it's still very feminine, but I think her jawline and chin makes it look a bit rougher.

I'll most likely leave it in a messy and painterly stage like this once I'm done. Admittedly, I am spending more time than I what'd be effecient at this stage, but I quite enjoy it... so it's sort of fine? Anyways, this character sheet will look nice in the portfolio.

@dreamsequenz Thank you!

Designing phase is done!

(Ok, ok, the back isn't quite there yet. I'll add the extras later on, but I'll leave it rough like that - unless I have time to spare later on and can render it out to match the front.)

I'm not sure I want the flowers in her laurels, but it's likely I'll add them in later.

I went with some more subtle patters for the various embroidery on her clothes.
From what I can remember, I don't think I've seen patterns that were more complicated than this. They exist, I'm sure, but I like it the way it is now. Not too overwhelming and most importantly - Not something that'll cause me pain in the final painting.

(Added my artist handle and the logo, so that I could post it to other social medias.)

Onwards we go!

Thank you!
Such an all-encompassing compliment

@Gil_Ascher @ems
Thank you for your kind words!
Happy to hear that you like it.

Currently working on figuring out how I wish to pose her and present her in context.
It's a bit of a challenge, but I'll probably post a lot of rough sketches soon.

Dumping some of the sketches I've done.
Not all sketches were created equal...

So far I'm leaning towards the ones I put some rough values on.
I like seeing her at an angle, both from slightly above and below.
Personally, I feel like there's more feeling/emotion being conveyed when at an angle, as opposed to being at the same height as her. Paired with a tilted camera angle, it looks very dynamic and interesting to me.

From what I can tell, the strenghts of a wide canvas would be to showcase more movement and things happening, whereas the tall canvas lets me put more focus on just her.

Not quite sure what I want here to be honest.
It'd be cool to show her in combat being all strong and stuff, but I know that I'd enjoy painting a more calm character piece just as much.

I really like the feeling of the 2nd image though....

@Pregium
Yeah, that one really felt badass.
The only thing that kept me from working further on it was how "flat" it felt to me compared to the angled shots. It didn't quite fit my requirements for how dynamic I'd like the final piece to feel. That said, I think everything else you said can be applied to the other ones as well and possible elevate them even further - and I totally did think about it as I kept working on it.

@studio-petercools
Thanks man!
Having some background colors served like a painter's wash for me and helped the colors stay consistent. So far, I've been approaching all the parts in colors in a way similar to that of a traditional painter... not that I have much experience with that, so it's more like that I think it'd be like.

Trying out some of the things I liked in the previous stage, focusing on how the angle of the canvas and character work together. The only one I didn't like was the vertical canvas with an high angle of the character. It made her fill out the canvas way too efficiently, leaving to little room around her than I'd feel comfortable working with. (It wasn't that bad though.)

After putting some very rough values (I lack the patience to take this step seriously unless it's for work) I realized that the high angles didn't let me see the sky (unless reflected in a puddle or something) and I really wanted to show some nice sunrise-ish colors in my painting to come.

Now here it gets a little interesting. I ended up going quite far with this one despite having been quite against the high angles so far. What happened was that I still had a difficult time letting go of the idea, as I thought it was the lack of detail in the previous versions that held them back.

That was not the case. I simply couldnt' think of anything to put in the background that'd support what I wanted the final piece to convey. Be it structures, nature or people - the piece would just feel so heavy, like the mood would be so heavy, with this angle. The details looked nice, but I couldn't quite figure out the legs. Might've been something with the hips.

At last, I landed on something different. I knew what I liked and what I thought worked in the previous ones. Only thing left to do was to put only those things in the final sketch and ditch the rest.

What I really like is the fact that the angle isn't too dramatic and leaves a lot of room for the design to be on full display. Also a little bit excited to make some more one-off designs for the other vikings in the back.

Now, the question is...
Do I want to just try and wing it with paint straight away or will I do more prep-work?
The answer is most likely the latter, but It's very likely that I'll start painting sooner than usual.

Anyways, progress is being made. At this rate, it should be possible to finish in time.

I wonder if I should add in more people later on. Like, in the far back.
It seems like it'd be worth it. They kind of clutter the composition (lol), but if they're far enough from the main stuff, maybe the value difference can make it work. I'll just have to try it out and see for myself.