Mjolnir- for those hard to reach places

This is my version of our favorite Norse God after a conquest.

Some times you just have to go back to go forward. Thor has been in the news a lot recently and though I dabbled with the Marvel title during my teen years, it was really the original mythology that captured my imagination. I mean who doesn’t want to practically invulnerable and control thunder?

This one is my first and favorite except for the hand holding the hammer (that's the beginning of the Midgard serpent in the background). I love the pose, but I went back to the drawing board and got some photo reference for hand as well as another ideal for the background.

My goal with this drawing was to capture my own take on Thor and continue a technique I’ve been developing with washable markers. I did a few little doodles and then tried to imagine a pose I hadn’t seen before. There are lots of Thor in the clouds, lighting flashing, action smashing poses, but how many at rest? I wanted to show the weight of Mjolnir and an act that was tiring, but is done. The moment after battle.

This is my second attempt, and I got out photo reference for the hands, pose and background (yes I am the model). I felt the hands and scene were better, but the figure was way too stiff and had Chewbacca arms.

The technique that I have been developing starts with a pen drawing. I then color with washable markers (over color actually) and run it under water. I started developing the process by mistake by spilling on a rendering. Then I saw a page underneath had a print and I thought I might have a new way of doing a monoprint. When I was trying to perfect that I realized that the washed out original ends up looking pretty cool too (especially if you rework some of the pen lines after).

With the final I did Thor on a separate page from the background so that I could bleed the colors without bleeding too much of the blue. I’m still not satisfied with what I want to use the technique for (it’s like a more complicated version of water color), but I think it’s fun to have some things in an image that you didn’t predict. Also it challenged me to risk my drawing and push myself.

To end this week here is an image of the cover of a book about Thor that is wonderfully illustrated by Jim Madsen (check out this website http://www.shannonassociates.com/artists/index.cfm?page_num=13&artist_name=jimmadsen). His art is inspiring and makes me want to get better.

A very fun book about Thor