Baldur - Megadump
Althought this work was created many years ago, it's still the one project most dear to my heart. What you see here is an attempt at creating an illustrated book, which never fully came to fruition since writing isn't my strongest suit. Nonetheless, I'm proud of the effort I put in into creating these illustrations and concequently a world, quite fully fleshed out, which still lives on within me.
I guess this project was and my love letter to mother nature, life and exploration in it's broadest term.
The greatest challenge of this project was finding the style - I had never really done line-art prior to this but to my suprise I fell deeply in love with the meditation of making up a whole image of same-sized, 100% opacity brushstrokes. Additionally, working with the density of lines and creating patterns within a subject to make up shape simply felt wonderful since it forced me to be very considerate and patient - it kinda concistently forced me into a flow state. Since then I've seen many artworks with a similiar style but back then I thought I had invented something new haha! Atleast for me it was something new, something to learn and geek the hell out of.
There is so much that I could say surrounding this project so, If you are curious about the world, hit me up!
Disclosure - The story of this world is NOT base on "Balder" from the north mythos in anyway haha...I simply liked the name!
Baldur
Foraging is an activity of utmost importance. Lil' guy to the right is Aaron, descendant of the northern spirits. He's one crafty fellow.
Here he is swinging away, working his tobacco fields.
I've been on my fair share of hikes and moments like these have been shared both with strangers and friends. Truly the highlight of a day out hiking.
Even the tiniest flame welcomes many a thing in forests.
This is Björn, whom in a way could be described as the biologist of these lands.
Baldur facing the destruction of The Ashen One - I hadn't played Darksouls at that point so...Don't be mad at me for stealing that naming, please!
High Spirit interacting with a water spirit
Sigrun, apprentice and granddaughter of Gudrun.
One of my favorites, would love to animate this.
This is the wise one, Gudrun.
And yeah, what can I say - Gudrun has the coziest place ever.
She makes great soup too!
My partner couldn't really make it out but here you can see a fraction of the great Mother, guardian of the northern hemosphere.
Blessed be the waters for cooling our worn feet.
Sigrun and Baldur sharing a moment together.
I do remember the struggle with this piece since I had never drawn two characters interacting physically with one another! Love it dearly.
Some early character sketches!