The Ravens of Odin

The God Odin had two ravens who's names meant memory and forethought, so there is that, but ravens are rampant throughout the viking lore and they thought to be omens of good luck, as well as the children of Odin. So too are the Vikings thought to be, the children of Odin. So it is a multi layered reference to who the Vikings are.

edquinby001 wrote:

But, this drawing was completely colored and I just converted the mode to Grayscale in Photoshop! The contrast stayed surprisingly good and I just had a few tweaks to make it a gray toned work and a heckuva lot cheaper to print.

Any way you could post the color version?

Sure thing! My coloring is pretty much on the basic side, so I like the b&w version better.

Very cool!

I love the color, very Prince Valiant, or I mean to say, it invokes that Sunday comics adventure feel. But I do have to say there is a richness to the black and white version that is quite compelling. It has a weight to it, that I think I prefer. As an artist, do you prefer working in color or B&W? Does the sources material have any influence over the art decisions for you, or is it purely a publishing choice?

edquinby001 wrote:

Let me post a few entries from The Ravens of Odin, hope I can find drawings without the stereotypical horned helmets!

The helmets! This interview was the first I've heard about the Horned helmets being a myth. I'm not gonna lie, it makes me a little sad. I think I prefer the myth over reality.

Your work is very detailed. Do you do any research or use reference when working on historical subject matter like this?

Alex Ness wrote:

What I understand is that some of the perceptions of what they appeared as has been exaggerated but the horned helmets, which have roundly been dismissed existed in some way, perhaps as a high officer or religious leader wearing them. Or so I've been told.

This ties in with my question to Ed as well, what type of reference material or research do you do, if any. When you are in the moment, that creative space, do you prefer to create from a more pure place from your mind's eye, deep in your own imagination or do you seek out inspiration from research? Or something else entirely... do you have a process or even a routine, I've read recently that some authors like Ray Bradbury, would develop a daily writing routine. Others will wait for inspiration...

[quote="Joe [/quote]This ties in with my question to Ed as well, what type of reference material or research do you do, if any. When you are in the moment, that creative space, do you prefer to create from a more pure place from your mind's eye, deep in your own imagination or do you seek out inspiration from research? Or something else entirely... do you have a process or even a routine, I've read recently that some authors like Ray Bradbury, would develop a daily writing routine. Others will wait for inspiration...[/quote]

Well, Alex can point to a lifetime of research for projects like this. I came into it after he's written it all down, so it's a little like playing catch-up. I do try to do as much research as time allows when a story is placed into a specific milieu. And that's most stories, even fantasy stories may call for a particular historical look, 'Make everything look medieval, or, 'think ancient China for this!'

With Ravens of Odin I had a headstart of sorts. For more than a decade I've written and drawn stories of my own character, Teregrin, a wandering vagabond set in the early dark ages immediately following the fall of the Roman Empire. Those stories are more comedic and have fantastic elements, so history is handled more fast and loose than when dealing with actual Vikings. Alex is nothing if not flexible regarding his artists' interpretations, but he definitely knows the facts so I feel obliged to try to get as much as possible right. Before I even begin layouts, I gather together reference materials. I probably have ten books that relate in some way to the Viking era, although I didn't use them all. Three that I refer to on a regular basis are: Ancient European Costume and Dress by Herbert Norris, Kingdom of the Dwarfs by David Wenzel and Robb Walsh, and Prince Valiant strip collections. Of course dwarfs aren't vikings, but I picked up some weapons and clothing designs from there.

Sometimes, I'll page through reference just to get the juices flowing and doing so often crystalizes what I want to do even though it's completely different from the reference itself. Sometimes when I need to draw landscapes, mountains or rocks, I'll look at examples from Prince Valiant by Hal Foster, then juggle elements from several of his different panels into mine. The result wouldn't look like any particular Foster panel, but he really knew how to render poplar, cypress, evergreen trees, bushes... well pretty much everything. Foster originally took a tour of Europe taking many photographs for his landscapes. In fact, his handling of water and rock textures are so naturalistic and correct that by looking at them you can extrapolate how water and rock look in different settings and angles. Reference for this type of project could easily become endless or even lead you into interesting, but unproductive, avenues of research. You can't fuss every detail and finally you have to put your own stamp on things, assume a level of confidence merited or not, fish or cut bait and try to think like a Viking!

with no disrespect to anyone I've worked with, nor any towards people I will work with, working with Ed is a dream.

Man, now I feel like a !

Just a quick reminder, THE RAVENS OF ODIN is a new book of poems and images from the Viking age. Fifty poems written by Alex Ness, illustrated by Ed Quinby, two of the most talented people I know, but don't take my word for it, buy the book The Ravens of Odin, online from CreateSpace
https://www.createspace.com/4147081 

You'll find more poetry by Alex Ness at his blog, Alex Ness Poetry
http://alexnesspoetry.blogspot.com/

and you can see more art from Ed Quinby at edquinby.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://edquinby.deviantart.com/gallery/