The murder of Balder

As still Death had fallen on Balder. The Heavenly City lay hushed As the yard where the dead lie entombed. But when dying—nay, dead. Balder fell, There rose wailing and groans from the Asas From throats that were strangers to weeping, From heroes of godlike endurance.

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Reblog on Tumblr: [link]

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This was originally intended to be a print for printmaking but the printing process turned out to be a disaster. I still have the digital lines, however, so all of my work was not entirely lost. It was intended to be printed on stonehenge and handcolored.

I was inspired by Jaun Bauer and Arthur Rackham. While Loki did not slay Balder by his own hand, I wanted to depict it as such and to have Loki taking a leisurely joy from it. The text fades somewhat toward the top and is meant to be a visual element rather than something to be read, to give the appearance of the character's interacting with the story. Besides, the final lines of the poem are the ones I enjoy the most.

There was initial digital sketching before the linework was done in pencil on strathmore tracing paper and then scanned and digitally enhanced. The border and figures were drawn separately and then combined digitally.