Galeasses study (Patreon)

Looking at a large, complicated, important illustration is often like looking at a iceberg. Most of it is invisible to the viewer. It lurks beneath the surface. 

       Same is true for a illustration. Before you start on a piece you may end up doing a lot of study and homework that the viewer will never see or know of. Unless you post it online like this. 

        Now before I go any further I want to make one thing clear. I am not an expert on ships, naval warfare, or design. I consider it one of my weaker areas of knowledge. 

        If you want to see someone who grocks sailing ships go take a look at Amarynceus on DA. She's probably forgotten more sailing vessels than I will ever know. 

       I am currently working up a rather large, complicated color piece as a patron reward for Caerdwyn. It is of one of characters from a previous D&D campaign. And the setting is on the deck of a ship during a naval battle. The main focus character is a rowing slave who has taken up his master's fallen sword and is defending him from the brigands who are boarding the ship. 

        Now the combatants are equipped in a much more medieval style armor and weapons, but this is a fantasy setting, and even though the focus character is from a very Norse type background Caerdwyn wanted a more swashbuckling type setting for the piece which is not what you'll find on a Viking Longship. Hand to hand combat on a longship is more like two people dueling in phone booth.

        With submachine guns.

        If you still can't visualize what I am talking about Google (Angus McBride Viking longship battle). Pinterest has dozens of images of the piece I am referring to. Also I want to go on record by saying that the late Angus McBride was one of the illustrators I revered and studied intensely when I was in college. 

        Beside Caerdwyn describes the ship as having decks, but I was still struggling with the composition for the piece. It wasn't feeling like the deck of a ship. So I remembered a piece of advice I got in college. Even if you're only going to show a small portion of location, object, or individual in a picture it is often prudent to do a drawing or drawings of the entire thing. That way you can get better understand the spatial relationship between different objects and their size compared to other objects and individuals in the piece.  

       So I referred back to another of my heroes of illustration when I was growing up. Bjorn Landstrom. I pulled my copy of his book The Ship and started reading. This drawing is inspired by Plate 340 in that book.