Thursday 7 February 2013

The Stygian Witches

... or The Graeae of the 41st Millennium.

Yesterday was Waitangi Day here in New Zealand and there's no better time than a mid-week holiday to get stuck into a painting. So I decided to use my "day off" to give a more recent sketch of mine some attention... the Stygian Witches, inspired by Warhammer 40K.

Originating in Greek mythology, the Graeae (translates to "grey ones", "old women", or "grey witches") seemed like a great set of (kind of creepy) characters to be placed in the grim darkness of my favourite science-fiction setting.

I got a little carried away with the details when I did the sketch, so it took me the better part of the day and evening to flesh it all out in colour using Photoshop.


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12 comments:

  1. drednorzt7 February 2013 at 20:09

    Man i like this aLOT. what a cool way of portraying characters in the mural format like that.

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    1. Christian Schwager11 February 2013 at 20:33

      Thanks mate. The inspiration for the composition came from various Warhammer 40K books, and, of course, the magnificent art of John Blanche.

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  2. Turska21 March 2013 at 10:16

    Amazing artist you are. The Blanche twist is visible in this piece of art, but I think your own vision is still stronger. I see your technique is quite 'light' - I love that when the paintings have air to breathe with lighter spots, and not only grimmiest and eeriest colors are visible. There's a perfect balance in aggressive and zen-like peace in your paintings.

    Also your other works here are astonishing. Keep it up mate!

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  3. Christian Schwager21 March 2013 at 21:24

    Thank you so much for your kind comments. Really appreciate it :)

    It's always tricky to find a balance between emulating other artists' work that inspires while keeping true to ones own vision and style. Very glad to hear that you think I've succeeded.

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  4. Mikko Luoma22 March 2013 at 05:20

    Woah! Just traced you back from your comment in my blog. You are one serious talent Christian! I'll keep following your stuff for sure;)

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    1. Christian Schwager22 March 2013 at 21:06

      Thank you very much for the kind words, Mikko :)
      Looks like we're inspired by the same sorts of things and imagery.

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  5. Kari Hernesniemi22 March 2013 at 22:33

    Absolutely fantastic job, Christian!

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    1. Christian Schwager23 March 2013 at 06:01

      Thank you, Kari. I'm a massive fan of your work, too.
      Just today I had a peek at your feature in this month's White Dwarf... pure awesomeness! :)

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  6. Neil1013 April 2013 at 10:55

    these are great , thanks for sharing .:-)

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    1. Christian Schwager3 April 2013 at 22:44

      Thank you Neil101... and, you're very welcome. Glad to hear you like them :)

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  7. Unknown8 April 2013 at 20:55

    This is great. The Norns/Fates fit right in in a grimdark/40 K setting.

    Love the medieval composition.

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    1. Christian Schwager9 April 2013 at 12:08

      Thanks Nathan. That's exactly what I thought :)

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