Saturday, December 22, 2012

Wesołych Świąt - Happy Holidays

Salve Friends and visitors,
 happy Holiday Season to you all

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Sketches

Salve,
 some sketches in progress:

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Monday, December 17, 2012

A rider - MyPaint and Gimp manipulated image

Salve,
let me share with you a drawing/digital/ I did this month with MyPaint and manipulated with GIMP a bit.
The image - well, perhaps he is a schwartz character from some remote corner of the vast Polish Commonwealth borderlands (in 1620s A.D. the Respublica Poloniae was approximately 1 million kilometres in area) or perhaps a Registered Cossack (Polish Cossacks or Zaporozhian Cossacks) on a lookout for the Crimean Tatars.

 I may add several items to this image, perhaps a skull or some bones..., add some items on the horse tack list etc... After the New Year.

For, now I hope you will find it interesting :)
ps
Polish painter Józef Brandt was famous for showing these lookout (czaty) parties and our Cossacks eg:

many here and a nice one  here 



Saturday, December 15, 2012

sketches for Christian Cameron's novel 'Tom Swan'

Salve,
great historical fiction writer Christian Cameron is an author of new series taking place in mid XV century time period, where the main character is an English lad named Tom Swan. I read all three books and had so much fun that I can recomend this series to anyone who wants to time travel to the last battles of Hundred Years War, to the Republic of Venice and to Turk conquered Constantinople in old fashion style - by horseback or by galley :).  The adventure is fast paced but set firmly in the time period, but be forewarned that this is the world of fighting men and swordplay is frequent and very realistic. A review here.

I did some illustrations for these books and now I am  going to share my sketches with you. Hope they will be liked :)

First I copied, using MyPaint, some Bellini drawings:
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Sketched some horse tack:


Byzantines (still in Morea):



Ottoman Turk Janissary:



and Western European characters including the main personage of Tom Swan






all sketches were done using MyPaint and worked over with GIMP

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

De Bruyn's Scythian and Parthian and exotic horsemen

Salve,
continuing with the horsemen of master de Bruyn, today we have several prints showing imaginary horsemen of ancient times - Scythian and Parthian, and also two horsemen representing exotic, to de Bruyn's viewers, cultures, after all these images were drawn and printed in XVI century (Age of Exploration) when enterprising Europeans were in process of learning (through exploration, trade and war) about the lands of India and North Africa, while relaying heavily on the ancient Greek and Roman writers.

Scythian - allegory of one of these headhunting horsemen, not a historical depiction, most likely based on Herodotus of Halicarnassus description of the Scythians in his immortal works titled History. The wildness of this rider is underlined by showing his garments made out of furry pelts (animal skin). Using of wild animal pelts to cover themselves with was a trait of the Ottoman deli and other Balkan warriors, Polish winged hussars, and Hungarian hussars and kuruc.

Parthian - this is a rider executing the so called Parthian shot (going back to the Assyrian relief of IX century BC I presented in this post), otherwise he could be a contemporary steppe warrior or one from the armies of Poland or Ottoman Turkey

Maurus - also a Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) reference to the Numidian (in times of de Bruyn the Berbers of Algeria) horsemen that fought with javelins, while guiding their horses with their legs and using a bitless bridle, here shown as a sort of  cavesson

Indian (India) - well, the depiction of an Indian (Narsinga) horseman is also Classical, albeit most likely drawn from Luis de Camoes depiction of India in Os Lusiadas - accessible in 1776 translation  here
ciao
ps
if you are using GIMP - there is free publication - GIMP magazine via Ramon Miranda site

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Abracham de Bruyn's Horses

Salve,
 I have been showing prints by de Bruyn and this print I find very appealing as it shows only horses, 5 powerful horses, with a stallion acting very assertively.

Perhaps these horses are just to show de Bryun's  mastery of the equine subject, I do not know.
well, enjoy - :)


Saturday, December 1, 2012

Ottoman horsemen in de Bruyn's album

Salve,
finally we have come to see the Ottoman horsemen in Abrahm de Bruyn's art.

the sultan Murad III

Vizier pasha

Aga

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..sipahi

.. delil

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vassals:
Wallachians

Tatars


and enemies of Ottomans, the Persians:

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finis