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Anvil of Crom

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Happy Thursday, folks!

Seeing as how the last piece I did inspired by John Milius' opus, Conan the Barbarian was so well received, I couldn't pass up the chance I was offered of doing a counterpart to it depicting the titular character himself as played by Mr. Schwarzenegger.

I've drawn Conan many times, but it is usually closer to what Buscema did in the famous Marvel iterations of the character than the film version. And even though I am usually a purist when it comes to adaptations, often preferring the original books over them, in this instance I can't help but feel a strong fondness for this classic. Because, while it departs from Robert E. Howard's vision in many respects, it still carries some of the essence of the stories' brutality. And of course, the imagery is quite poignant and has helped me numerous times when researching how to stage and frame certain illustrations. 

I didn't have much time to do something grand and this piece is an addition to already long-overdue images, so I concentrated in homaging the original classic shot but adapting it to my style, which is unique enough (I hope!). 

As usual, I hope you enjoy this one and I'll see if I can keep the updates more or less consistent despite my heavy workload.

Thank you for watching and see you soon!

Nic.-
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Bahamut-255's avatar
Now this was a powerful scene here.  After keeping his Soul from being taken, and declaring that even if she were dead and Conan still fighting for Life, she'd return even from Hell to fight alongside him - and Valeria made good on her vow later - seeing Conan recover from the attempted Crucifixion of him and practice his sword-combat.  

You've captured this scene so well that I'm hearing 'The Recovery' in my mind right now, as I type this.  As I've said before, the music of Basil Poledouris really lifts this Movie.  

And in said movie, there's a striking differences between Conan and Thulsa Doom:  

Conan has been shown that though a Barbarian and having a harsh upbringing, he does have a strong sense of decency to him.  Examples.  When Bred to the Finest Stock (as stated by Akiro), he moves her out of the view of the others, and is gentle with her.  And when raiding the temple, instead of just killing everyone in sight, he targets the ones who need killing, pushing the others out of the way[1].  

He also judges people based on what they can do, such as when he and Subotai attempt to raid the Temple and encounter Valeria for the first time, they draw their weapons and meet the challenge, they don't dismiss her because of her gender.  They treat her as a legitimate threat in terms of combat skill.  

On top of this, he's not stupid.  Knowing that Thulsa Doom is coming, preparing the Burial Mounds with traps, go-to weapons to face them - and a Killer Prayer to boot - which combined with some help beyond the grave...

All a far cry from Thulsa Doom who only sees others as a means to further his own ruthless ambition.  Willing to have them kill themselves just to prove his own power over them, and throw them away when unneeded/unwanted as proven following his failed attempt to retrieve Princess Yasimina.  

Any more of this and it'll be more like a review of the movie and characters, and not the art here.  

So back to the art.  Scene looks right.  Pose looks good.  Expression is very Conan to me.  Basil Poledouris' Score can be heard.  Wind in the hair I can see clearly.  All Good.  ^_^

I'd love to see how you'd take on Snake-Head Doom as he's looking at the Princess - and probably thinking '[CENSORED] this, I'm outta here...'