Conan

So i'm in a Conan binge, reading the original stories that Howard wrote. Conan of Cimmeria is an interesting guy I tell you what. So I decided, as a fantasy artist, to do my first Conan piece. Now bear with me here. This is a very simple, portrait-esque image of him. My goal for painting is to shoot for a Rembrandt warmth and glow, using very earthy colors and impasto strokes and glazing and all that crazy shit (at least for the times) that Mr. Ran Rijn achieved. I think it works well with Conan too. So here is the finished drawing (might add some more details and minutiae in the paint stage). The photo reference was from the stock art of http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/ whose stock is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately right now I do not have the money to hire my own models nor do I know anyone who has the stature and build of Conan. So for the photos used, all credit goes to one Marcus J. Ranum whose site I linked. Without further ado, here's the drawing. A note however, the reddish pink tinge is a byproduct of the scanning process. I have no idea why it does it, but I really don't mind it in this case. That is the first finish, Jamierose however pointed out that his eyes look wonky and I agreed with her (after disagreeing with a million other things :p ) SO I redid his face, rescanned it, and the b/w one i the official finish. I made his scares more prominent and overall I think it just looks better.