"Odin's men went without their mailcoats and were mad as hounds or wolves, bit their shields...they slew men, but neither fire nor iron had effect upon them..."
 |
| Final "Berserker" Image |
One of the most famous and popular icons from the heathen Viking age is that of the berserker. The beserkers, referred to as "Odin's men" were Viking shock troops that were renown for their ferocity in battle. They are also associated with shamanism and would use various hallucinogenic plants, alcohol, and ritual practices to work themselves into a battle frenzy where they were reported by several historians to display feats of super human strength, and, reportedly, felt no pain. They would also not be able to distinguish friend from foe, killing indiscriminately.
They were known to wear bear skins. Contemporaries speculate that this could be a part of their shamanistic rituals where they would go through a process of channeling the ferocity of a bear, or it could be that the bear skins distinguished them from other troops. Therefore, their allies would know to avoid them in their berserker rage. It's also possible that the berserkers were part of some sort of bear cult, or it could be any of these things, but the bear skin was a sure way to identify a berserker warrior.
The process by which the berserkers worked themselves into their battle rage was called "berserkergang", or, "going berserk" in English where term is still used today.
I was inspired to draw out a really extreme looking berserker warrior. Read on to learn more about my creative process:
 |
| Rough sketch phase. |
So, I knew I wanted to draw a berserker warrior as described above. I had a rough idea in my head that I wanted to really exaggerate his features to try to really dramatize the fact that this dude is completely out of his mind and a wild man. So, I started to play around with a rough sketch to kind of lay out his facial features and muscles.
 |
| Inked Sketch |
Once I was happy with my rough sketch, I continued to polish the work I had done, using ink to set a more finalized version of the sketch I had done. I added the details of the fur and the veins in the muscles. I went overboard with the muscles and the popping veins because I wanted this guy to feel like he was going to come off the page to kill you! I wanted it to look as though he's about to explode with rage. I also decided to drop the pupils to make him look more like a monster than a man. Again, this is not meant to be realism, rather an exaggerated reality. A sort of romanticism of the subject matter.
 |
| Berserker Final Draft |
Once I had my polished inked sketch. I went through the process of coloring my berserker, and i created a backdrop for him that includes blood splatters, runes, and some really cool looking fraktur looking letters that spell out "Berserker."
If you like this design you can shop online for quality apparel and accessories by clicking the link below:
No comments:
Post a Comment