SciFi and Fantasy Art: Cavalry Charge

SWEET!
this is an awsome picture.
I love the Romans!

This very nice, great picture

Great sense of motion, great expression, the anatomy even looks pretty balanced which is pretty hard to do from the front. If you added a few more riders and a bit of a background you would have a full fledged battle scene. Great work on the shading too!

As I remember my Latin lessons well, they didn't even have saddles. Not like the ones whe know today anyway...
They used to strap a sort of blanket on the horse's back.

Stirrups were (according to legend) invented by a little peasant girl somewhere in the french region who made two loops of leather so she could ride on the plowing horse, which was otherwise way too big for her. Must have been around 800 B.C. I think. It was those stirrups that helped in making the first crusade a succes, against stirrup-less Anatolian light cavalry.

As for the saddle with the high front and back, this was also a medieval invention, especially handy in tournaments, were they tried to knock each other out of the saddle. Also a handy thing in battle, but a bit uncomfortabale for a relaxing horsey-ride.

Sorry for the too technical pondering, I just couldn't resist...
Your drawing is very good, most of them by the way.

Your Pics are so cool! they are great pictures for my Roman project! great artist! Keep on drawing!

lovely, your one of the few artists i've seen that actually poses the rider in such a way that he moves WITH the horse.

I, too, love techical details. Actually, Romans used a very neat little saddle that had four horns, two to each leg, which would sort of wrap around the rider's thighs. Some modern tests have shown that they are quite effective in keeping the rider in the saddle and allow one to use a sword or spear quite effectively. Speaking of swords and spears, even for a fantasy world one would want a longer sword from horseback (the historical Romans or whoever was supplying their cavalry used a type of sword called a spatha), and one usually uses a spear or lance as the primary weapon.

Incidently, the first known picture of a stirrup is a scythian torc (neckring) dating from the fourth century BC, but no one in the west or middle east seems to have used them before 800 AD or so. The Arabs and Turks of the Middle Ages definitely had them, though.

Impressive

First of all I'm delighted to see someone with the same interest. You captured the horse anatomy and motion very well. The emotion on the horsemen's face are also vivid. There were however some minor discrepancies. First the Romans used no stirrup. Sirrups were first introduced to the western world by the Avars, a hunnic tribe who overran the balkans and eastern europe long after the death of the last west Roman emperor. secondly Roman military saddle has four protuberances on its corners. These, to a certain degree, stabilized the mail-clad rider on the horseback. Yes, the mail-clad cavalrymen. Romans were typically weak in cavalry. From the early time, cavalry had been supplied by the allies. Later, Caesar incorporated the Celts (also thought to be the ones who invented the saddle and mail-coat) into the ranks of Roman cavalry. Thus the average horsemen wore mail or scale armor rather than plate. Officers however wore the elegant "muscled" curass and greaves, like the horseman in the middle of your drawing. You might also consider to reduce the horse armor. Heavily armored cavalry appeared much later in the Roman times and they bore no resemblance to the cavalry of the "classical" time (I assume to be the one you attempted to picture here). Keep on drawing!

Cheers!

Stirups were developed by the orginal Huns of Attila, I think you'll find, and this is how they won all of their battles. The cavalry archers would charge towards the lines of Romans, firing arrows, then suddenly turn and retreat, *standing up* to fire arrows backwards. These stirrups were made of soft leather. The Avars used these same sirrupts, and so did everyone else, the Turks, Moors, ect. becoming masters of the cavalry archer.

The French also used sirrups, but for another purpose, this one being standing up to put more power into one's swing of one's sword. French knights were renown for their powerful blows.

The Mongols, Turks and Huns who had traveled East before the Rome was founded, introduced the first hard stirrups to Europe when they invaded later in the 1300's and such.

But lets not turn this into a history lesson. Nate (if you dont mind me calling you that O__o; said himself that these are Romans not of this world, so no point in lecturing him on the history of this world.

Very nicely done picture.