This is a fantasy painting based on the old Norwegian King Håkon Herdebrei (1147-1162). He was crowned at the age of 15, just to die shortly after… Despite being so young he is described as having a very mature look, a beautiful face and bread shoulders.
I would like to thank immensely to Daniele Rosso, an Italian friend who has been my model for this painting. If it wasn’t for him, my Håkon Herdebrei wouldn’t turn out as cool as it is!
Check out Daniele’s band at MySpace:
How it was made:
Programs: Painter, PhotoPaint and Photoshop
The whole piece here was painted with a soft round airbrush, except for the sky, that’s a sort of matte painting. The hair was painted stroke by stroke with airbrush, too, and I used a blender to give the soft/diffuse look.
To make the chainmail I copied a few small pieces from the original photo and built up the whole thing. I used a sponge to give texture to the clothes while the shield has been textured from a piece of wood + leather patterns. To give the smooth look to the sword, I’ve used a Gaussian Blur mask.