Sunday, March 18, 2012

Warriors of the Ancient Future



This picture is a combination of my interest in ancient Persia as well as my fondness for big, complex industrial structures and "future history." It is from my own private fantasy world. Barbarian riders, their costumes and gear inspired by those of Sassanid Persia, ride past vast ruined industrial towers on a distant world. They will become the
advanced Aurian people of Noantri New Earth. The central standard-bearer holds the flaming symbol of Ahura Mazda, the God of Light. I have no idea how warriors on a distant planet happened to ride horses that are identical to those on Earth.

This is in acrylic, and the background sky was done with an airbrush. Nowadays I do not yet feel confident enough to do something like this in digital medium, and I am not sure when I should attempt it. I've painted digital works before but I don't think they are up to my standards, except perhaps my panorama of the city of Surakosai. Right now I am doing just small single figures and parts of dragons and other learning practice drawings.

"The Riders of Pars" is acrylic on illustration board, 18" x 24", August 1992. Click on the pic for a larger view.

2 comments:

Tristan Alexander said...

WOW! Never seen this one before. This is every bit as good as those photoshop/digital pictures you think so highly of!

Mike (Altus) said...

I agree with Tristan. This is awesome.
And I doubt very much those digital artist gurus could paint anything like this with physical media.