Historical Characters: Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973 – c. 1014 or 1025), the author of the great masterpiece of Japanese literature, the Genji Monogatari (or Tale of Genji)

Believe it or not, it took me almost a week to come out with this version - I threw away some 4 or 5 already finished pieces before getting this synthesis. The writing says "Murasaki Shikibu - Genji Monogatari" although my shodō is completely wrong.

Drew with a Chinese brush on Chinese paper with Japanese ink.

Celebrity Death Match: King Arthur VS Charlemagne!

The two grandfathers of Medieval Europe
King Arthur and Charlemagne are the founding figures at the origin of the two main cycles of epic/romance poetry, the Arturian cycle (or matter of Britain) and the Carolingian cycle (or matter of France.) The Carolingian cycle continued to be developed until the beginning of XVII century, producing masterpieces from the Song of Roland to the Orlando Furioso. The Arthurian cycle was rekindled during the XIX century and continues to present days; I'd like to see a similar attention for the Carolingian cycle.

King Arthur and Charlemagne playing chess was a very old idea of mine... dating back some three years at least. I finally did it for the Historical Characters series.

For the first time, I show you something I inked with a tablet!

Historical Characters: Romulus Augustus

Woe to that land that's governed by a child.
(Richard III, II, iii, 11)

For the Historical Characters series
The last Western Roman emperor (deposed 476 AD)

This one was inked with a Sennelier Indian ink and my usual Hunt #108 nib. It's a very thick ink, so much that the nib clogs after a few strokes. I would recommend to dilute it when using with thin nibs.

Historical characters: Augustus and Julia the Elder

I shamelessly fangirl Emperor Augustus <3

The Queen of Sheba

For the Historical Characters series

During her stay at Solomon's palace, the wealthy Queen of Sheba discovered that the most precious possession was water.

From wikipedia: The narrative given in the Kebra Negast - which has no parallel in the Hebrew Biblical story - is that King Solomon invited the Queen of Sheba to a banquet, serving spicy food to induce her thirst, and inviting her to stay in his palace overnight. The Queen asked him to swear that he would not take her by force. He accepted upon the condition that she, in turn, would not take anything from his house by force. The Queen assured that she would not, slightly offended by the implication that she, a rich and powerful monarch, would engage in stealing. However, as she woke up in the middle of the night, she was very thirsty. Just as she reached for a jar of water placed close to her bed, King Solomon appeared, warning her that she was breaking her oath, water being the most valuable of all material possessions. Thus, while quenching her thirst, she set the king free from his promise and they spent the night together.

This one was inked with a Pentel Pocket brush.

Cleopatra and Caesarion

For the Historical Characters series. Inked with a Japanese pen brush.

Boadicea

I have in mind doing a series of historical characters as exercise... Boadicea was suggested by a couple of people on deviantArt and facebook.

Inked with a Leonardt 300 nib and coloured with Photoshop.