Designing the Norse Gods- Forebodin’ Odin, Therious Thor and the others
First off- apologies for missing a week! I’ve been pushing through the final artwork and attending family weddings. Busy busy busy.
The original story mentioned quite a few Norse Gods- Odin, Thor, Sigurd, Freya and Hemrod. Our brilliant editor Cate helped to whittle the text down, removing supplementary characters to focus on Odin and Thor (Check out this post by Norm for more info on Odin and Thor).
Here are my first sketches and notes on the Gods.
Thor on the left, Sigurd on the rightThat's Odin right down the bottom, with some lumpy crowsOdin looked a bit like a pirate here
After a bit of research, I found out that Odin is an old old man. So the black hair wasn’t going to look right for his character. Also, Thor is his son, so they have to look similar.
Storyboard sketches began to take more form…
Odin was the first to speak on this page, so I flipped the layout and put him on the left. Notice his lovely new white beard.A cleaned-up rough, with Josh included. The Gods are watching him through a hole in the floor. This viewpoint didn't work well, so it was ditched on advice of our editor
For those interested in Norse trivia, Thor and Sigurd are playing a game of viking checkers, called ‘hnefatafl‘. Sounds a bit like an old man sneezing. There’s a few online versions of hnefatafl out there on the interwebs.
Here’s another pic from the storyboards. It’s notable for the one and only appearance of Freya, the Norse god of love and beauty.
Sigurd is puzzled by Josh's choice of boat buildling material
And here’s some more recent sketches…
Sadly, Sigurd has been cut from the book... though I may draw him into the climactic scene.
It’s obvious to me that Asterix comics have been a huge influence on the character designs.
James makes books for courageous kids. He’s the author/illustrator of the S.Tinker Inc graphic novel series for middle primary: Brobot (2016), Dungzilla (2017) and Gastronauts (2018) star Sally Tinker, the world’s foremost inventor under the age of twelve, and Joe Tinker, her stinky baby brother. The fourth in the series, Chickensaurus, is out in late 2020. He is also the illustrator of the Toffle Towers series written by Tim Harris. James’ earlier books My Dead Bunny (2015), In The Lion (2012), The Last Viking (2011) and The Last Viking Returns (2014) have all scored several honours, including children’s choice awards, shortlistings in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year awards, and selection to the International Youth Library’s White Raven list. The sequel to My dead Bunny - There's Something Weird About Lena - is out in late 2020. James comes from a long line of queuing enthusiasts. Follow him on FB/twitter/insta/youtube @jamesfoleybooks, or at www.jamesfoley.com.au .
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One thought on “Designing the Norse Gods- Forebodin’ Odin, Therious Thor and the others”
I like your gods in Asgard parting the clouds to have a look at what is going on down below. I can think of some lines for them.
First god: We could kill him now, or wait until he finishes the boat.
I like your gods in Asgard parting the clouds to have a look at what is going on down below. I can think of some lines for them.
First god: We could kill him now, or wait until he finishes the boat.
Second god: Why wait?
Third god: My ankle is itchy.