Between now and the launch of The Last Viking Returns (Sept 1st, 2014), I’m doing a series of posts showing my rough sketches for all the characters in the book.
I’ve covered Josh’s family already and I’ve just started on the Viking characters.
Today I’ll show you my sketches of Sigurd.
Sigurd was a Viking hero, not a Norse god. He was renowned for his feats of bravery, including the slaying of the dragon Fafnir. (More on that later).
In The Last Viking Returns, Thor sneaks out of Asgard to have a holiday. Sigurd is left to defend Asgard against Fafnir.
Sigurd needed to look different enough to Thor to provide a counterpoint; he needed to look more responsible and down to earth. That’s why he doesn’t have the fanciest clothes or the shiniest sword. His appearance is also based on his original occupation – Sigurd was a blacksmith. He wears a leather cap, similar to what a Viking blacksmith would have worn, and this also helps him stand out all the other Asgardians (who all have horned helmets).
There is in fact an earlier version of Sigurd that almost appeared in The Last Viking, but he looked completely different back then- I’ll show those sketches another time.
These are my reference sketches and notes for Sigurd.
I made a standard colour version of each character too, so that I could keep their colours consistent. Here’s the colour sheet for Sigurd:
Next week I’ll talk about Thor’s father, Odin.
James Foley 