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 and most of the Viking characters in previous posts.
Today I’ll show you my sketches of Freya.
Freya is the goddess of love and beauty. In the original mythology, she rides a chariot drawn by two giant cats.
She appears briefly in The Last Viking but looking back I wasn’t happy with her depiction. I kept her costume the same for the The Last Viking Returns but I changed her face and body shape.
Viking women were just as fierce as their male counterparts. Norman and I wanted Freya to be tough enough to run into battle with the boys, so I made her taller and stronger than she’d looked previously, and gave her a sword too.
This is my character reference sheet for Freya.
I made a standard colour version of each character too, so that I could keep their colours consistent. Here’s the colour sheet for Freya:
Next week we’ll look at my sketches for Odin’s pet wolves.
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Author: James Foley
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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