The Solder and Death
Personal Work / Unpublished
Awards: Accepted into 3x3 International Illustration Show no. 18
The Solder and Death is an old Russian folk tale. In the story, a solder traps death in a magical bag, preventing death from doing his job of letting people die, and so around the kingdom no one is able to die. After some time the solder realizes the problems of a world without death and releases Death from the magic bag. The solder begs death to allow him to die, but Death refuses, and the solder is doomed to wander the Earth forever, unable to enter either heaven or hell.
This illustration was created as part of a workshop on narrative illustrations. Death, the solder, and the designs of the devils are based on original character designs by Chris Oatley.
Process Work
Composition studies.
Rough composition drawing, value study and binary study.
Tree design explorations.
Photo reference and style reference images.
Winter tree studies
Value and color studies.