My Hero

“My Hero” was completed in a start and stop fashion over the course of a year. I’m so happy that I can call the picture done.

Here’s my back story to the picture:

A lovely princess is handed over by her father, the king, as a tribute to some nasty beastie. The young would-be hero, an outsider to these parts, knowing little of the princess or her kingdom, finds it strange that no person protests the loss of the relinquished maiden. Of all the kingdom’s strongmen, not one raises arms or bothers to take chase after her abductor.

Determined, the hero mounts his mighty steed and races off into the night to rescue the princess. He tracks the monster back to its lair. Sword in hand, the hero slays the monster and recovers the treasured girl. What he doesn’t know is that while the princess he has saved is beautiful, this girl is no treasure. Rather than smothering him in praise, the shrew-like maiden mocks the hero’s every action. Full of wrath and condescension, she berates, she claws at, and smacks the hero during their trot back to her father’s castle. Now the hero understands why the king and his people were so willing to hand her over to a beast.

--Fin

Lovely, right? I wish I had drawn a satchel carried on the rump of the horse packed with the disembodied trophy head of the slain creature. Oh well.

I gave the colors one final tweak before posting, making this the definitive version of the “My Hero”.

Portions of this picture appear in two books. A line art version of it is in the art tutorial book Digital Manga Workshop (coauthored with Lindsay Cibos). The color version of this work appears in the artist anthology book, Mangaka America ( [link]).

The sketch version is posted under Lindsay’s DA account.
( [link] ) As is often the case, Lindsay helped me with the design for the characters in this picture. ( [link]) ( [link] )

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High-quality Giclee prints are available in both 8.5"x11" ($10 plus $3.50 shipping) and 11"x17" ($20 plus $3.50 shipping) sizes, and I'll be happy to sign it.

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