Images of the Hyborian Age: Atula Siriwardane – Kushite Warrior
Apr 20th, 2008 by Crom
The Images of Hyborian Age project has started off with a thundering BANG and a commission that I simply couldn’t be happier with. Atula Siriwardane was one of the first artists commissioned for the project, and suffices to say, I think he met the task of doing justice to Howard’s Hyboria head on.
Since the time that this piece was originally commissioned, the process of how I solicit art from artists has changed rather significantly. When Atula was commissioned, the project was really in its infancy. I gave a brief 1-2 sentence description of what I wanted drawn, with no visual samples for Atula to refer to, and really no direction after that. Now that the project has evolved a bit, artists are now given 3-4 descriptions of what I’d like them to draw, including multiple character, geographic, cultural, and background settings, and then provided some sample images that hopefully set the mood for the vision that’s in my head. The artist gets to choose from among the descriptions and draw whatever appeals to them the most. I was very pleased with the direction Atula took, and I think his ability to be creative in his interpretation is a great asset and a significant compliment to his art.
The quality of this particular piece, which I’ve called Kushite Warrior , I think speaks for itself, and really demonstrates how serious Atula approaches doing a commission from a client. But aside from the quality, Atula is simply fun to work with. We have a few other projects in the works right now, including a real treat larger in scope than one of these regular gallery commissions, which I’m sure any fan of Conan and Hyboria is simply going to love. Although I’m bursting at the seams to talk about it, I’m going to hold off until I have some sample art available for everyone to look at.
In addition to this fine specimen of a Kushite warrior about to become lunch, and the secret project I hinted at above, Atula is doing the oil painting header for the borderkingdom blog. The current header you see above is the concept art that Atula put together a few weeks ago. It was so good, I thought I’d leave it up until the main header is completed, just to give you a taste.
Background
I first found out about Atula by him posting sample pictures of his drawings on the Conan forums. You can see a few of them in this thread , and a few more really good Conan pieces in Atula’s comicartfans.com gallery . Don’t limit yourself to viewing just the Conan pieces in his gallery either, or you’ll be depriving yourself of some really good art. Atula’s whole gallery is really good to look at, and something to be admired by anyone who appreciates good art.
Not surprisingly, the Conan forums are peppered with talented artists. In fact more than a few of the upcoming Image of Hyboria contributions you’ll see are from artists whose work I had never even seen until they posted it in the Conan forums, including Staz Johnson and Edbon Sevilleno .
Atula hails from Sri Lanka and is really a versatile artist. He’s done everything from children’s book illustrations to landscape illustration. He’s got a fine eye for layout
too I might add, and gave some great suggestions for the layout of this Web site.
Upcoming Projects from Atula
Atula has a couple of upcoming projects, one in particular that I think any fan of the Sword and Sorcery genre will be interested in. Taryn is a Sword and Sorcery heroine created in collaboration with Paul Monsky of VaVaVaVoom comics. Taryn will make her appearance in VaVaVavoom #2. Check out some Taryn art , it really has a nice Red Sonja feel to it.
Atula’s first comic book for the USA audience, “Brawn” is also now available after several years in development. The quality of the interior art is great, and the comic features a cover by Anthony Rezendes. Atula has some art samples from Brawn here .
Images of Hyboria Gallery: Even more Atula
Atula will have a number of pieces in the Images of Hyboria gallery when all is said and done, including a second piece scheduled to be included into the gallery in the next few weeks. You can view Atula’s contributions here . Also, be sure to check out Atula’s gallery profile which includes links to his site, his other galleries, and samples of his other artwork, including a great drawing of Bran. If you’re a fan of comic art, Atula is an artist you’re going to want to follow over the next few years.
Conclusion
If you like the Kushite Warrior piece that Atula did for the Images of Hyboria gallery, please leave some feedback for him! He really went above and beyond to give Howard fans a treat to enjoy. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.
If you’re interested in securing a commission for a character in the future, you should seriously consider Atula for the job. If you check out Atula’s art gallery at comicartfans.com you’ll see an incredible amount of diversity in his work and you can rest assured you’ll be getting a really really fine piece of art.