I present to you Belkar Bitterleaf, Sexy Shoeless God of War, and leading evil bastard in The Order Of The Stick.

I've been a big fan of the comic for a long while now, and a little random doodling this afternoon produced a sketch, which lead to line drawing, which ended up being a painting expiriment. I almost never paint like this, but I'm sorta trying it on from time to time. I mostly still just fumble about pushing colors around, but this came out about like I wanted it to, so I'm not complaining.

The BG is, of course, a crowning moment in the character's history so far, culminating in one of the best lines in the series to date. It was probably this particular strip that made me like Belkar enough to draw him enough in the first place. I like taking Rich Burlew's designs and fleshing them out while adding as little as possible... I added a pouch to his belt and took a few liberties with the design of his daggers, and I wasn't sure if he wore short pants or a kilt so I went out on a limb there, but otherwise I tried hard to stick to what's established by the character's design in the webcomic.

I think I might have also added a bit too much hair.

At any rate, Belkar and The Order of The Stick are ©Rich Burlew. If you're a gamer or even just a fan of fantasy, you really ought to check out the strip... it's a hoot. Worth it for the Polearm shop strip alone.

Photoshop, 8x10@300dpi (yes, I know I ought to measure in pixels, take pity on me), took about 4 hours to do, all told. Here's a lineart-only version, along with a bit of sketching if you're interested in seeing it plain.