Bedwyr sings in the mead hall of Cador of Dumnonia

[bunn]

Bedwyr joins the Companions of Artos.
"On a wild night of late September, with the first of the autumn gales beating about the thatch, we supped again in Cador's mead hall, I with the great gaunt joyful head of Cabal on my knee... And the torchlight and the heather beer seemed the more golden for the triumphant knowledge of fine big-boned Septimanian stallions and the brood mares picketed within the ring fence of the Dun.

Bedwyr, with dark smudges beneath his eyes - for the last crossing, with the Black One on board, had been no easy one- had come from his fairly won place among the Companions and sat on the harper's stool beside the hearth, and sang for us, or maybe for himself, the triumph song of Arwas the Winged after he slew the Red Boar"

[Click to see bigger. ]

Artos is the big blond man on the right (he is supposed to be a head taller than most people, it's not just my drawing!)  I had Artos in a cloak but then realised that nobody else was wearing a cloak, so repainted him in just a tunic, which I'm not sure has quite worked. Artos has Roman hair, unlike everyone else. Bedwyr, obviously, is harping. Cador of Dumnonia is the dark haired man who is taking a swig of his heather beer.  I have no idea who the old bloke between Cador and Artos is, or any of the other people.

The setting is supposed to be Cador's Dun, which is specifically described as in the style of his pre-Roman ancestors, so it is more or less just a really big roundhouse -  but I gave it a Roman brazier and some old Roman oil lamps, and on the right a tapestry.   As usual it doesn't look as good as it did in my head.  Oh well. I'm sure all those faces were good practice! 

Comments

[seasight.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's really cool!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

I quite like it, especially the leaping fire and the harp. And those shadow-y dogs scattered here and there.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yes, all the things I can more or less draw that are not faces! :-D

[sineala.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very pretty.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like that.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I think it's very nice! I like how all the NPCs in the background have personality. They're look as if they're positively teeming with motivation and backstory, if only anyone bothered to ask them.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased you thought they looked like they weren't just wandering Extras In Tunics.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Eee, painting! I particularly like Bedwyr with the harp.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The harp is what is now called a clarsach, but apparently that's the most likely format for Bedwyr's little bog oak harp. And I discovered that there's a theory that harpstrings may have been made of gold! Probably not Bedwyr's though. I think he wouldn't have been able to afford something like that.