Just want to thank each of you who have been nice enough to favorite my latest artwork “Barbarian King”. I would drop each of you a thank you shout, but pasting the same “Thanks for faving …” shout into your front page seems a bit mechanical and impersonal, and to my mind a bit disrespectful to you folks.

Looking back now on what led up to me creating the picture, I think it probably stemmed from watching and being inspired by the latest “Conan” movie (2011).

Prior to that, I endlessly watched the two earlier Conan movies and collected and read all of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories that he wrote for the Depression Era pulp magazine Weird Tales. Later I collected (and still have) about thirty issues of “The Savage Sword of Conan” illustrated stories (all in protective plastic bags).

Anyway, I thought a lot about the fictional character over the years, particularly as Robert E. Howard’s stories presented him. A rude, brutish fellow come south into the “civilized” world of Hyperboria where semi-corrupt and decadent kingdoms lay aging and ripe for the barbarian from wild and untamed Cimmeria in the north to do with as he pleased.

Eventually, through many adventures of sword & sorcery, Conan becomes king of Aquilonia, the much-desired “jewel” of all the kingdoms in the west of Hyperboria. Then, aside from having to deal with the usual court intrigues, occasional rebellions along the frontiers, and an assortment of mysterious sorcerers or magicians (none of which seemed right in the head), I wondered what Conan would do in his spare time.

Being a barbarian whose previous solution to 95% of the problems that he has encountered growing up had all been dealt with by using his considerable brawn or sword skills, I figured he would be mightily bored during the much-to-be-dreaded periods of peace. And so that was where the inspiration for my “Barbarian King” picture came from and was in my mind as I applied each digital “brush stroke“.

Thanks for the faves, furs. They keep me going.