Really Into Knights And Mixed Media Recently

really into knights and mixed media recently

Recently I watched Kingdom of Heaven and I decided to sketch our favorite boy King Baldwin

Background for the idea of the drawing:

I was reading this paper this winter and it seems to give further evidence that the highest percent of genetic heritage in modern Bulgarians can be (conditionally) attributed to medieval Slavs, while the rest would ought to be distributed between other groups (such as Bulgars, local population, later migrations, etc). And at one point I had the image in my head of a medieval Slavic toothless peasant girl having to choose between a flea-ridden Vlach shepherd boy and a bow-legged Bulgar horseman. I thought it would be funny if this was represented in this kind of YA-style novel/film of a young woman being in a love triangle during a military conflict (which the Middle ages abound with).

So I thought of this story that takes place in the 9th c. where a young girl whose village was raided by the Byzantines led her to want to join the Bulgarian army. She met resistance from the chiefs, however, there was a compromise - she was still allowed to help out with logistics, cooking and distributing resources among the soldiers, etc. One warrior though believed in her ability to learn to fight and trained her at night, when the others were sleeping, which led to them becoming close friends. Meanwhile she would regularly buy provisions for the army from a local shepherd boy and they also seemed to develop a liking to each other. Political conflict escalates and leads to the battle of Pliska between khan Krum and emperor Nicephorus I, where on the side of the Bulgarians women join the fight. Our girl tastes blood for the first time and it changes her forever..

Things from here on become a little different and I'll keep the rest of the story to myself in case I ever turn this into something, but it's meant to make fun of itself to some extent. I made the drawing in the style of YA poster films and the Menologion of Basil II. The main character was based on the personification of Sclavinia in the gospels of Otto III. Except for the Bulgar boy and the girl's temple ring, the clothes and hairstyles are speculation based on later ethnographic data.

Once a year people travel from all over the country to the royal court to celebrate the prince's birthday...

tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria!!