Cutting Against Stone

Kullervo from Kalevala, Finland's national epic: [link] Woe is me, for I can't draw males who look older than 16. :I

This piece is an illustration of song 33; Kullervo sits down to eat after a day of herding Ilmarinen's cattle, but the wretched mistress of the house put a stone in it on which Kullervo breaks his knife; the only thing left after his dead father. Cue bloody vengeance.

This is probably one of the more famous parts of Kalevala and I didn't feel I had the capacity to draw Kullervo with Gallen-Kallela's classical EPIC RAGE FACE, so see this as "the calm before the storm", hm?

Kullervo's clothes, btw, were very randomly put together from hazy memories of Finnish folk costumes and some inspiration from earlier illustrations of the heroes of Kalevala. The only physical description that is given in the actual epic is, what I can remember, that he's blond, and wears blue socks and good leather shoes when he comes to Ilmarinen's estate. So I went with that.

It might not have turned out completely to my satisfaction, but I thought it was fun to draw.