This scene depicts the hero Siegfried (also called Sigurd) at the moment he kills the Dragon Fafnir in its cave, the Dragon is holding on its mouth the ring Andvaranaut, which gives ownership of the treasure (and its curse), below Siegfried is the Helm of Terror and the treasure, and above the falling Linden leaves that prevented Siegfried from fully bathing his body in the blood of the Dragon.

It can be found in Search with the keywords "Sigurd and Fafnir".

These are the colors I made so far, click to go to the art prints:

(Note: Some products have some variations together: i.e. Towels have White with black, red and blue all in the same listing).

White Black	White Red	White Blue	Stone
Gold Black	Gold Red	Gold Blue	Stone Gold
Black & Red	Bloody Red	Bloody White	Black & White
Blue Black	Black Grey Grit	Dark	Pastel Goth
Cream	Paper	Wood

Origin

Initially the inspiration for this piece came from one of my favorite movies: The Ring of the Nibelung (2004), which I believe is seriously overlooked as the plot is so engaging and well done. This movie shares the same material as the famous (or infamous?) opera Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner (1869).

The plot of the movie is (in my opinion) a very well done mix of the Norse Völsunga Saga and the Germanic epic poem Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs), both believed to be written in the 13th century, but based in historic characters and events from the 5-6th century, but of course, the movie only focuses in a few of the events, as portraying the whole saga would need a series with at least 3 or 4 seasons.

The Story

This the part of the story that revolves around the scene on this artwork, I much recommend watching the movie, which has much more to it, and reading the original sagas:

Siegfried, when visiting the king Gunther with his adoptive blacksmith father and aided with his unique sword, learns of the exploits of the dragon Fafnir, and decides to try his hand in killing him, during the difficult fight he hides in a ditch on the ground and is able to strike upwards to the heart of the dragon killing him, he then accidentally tastes the blood and realizes it gives him extra perception, he then proceeds to use the ditch as a bath, covering his whole body in blood except for a spot in his back where a Linden tree leaf had fallen, this gives him impenetrable skin except for that spot.

As he discovers the treasure and picks up the ring, spirits that claim to be the original owners appear to him, and warn him that the treasure is cursed and all they bring is death and misery, he naturally ignored the warning, taking with him the ring and later bringing the whole treasure to the vaults of king Gunther, where life spirals into chaos... but not because the treasure or ring actually did anything, the beauty of the story is that there was nothing magical about this curse, all the people in this story killed each other and ultimately Siegfried powered by their own greed alone, not unlike real life stories of people that win the lottery.

 

Sketches & Process:

I started the sketch and the series Vikings at the same time, watching as I worked for good vibes, or as good as they can get from a series that is so lazily written... mostly only art direction, some scenes, Floki and Ivar had anything smart or engaging to offer, it's a shame, if it had been written by the same people who made Black Sails or Game of Thrones (minus the filler sex), it would have been one of the best series of the decade :(.

At night after work I've been playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla for even more good vibes. Pretty much for 2-3 weeks EVERYTHING in my life was about Vikings. :D

The painting took about 82 hours, not counting the color versions.

 

Taking in account that the recording was about 70 hours, I could not speed up the video pass 20 minutes without making everything a senseless blur!

 

 

Art thieves are at large

My illustrations, designs and even mockups are constantly being stolen by less than human scum that put it for sale on their Etsy, Amazon, Temu, Aliexpress shops and other places. Hence my watermarks are getting bigger, because they have even cut my mockups or blurred my signatures.

Please help me by not posting my artwork anywhere without signatures, credit or links.

Thank you! 🖤