hi

“Baldur was the greatest gift Odin granted Freya; the one thing she treasured from their marriage.”

original concept was going to be Freya with her hands around Baldur's head (as seen here in the final) with Odin's hands holding her cheeks. i got rid of Odin pretty early, i felt it took away from the focus on Freya. i also didnt know how to draw him yet. the title was always going to be "the greatest gift odin granted", but i somehow forgot that when i went to post it. oops.

was gently inspired by Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581 by Ilya Repin, along with that scene in Ragnarok with the mist before the Norns.

Freya's arms are positioned to parallel Kratos's when he snapped Baldur's neck. he has a mistletoe-inflicted stigmata on his hand. i originally wanted to include the mistletoe arrow in his hand, but it became a hassle to render when the time came, so I just removed it.

I wanted Baldur to look both sad & peaceful, in a way. mournful? i guess? and unlike Freya, i added no flush to his face in order to make him look more pallid and dead. i hope that came across all right.

Freya has become one of my top 10 characters of all time after Ragnarok. in my top 3 fictional women FOR sure. I enjoy that her relationship to motherhood, no matter how hard she tries to be the Perfect Maternal Archetype, is complex and anguished. everything we learn about her relationship with Odin in Ragnarok made so much of that more potent. she gave up everything to Odin for the safety of her people. her position, her home, her family, her cultural identity, her body, her name, her autonomy. he returned that with meaningless gifts, lies, betrayal, abuse, but also with a son. Baldur was the only thing Odin gave to her that was truly meaningful and made her life with the Aesir worth living. it's sad to know that she lost that, too. i wanted to make a piece about that anguish, i guess.

anyway this piece kind of burnt me out for... this entire year? I hope it paid off, haha. I'm still proud of it either way.

the detail work on this was. meticulous. the tattoos were kind of rough, i dont remember if i got them from the cosplay guide or game textures. i think Baldur's had to be adapted from game textures, which were warped, so i had to figure THAT out. i had to learn how to render things in much more detail than i ever have before! like, i've never rendered a topless man or a detailed face before this.

“Baldur was the greatest gift Odin granted Freya; the one thing she treasured from their marriage.”