“ From the deep, murky abyss of the forgotten past, moving slowly and inevitably like the future, the Giants were coming.
A huge mountain of gigantic figures moved steadily like an immense wave, shattering the landscape upon which they walked. Everything they set their feet on was reduced to rubble and dust. Hills were flattened, mountains crashed, forests swept away, villages and towns erased from the face of the Earth.
People, mad from fear and despair, fled towards the mountains, hoping to find a hole in the ground and save the only thing they were left with, their bare lives. Animals run, flew or crawled franticly, trying to escape the approaching horror. Ancient trees stood their ground proudly, waiting for the inevitable to happen. Leafs trembled silently and without motion, in their green hearts.
Then, the whole wave of escaping creatures came to a standstill, suddenly, as a gigantic figure appeared in front of them among the highest mountain peaks. Another giant, even a bigger one. He stood motionlessly and looked towards the approaching wall of the titans and dust. His white long beard, flew freely in the mountain wind, falling onto the tree tops of the forest that covered the mountain slopes, and then rising again towards the sky dispersing the clouds like the flocks of starlings. His eyes, blue and red as the sky at sunset, were shooting fearsome arrows across the valley that stretched itself between the two mountain ranges.
Than he opened his mouth and released a deep, powerful voice, that seemed like it came straight from the very core of the Earth:
“ STOP! YOU CANNOT PASS, HERE. GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM…!
The mountain of giants slowed down and eventually stopped. The crushing noise that followed them faded away. For a moment there was a profound silence in the air, and on the ground. Then, from across the wide valley, the answer came rolling like a thunder:
“MOTHER EARTH HAS CALLED UPON US TO PURIFY HER COUNTENANCE. MOVE ASIDE…!
The white bearded giant raised his mighty hand and said:
“I AM SVJATOGOR, THE SON OF THE MOUNTAINS. I PROTECT THEM AND ALL THAT LIVES BENEATH AND ABOVE THEIR SURFACE. GO BACK…!
“MOVE ASIDE, SVJATOGOR…!
“GO BACK…!
Silence again. A long, deafening silence. Even the mountain wind stopped his everlasting dance around the high peaks. People stopped breathing. Animals froze. Trees stopped moving their branches …………..And then, the giants unlashed their attack on Svjatogor. Like an immense unstoppable wave they threw themselves on the lonely defender of the mountains…”
This is the beginning of the story that accompanies the drawing. The entire story will be published in my new book on GIANTS. The book is still in progress.
Svjatogor – defender of the mountains
The drawing was initially commissioned by a collector from Canada, and it was this drawing that triggered the creation of the story.
Petar Meseldžija was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, in 1965. He began his career in 1981, publishing the comic strip "Krampi" in the Stripoteka, one of the best known comic magazines in the country. This was followed by a series of short comics and his work on the licensed comic book Tarzan. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the Painting Department. During his studies he continued to work on comics, but also more often working on illustrations. In 1991 he illustrated his first book Peter Enkorak, published by Mladinska knjiga from Slovenia.
At the end of 1991 he moved to the Netherlands. Soon after, he stopped working on comics and dedicated himself to illustration and painting.
During the 1990s he painted about 120 posters and greeting cards, mostly for Verkerke Reproduktie from Holland. For Grimm Press, a publisher from Taiwan, he did 33 illustrations for the book King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. He held his first solo exhibition of illustrations and paintings in 1998 in the Tjalf Sparnaay Gallery in Amsterdam.
He has participated in many group exhibitions in Yugoslavia, the Netherlands and the USA.
His work has been published in a variety of periodicals and books all over the world.
Among many awards which he received for his work are:
“Plaque The International Golden pen of Belgrade, 1994”, Yugoslavia;
The “Art Show Judges Choice Award” – 59th World Science Fiction Convention, Philadelphia, 2001, US.;
Two Silver Awards from “Spectrum 4 and Spectrum 10 – The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art”, U.S.;
Gold Award “Spectrum 16 – The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art”, U.S.
From the beginning of 2000 he has dedicated himself to gallery art. Of the exhibitions where he has participated, the most worthy of mention is the Exhibition of Independent Realists. This exhibition, organized annually at the Mohlmann Museum from the Netherlands, offers clear insight into the creative achievements of contemporary Dutch artists in the domain of realist and figurative art. In addition to painting, he continues to do illustrations.
Two other significant projects should be mentioned. He painted 10 book covers for books of children's fantasy literature for the American publisher Scholastic Inc. Likewise, he illustrated the Serbian folk take “Prava se muka ne da sakriti”(“Real Trouble Cannot Be Hidden") for Bazar Tales, a publisher from Norway. In his work on the book, The Legend of Steel Bashaw, he has invested enormous time and effort. This project, for him of the greatest importance, was started in 1993. Including shorter and longer breaks, the longest of which lasted 7 years, he has been working on the book for 15 years, finally finishing it in August of 2008.
His original work is to be found in the private collections in Serbia, the Netherlands, Germany and the U.S.
man I love the pencil work. I wish I could force myself to take the time to learn to render in pencil this well. Thanks very much for sharing this! truly inspiring.
Viking Myke – Svjatogor is an ancient character from the Slavic mythology, still to be found in the Russian Epics, so-called bylines . Svjatogor ( or Svetogor, Svitogor, Russian: Святого́р) is a giant who resides on the “sacred mountains”. The equivalent to Thor in Slavic mythology is PERUN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perun.
Hi Torbjörn – I do this kind of drawings mostly from memory. I also often have my books on human anatomy near me while drawing, in order to refresh my memory when necessary.
Nice work Petar. I like the fact that each giant has his own look and are not all similar. The bearded one reminds me of Thor somewhat.
man I love the pencil work. I wish I could force myself to take the time to learn to render in pencil this well. Thanks very much for sharing this! truly inspiring.
I also enjoy that each Giant feels different.
Titanic, mythic, energetic, deeply inspirational as always…thank you…
Amazing dynamism.
Muito bom….essas hachuras ficaram demais!!!!
Gorgeous pencils, I like your drawings as much as your paintings! Thanks for the inspiration!
Beautiful drawing! Thanks for posting these, this is a great blog.
Viking Myke – Svjatogor is an ancient character from the Slavic mythology, still to be found in the Russian Epics, so-called bylines . Svjatogor ( or Svetogor, Svitogor, Russian: Святого́р) is a giant who resides on the “sacred mountains”. The equivalent to Thor in Slavic mythology is PERUN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perun.
Thanks, guys!
It looks really great!
Very good anatomy, do you use reference?
And if so, how much?
Hi Torbjörn – I do this kind of drawings mostly from memory. I also often have my books on human anatomy near me while drawing, in order to refresh my memory when necessary.