Live painting, update 1 (background concerning the mini)

Let us start this day with a little bit of background information about Nork Deddog, the character I would like to paint. The Text below is taken from an old White Dwarf, copyright by Games Workshop.

The huge figure shambled toward the thin and tangled body of Colonel Greiss. Luckily, the ancient colonel had been thrown free of the carrier as it veered out of control. Now the Chimera perched up-ended in a drainage ditch, steam and smoke pouring from its crew compartment. The force of the explosion had pitched Greiss into a ditch on the other side of the track. As the massive Ogryn towered over the tiny body, he sensed that his master was badly hurt. He looked for a moment at the oddly twisted limbs and blood-soaked uniform and poked the old man a couple of times to make sure he wasn't fooling. Greiss moaned faintly.

Nork felt a tide of misery well up inside his huge and faithful heart. Greiss was his friend. Greiss had been good to Nork and let him fight by his side. The Ogryn fumbled with his water

bottle, breaking off the cap with clumsy hands as he gently proffered the bottle to the man's lips. Greiss murmured as the cool water splashed over his face. "Nork," he whispered. "Stop trying to drown me and fetch the medi-pack."

" Yus, sarr!" shouted Nork, saluting instinctively with his left hand, then his right hand, then

both hands together. Nork shuffled to his feet and loped back toward the carrier. He picked his way past the crumpled bodies of the crew and the HQ squad and noticed with only passing curiosity the pain in his own legs where numerous shrapnel hits had penetrated his thick hide. Without a second thought, he grabbed hold of the Chimera behind its rear track guards and heaved. The weighty vehicle shifted slightly. He heaved again. There was a creak of tortured metal as the carrier pivoted against the soft edge of the ditch and came to rest on its broad tracks.

Colonel Greiss tried to flex his hands. Nothing. He tried to raise his head but as he did so

his vision swirled and he lost consciousness. He came round moments later, or minutes,

or was it hours, it was hard to tell. His ears were booming from the noise of the explosion.

All he could hear was a sound like something large and heavy being slowly dragged over

an unyielding surface. His sight seemed to be growing dim and shadowy. Then he realized

Nork was standing over him and beside Nork was the wreckage of the Chimera. The

Ogryn had dragged the armored carrier out of the ditch and 20 yards down the road.

" I said fetch the medi-kit, not the carrier, Nork," whispered Greiss. He was regaining the

feeling in his arms and legs and didn't like it much.

" Da medi-kit is in da carrier, sarr," beamed the Ogryn.

" Good thinking Nork," grunted the colonel through clenched teeth and mounting pain.

"Now bring the medi-kit over here."

" Yus, sarr!" came the loud and snappy response as Nork plunged into the Chimera,

remembered he had forgotten to salute, came back, saluted twice for good measure, and

busied himself searching for the vehicle's medical supply chest.

Nork is a legend in his own time, an Ogryn whose fighting abilities were as astonishing as

his mental development. By Ogryn standards, he was a genius and said to have been able

to write his own name, count, and even speak with reasonable fluency. Such precocious

development in one of his race inevitably came to the attention of the Commissars, and

Nork soon found himself pulled out of the main line and placed on special duties.

After extensive training, involving artificial mental enhancement, Nork was assigned to the

2nd Catachan fighting on Balur. The regiment's commander, Colonel Greiss, adopted Nork

as his personal bodyguard, and the Ogryn accompanied Greiss through the 4 years that

the war lasted. During this time the sight of Greiss and Nork became a familiar one: the

ancient bone thin colonel bawling out his orders while shells burst around him and

ricocheted off Nork's dense skull. The Ogryn saved the colonel's life on more than one

occasion, most famously when he carried the badly wounded commander back from the

disaster at Breakback Hill.

As you can see, this character isn't treated to serious by GW, it is going back to the days when the staff was allowed to actually have fun during the process of character- and background creation. Nowadays, you hardly see this.

Here you can see the original version of Nork released by GW:

And here is my interpretation once again, a lot of details are missing because I will paint them separately and add them later.

I will now get my painting place prepared to start and begin with the face. This will easily take 3 to 4 hours to finish but I will post wip shots in between.


Chris