The God of WarfareAfter seeing a bunch of pictures of people riding large horses, I figured I could make Karthikeya’s peacock pretty huge while still remaining true to its character. After all, it wasn’t supposed to be a real peacock, it… — The God of Warfare
After seeing a bunch of pictures of people riding large horses, I figured I could make Karthikeya’s peacock pretty huge while still remaining true to its character. After all, it wasn’t supposed to be a real peacock, it was manifested from half the power of the conquered demon Surapadman (the other half becoming his Rooster banner). I also felt carrying a flag/banner into battle along with a spear would be a bit unwieldy, so I put his feared rooster emblem on a shield, much like the mythical shield ‘Aegis’ that is wielded by the Greek Goddess Athena.
And so here’s my take on what it would be like for a fear inspiring lance bearer to ride a giant magical peacock into battle!

Life of Karthikeya

The Life of Karthikeya was one of the earliest mythological drawings I’ve ever done. Now that my Karthikeya design has sort of evolved from that original state, I decided to revisit various incidents from event filled life of the God of War, while adding a few more stories.

Karthikeya is supposed to be the General of the Gods and aspects over the ‘Kurinji’ or hilly terrains of a landscape, which is why there are so many hills in the drawing. He is also supposed to be a patron of poetry.

I decided to make one last refinement to his design. His banner/emblem is a Rooster, which is traditionally on a flag. But I decided to put it on a golden shield, much like the Aegis - the legendary greek shield with the face of Medusa on it. I also made some changes to his tiara, making it more jagged and powerful. Also making his first appearance in my drawings is Agni, the fire god. At the bottom of the post is the original image for comparison.

The story begins with the demons getting a boon from Shiva that they can be killed only by his child, knowing that he is a celibate saint. As the demons go about their tyrannical rule, Shiva decides he’s had enough of their nonsense and decides to do something about it.

Here are the major incidents in the newer piece:

- Shiva creates a divine spark from the blazing fires of his third eye. As Shiva’s son, he is called Guha.

- Agni (the fire god) carries the divine spark but drops it in the Ganga because it’s too hot. Agni also claims part parentage in the child, so as Agni’s son he is called Mahasena.

- Ganga carries it through the secluded Shara forest and drops it there in a lotus. As Ganga’s son, he is called Gangeya. And as the son of the Shara forest, he is called Sharavana.

- The spark manifests as a child, nursed by the Krittika maidens (who form the pleidas constellation). As their son, he is called Karthikeya. He is then claimed by Parvati, who names him Kumara.

- Ganesha and Karthikeya have a contest over who gets to keep the Fruit of Knowledge brought by the sage Narada

- Karthikeya loses the contest and goes off to sulk/gain more wisdom as the poet Avvaiyaar beckons him to return to his parents

- Marrying Valli, the princess of the forest tribes, after protecting her from a wild forest elephant (who was secretly his brother Ganesha in disguise)

- Karthikeya imprisons Brahma for not understanding the mysteries of creation and advises his own father on the secrets of the Universe

- Karthikeya tests the poetry skills of Avvaiyaar

- Karthikeya fights the demonic horde of Surapadman/Simhamukha and Tarakasura. Here he fends off the Krauncha hill which is a demon in disguised, a sort of Rock-topus, if you will.

And some of the minor incidents:

- Bhagirata prays to Shiva to release Ganga from the heavens

- The sage Jahnu swallows the Ganga when she threatens to destroy his hermitage but then releases her through his ear when his anger subsides

Karthikeya is often represented by the number six, in having been born from six sparks, raised by six maidens, born with six heads and six pairs of arms etc. When doing some research on the reason for this number, I encountered the explanation that … — Karthikeya is often represented by the number six, in having been born from six sparks, raised by six maidens, born with six heads and six pairs of arms etc. When doing some research on the reason for this number, I encountered the explanation that Karthikeya leads us through the battle of life by helping us defeat the six demonic vices: desire, anger, greed, passion, pride and jealousy.
I decided to represent these six vices in the form of six demonic snakes that are being overcome by Karthikeya.

Karthikeya

Often in my efforts to experiment with colors, I end up using too many, leading to quite a clutter. My wife kept telling me to keep the colors simple so that they would stand out better.

I made some minor updates to Karthikeya’s design, adding more shoulder armor on his left side, adding creases to his collar and adding more detail to his armor and dhoti. When it came to finishing up the piece, I decided to leave it start with no background. And to play up the contrast even further, I came up with a version in full greyscale.

Which version stands out better?

The Rooster BannerAfter various refinements to Karthikeya’s armor and weapons, I realized that there was one more thing that he carried into battles. He rallied his heavenly troops behind the banner of the Rooster. The story goes that Karthike… — The Rooster Banner
After various refinements to Karthikeya’s armor and weapons, I realized that there was one more thing that he carried into battles. He rallied his heavenly troops behind the banner of the Rooster. The story goes that Karthikeya defeated the evil demon Surapadman and used half of the demon’s life to create this banner (the other half becoming the peacock that carries him around). The rooster I suppose became a representation of battle because they are associated with rooster fighting sports as well as shown as enemies of snakes (which represent evil I guess?).

For the banner’s design, I kept it close to the orange/red color scheme of his spear. I considered inverting the color scheme but decided that a red banner on a gold staff looked better than a gold banner on a red staff. The Rooster itself is a simple jigsaw puzzle like design with colorful plumage and one foot raised, as if it’s ready to march into battle.

I also considered making the banner into a sort of weapon, but decided that there was already too much going on with with it and it might be a bit too distracting and dropped that idea.

Lastly, since Karthikeya is the General of the Heavenly Army, I decided to show his army in the background in the form of white chess pieces (based on my previous design of Ganesha and Karthikeya playing chess for the divine mango)

Karthikeya vs Tarakasura

After a series of drawings of Karthikeya, I decided to go back and revise one of my earliest drawings of him based on my updated design and see if I could improve on anything. I changed his pose to one of a javelin thrower (after all, I had revised his armor based on one) and added more detail to the circlet adorning his forehead (inspired by Lord Elrond from the Lord of the Rings perhaps).

Perhaps the greatest change I’ve seen in myself is that I’m no longer in a hurry to finish a piece. Instead, I see myself taking time to tinker around with details until I’m really satisfied.

One thing my wife did point out was that she still liked the original version for its simplicity and clear focus. As the revised version became bigger with more detail, it had started to lose focus and I had to figure out how to bring it back.

Originally, I placed the focus in the form of a halo around Karthikeya’s head, but quickly realized that there was no use of placing a focus there because it was a small area when compared to the rest of the image and nothing was really happening there. Quite possibly by chance, I had placed the focus on the point of attach in the original piece and realized that this was where the focus always belonged.

And so, I learned a valuable lesson with this. Sometimes, more detail does not always imply a better design. It’s about how effectively you tell a story with whatever you have, with every stroke or color chosen with some meaning and purpose.

So what do you think? Do you like the old version or the new?

Being the General of the Gods - Karthikeya rides a peacock into battle, well, according to the stories anyway. But a peacock is a tiny thing, how does one actually sit on it? But then it occurred to me that Ostrich racing actually exists and realize… — Being the General of the Gods - Karthikeya rides a peacock into battle, well, according to the stories anyway. But a peacock is a tiny thing, how does one actually sit on it? But then it occurred to me that Ostrich racing actually exists and realized that its possibly how Karthikeya rides his peacock. That plus his lance would have to be much larger to reach out past his vehicle and attack his enemies. And that odd combination of facts led to this drawing, retaining the same basic design as my earlier drawings of him.

Karthikeya is the General of the Gods in Indian Mythology, leading their armies into battle against the forces of evil. Unlike Ganesha, who is easily recognisable no matter what you do with him, or Rama who can be identified by being blue and carryi… — Karthikeya is the General of the Gods in Indian Mythology, leading their armies into battle against the forces of evil.
Unlike Ganesha, who is easily recognisable no matter what you do with him, or Rama who can be identified by being blue and carrying a bow, or Krishna who is also blue with a peacock feather in his hair or Hanuman who is a monkey, Karthikeya needed quite a bit of thought to give him that unique and engaging look.

I decided to take the design from my previous piece ‘Karthikeya meets Avvaiyaar’ and upgrade his armour into a high collar and asymmetrical design inspired by what lance and javelin users might wear in the Olympics. The left shoulder is shielded since that side is likely to face the enemy for a right-handed spear user. The right side I left bare, allowing greater freedom of movement. The armour itself is in shades of maroon, which I have retained from the earliest colour palette I chose for Karthikeya, for the sake of consistency.

A specific design element I added was the six sided star in his armor. This symbol has been associated with Karthikeya, representing that he was born from six sparks into six bodies, nursed by six heavenly maidens and combined into one form with six heads and six pairs of arms.

One might notice the similarity between Karthikeya’s six-sided star symbol and the 'Star of David' (which is also similar to the 'Seal of Solomon’, the ring that gave the King Solomon the power to control demons). Coincidence or connection, who knows?

Lastly, I strongly considered drawing him with six heads and six pair of arms to keep him immediately recognizable. However, I wanted to show him as being nimble, agile and ready for battle and I felt that having six heads/ twelve hands would make him feel a little awkward, especially if he’d be waving around a sharp and powerful weapon. So I figured this would be the form he’d take before taking a stab at something.

Avvaiyaar is an old woman who has mastered the Tamil language through divine blessings and is quite proud of her mastery. One day, she’s wandering through forests/fields where she encounters a boy on a tree asking her if she’s hungry for some fresh Nagapazham (Acai Berries). After some witty wordplay with the boy, she realizes that there is still much more to accomplish and humbly asks the boy to disclose his true identity, whereupon he reveals himself as Karthikeya, the God of Warcraft and Speechcraft.

There are quite a few stories of Divine Intervention in Indian Mythological literature where the mortal in question is left awestruck by their encounter. I saw this scene in an old movie and found it quite amusing and decided to try recreating it.

The foreground has Karthikeya disguised as a goatherd on a Acai Berry tree with Avvaiyar standing below him blowing dust off the fallen berries.

The background has Karthikeya reveal his divine splendour to the old woman, mirroring his pose from the foreground. I did quite a few re-designs on his armour and his spear with a lot more detail from earlier versions of him. I also kept the character’s color scheme consistent between foreground/background to indicate that it’s the same guy.

In the movie the boy says he raises goats but there were none to be seen. I decided to remedy that by filling the pastures behind him with a pack of goats!

The God of Warfare