Beware of the Ides of March *UPDATE*

[Fiete]

This is a picture of Caesar, which I have drawn for a bandshirt of a band of a few friends of mine, called WarTex (not the Norwegian Black Metal band, but a German Heavy Metal band). I wanted to go for the Roman theme, as one of their songs is called "Beware of the Ides of March" and they liked the idea.
The picture as such is finished (although the arm looks awkward at best and I'm not satisfied with the face either), but I would be glad for any suggestions on how to improve posture or how to make the picture appear more heroic because I want to come up with a painted version, maybe with additional characters (I thought of Cleopatra and maybe a few praetorian guards) to use as a cover for their first release which will hopefully be in stores one day.

UPDATE

I have added the following:
the first picture is the initial sketch for the cover (I admit, it is inspired by the cover of "The Triumph of Steel", which I believe is awesome as such). It shows caesar holding up his sword in front of rising clouds of smoke. Cleopatra is next to him, they are both on a pile of skulls.
The second one is another rough sketch, just to see how the whole thing would look like in colour. I also added the pennant, vultures circling in the sky and changed the way Cleopatra is sitting.
The third picture is still in progress, and will be coloured in oils. I hope it will be the actual thing.

The vertical line that can be seen is there because the pictures are larger than the scanner, I apologise. WarTex now have a myspace site. Please visit http://www.myspace.com/wartexlev

UPDATE 2

I painted the sky.

UPDATE 3

I painted Caesar's cape, pennant and the background landscape.

UPDATE 4

It's finished!

[Jason Rainville]

First off the obvious suggestion "study anatomy" but I think you've been here long enough to know that. Specifically his neck is long, his lower body is shrunken one arm is just plain bigger than the other and the hands need a lot of work. these things will improve after you've put in the effort and invested a lot of time in observational study.

As for making this more heroic, there are a number of things that tell us this fugure is less than heroic:

- He looks like a small person. the gladius (which is a short sword) especially makes him look stunted by comparison.
- His expression is sort of blank, almost pensive. There's not a lot of confidence in his face.
- his posture is certainly erect, but still not proud. He's just standing, and not quite proudly.
- Though I doubt ceasar was a mountain of a man, a little more muscle or at least definition would help in making him seem to be a more capable leader of men.

[Fiete]

Thankyou Jason, I have tried to implement your criticism.