Home » Posts tagged 'general'
Tag Archives: general
General Jean Armand, Baron von Dieskau
2014 has been rather hectic for me, between frantically looking for jobs, pounding on the writing, and doing schoolwork. This weekend, I FINALLY found some free time to do a little bit of illustration, and the result is what you see here.
Lately, I’ve been on a colonial history kick. One of my writing projects is on the French and Indian War – I decided to temporarily shelve my book on ancient Egypt. I intend for this book to be fully illustrated, and one of the pictures that will be in it will be this portrait of a French officer. His name was General Jean Ludwig August Armand, Baron von Dieskau. He was a German-born officer who fought in the French Army during the opening stages of the French and Indian War.
Flavius Aetius
Flavius Gaudentius Aetius (395-454 AD) was a Roman general famous as the arch enemy of Attila the Hun, but he was a lot more than that. He was one of the primary shapers of European politics and history during the early to mid 5th Century AD, and has been called by some as “the last of the Romans”. Although we know very little about his early life, we have a lot more info on him from about 420 AD onwards. As a member of the nobility, he rose through the ranks fairly quickly, and he developed a strong relationship with the Huns. He participated in numerous wars, and many of the generals and junior officers who fought beside him, such as Majorian and Ricimer, would later become high-ranking members of the court and even emperors.
In 453, Attila the Hun died, and his empire began to almost immediately fragment apart. Flavius Aetius would follow him shortly afterwards. On September 21, 454 AD, Aetius was assassinated inside the imperial palace on Emperor Valentinianus III’s orders.
The two illustrations that you see below are portraits that I did of Flavius Aetius, one in pencil and the other colorized with markers, that I made when I was a freshman in college. I admit that the armor, especially the helmets, are not accurate for the time period that I’m trying to represent, but I didn’t know any better at the time. Maybe one day I’ll make a revised, more historically accurate version.
Enjoy and keep your pencils sharp.
