Sleipnir Lokison, Steed of Odin and Eight-Legged Wonder of Norse Myth!

I didn’t need to have this guy done until Christmas, but I couldn’t help myself. Everything from the sculpting to the carousel-horse dapple grey paint job was a blast. Well, maybe not all that sanding.

Part way through the sculpting I got this intense desire to base his color on the tawny grey-brown of a hawk. I got the idea right before bedtime and couldn’t sleep until I’d gotten out the colored pencils and done a sketch. The next morning I did a better version, and this was my plan:

The plan deviated somewhat from the color his future owner requested, which was a steely, variegated grey with darker grey mane and tail and grey eyes. Sleipnir is actually specified as being grey in the 13th century Prose Edda, so this plan made sense. But I really liked my concept, so I decided to impose martial law artistic license.

But partway into the painting, I turned back to the original plan. My tawny hawk thing was just not working. So I kept going until he started to look better, and I finally I was pleased with his look. I ended up only disobeying my friend’s request in one way, and that is that he has amber-gold eyes instead of grey. His hooves are a metallic steel-grey and the mark on his hip is the Triple Horn, the emblem of the god Odin.

Now how am I going to keep this a secret for five months?

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