Hello all. I painted this for a swap with Jakob Villien. I had another idea when I first saw the version he was painting (which is really awesome). He did some conversion and so I was considering doing some small changes as well. I was going to paint him with purple-blue skin and make him completely alien. Then as I came to paint him and my idea did a bit of a flip in my head and the way I felt at the time was for a more natural-looking but super tough Gladiator stepping from the underground area out into the arena.

The main impetus for this idea is that I wanted to practice being more subtle with colour light and in particular shadow. I wanted to keep the shadow side sort of subdued but try and get a more convincing effect than the last time I tried something with warm and cold light.

I feel like everything went pretty well for him. Although in a lot of senses it is a simple bust scene overall I had fun painting him even though the world has gone mad lately and I'm feeling stressed and depressed about this and other things in my life at the moment. Despite all that, I am quite happy with how he's come out considering my mood lately and it just shows how important painting has become to my mental health because despite all the other stresses and issues I can use this as a great method of stress relief and to escape from the woes of the world for a few hours.

I really hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! Much <3