Interlude: Holiday sketches

 Something out of the usual today. I've enjoyed some days off with the family. Nothing spectacular, just a short trip a couple of hours far from home. The thing is that, though the forecast predicted some rain, we had a little more than expected, and even some snow, so we had to stay indoors more time than we had planned. The kids managed well (most important thing!) and I took the chance to take a ballpen and a sketchbook and let myself go with some quick drawings of our excursions over the area.

These were my first attempts of doing this kind of thing in years, so please excuse the quality and just value the enthusiasm XD

First, the castle of Burgo de Osma, the village where we stayed, top of the hill, with the medieval (originally Roman) bridge over the river.

Please mind the river, I clearly still have a lot to learn

Not a great deal, I'm afraid, more a warm-up than anything else. I tried to depict the 10th century ruined castle that dominates the landscape over the area, from a pic I took from the other side of the river.

Then I took a slightly more serious endeavour, I tried a more detailed drawing of the cathedral of the village. This time I have a couple of WIP pics:

The cathedral of Burgo de Osma

There are some serious perspective issues and some stuff I only noticed when it was too late, but somehow the ctrl+z thing didn't work here. I have to say it's the first time I try to do this thing right with ink, with no previous pencil whatsoever, so I had no chance to correct any mistake.

The inner geek in me can't help but see the village (the center of it nowadays remaining essentially medieval) but with a Mordheim twist, full of ruined stone and wooden houses, high walls and tons of dangers and adventures behind every corner. I guess I should call it Osmaburgheim to make it sound commercial, hmmm...

We made a short trip to a nearby castle, Gormaz, which happens to be the largest fortress in Spain. I was amazed by the sheer bulk of it, ruined and abandoned as it is (which is an absolute shame, but that's another story). A 10th century castle (though built over a previous fortification), originally from the Caliphate and (very long story short) later on conquered by Castilians.

Again, from a pic I took with the phone

Dated yesterday

I would have liked to draw some other pieces, as I took bazillions of pics of dead rocks piled up in awesome shapes like those above, but I'm happy I found some time to produce at least these.

I guess I should provide the source pics for you to decide how close I got from the original XD

Now it's the time to confess I have like a ton of minis I got from Crusader years ago for a 28mm medieval project I have in mind. I may have to bring them on the bench...