Petar Meseldzija - The Rescuer (Sketch)

Today's image is an unfinished sketch from Petar.  I wanted to comment on this piece for a couple of reasons.  First, I was following along on MuddyColors that Petar was working on a sketch based on Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer. Petar reproduced that sketch about 8 times, tweaking the gesture and pose until it was EXACTLY what he wanted.  In some cases, the changes were so minor that one might not have even noticed the difference unless it was pointed out.  Yet he redrew the figure again and again until he was happy.  Secondly, I have been working on a sketch of Black Cat and I am finding that the pose and gesture very important to the feel that I want to convey.  Are the hips right?  What about the tilt of the head?  So I look at this preliminary sketch and wonder, "how many times was this redrawn to get to this point?  The gesture is powerful.  The weight distribution is setup so that you can feel this knight lunging that heavy spear into the dragon's mouth.  The shapes that creates are just lovely, slightly off vertical, the body creating a nice dramatic diagonal, a twist in the torso that shows the body at an angle that the volume of his chest really not just fills the space, but commands the surroundings.  I know that often people (myself included) can become a slave to reference, especially if it is good reference, but this image did not come from a camera shot.  It came from the meticulous tweaking and modifying a person's character, personality and actions so that this is not just a drawing of a figure, it is an avatar, an embodiment of the character that Petar is trying to share with the viewer.