Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Mexica



A Mexica (Aztec) warrior; my copy, in pen and ink on vellum, from the Florentine codex. After scanning the b & w image I worked a bit with color.

The warrior bears a small wicker shield and a wooden club with black obsidian blades inserted on two edges; he wears a jaguar skin costume and wooden helmet with a feather headdress. The military elite, otomi, vowed to never step backwards in battle.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is he left-handed? Or is it a mirror image from being scanned and copied? Just curious.

Cameron McPherson Smith said...

Good question, I will check into that!