Concept to Crate: Red Sonya

Concept to Crate: Red Sonya

February 13, 2020

In this concept art Insider, I’ll be discussing the visual development of Robert E. Howard’s character Red Sonya. Not to be confused with the Hyborian Age Red Sonja (note the different spelling), this Red Sonya is a warrior of Polish-Ukrainian descent and is adept at both gun slinging and sword fighting. I dove a bit into historical 1800’s Polish and Ukrainian clothing and weapons to create a believable character while blending her into the Robert E. Howard universe.

Carlos Cabrera was the artist assigned the task of bringing this character life, and in his first round of sketches, he captured everything I was looking for. Through a round of discussion, we determined we needed to play her up as more feminine and steer away from the heavier outfits.

Elements that I wanted to keep from this round were the scabbard and belts from A, the forearm guards from B/C, the cut of shirt from B while removing the sleeves below the biceps, and the shawl from C. I also liked the loose hair from C but would like to see it blowing in the same direction as the shawl. With those notes in hand, Carlos sketched up the option you see below.

This was a really tough call—I liked both of them quite a bit, but my vote went to #2, and others in the process agreed. The added bonus was that the attitude she was showing with the sword over her shoulder went perfectly with her pose as well. With the cleaned-up line work (below), the concept was ready to be sent to a sculptor to be turned into a miniature.

The last thing we had to do while she was in sculpt was illustrate her! Normally, we would draw from existing artwork in the extensive Robert E. Howard library; however, as we were designing her from scratch, we had to come up with our own illustration—so, Carlos was able to provide that for us as well!

Now that you’ve seen the concept and the card artwork, head over to the MiniCrate site to secure your miniature today!

I’ve always been a great fan of Robert E. Howard’s characters. I remember my father reading the Conan novels when I was a child and my brother’s comic book collection and the Frazetta illustrations on my own bedroom’s walls. At school, I used to draw huge barbarians, and my roleplaying games were always filled with witch hunters, barbarians, and beautiful female warriors. I even illustrated a Solomon Kane story for a pulp magazine when I was in my twenties. As you can imagine, when Ron Kruzie asked me if I was interested in sculpting models for the SAVAGE MiniCrate line, I was more than excited.

Conan and Solomon Kane are two of the most famous characters Howard created, but I had no idea how many other cool characters he created: Dark Agnes, Xaltotun, Kull of Atlantis, Belit, Queen Tamaris…but beyond all of these, I was shocked by Red Sonya. When we hear that name, we immediately imagine a beautiful barbarian woman with a chainmail bikini and fiery red hair—but that character wasn’t created by Robert E. Howard. The “real” Red Sonya was a character to appear in the story “Shadow of the Vulture,” which takes place in the sixteenth century. (Roy Thomas created the Red Sonja character based on Howard’s story but changed nearly everything about the character, most notably her appearance.) So, when Ron sent me the concept art by Carlos Carbrera, I was a bit confused. No chainmail bikini? A gun? What in the world was going on here? Then I did a bit of investigating to earn the real origin of Red Sonya and her appearance in Howard’s story.

When approaching the sculpt for her, I opted to go for a sexy yet menacing post. Carlos’ drawing uses a pose full of character, so, after consulting with Mike Vaillancourt, I decided to stick to the drawing pose I wanted her to look like a strong beautiful woman, and it took me a while to get the exact look I wanted. I hope you like the results!