There must be some kind of way out of here...

I've gotten a few requests to draw Zaknafein, but I was hesitant, because it has been a while since I've drawn his type of character. So, while I was on the thirteen hour plane ride to Japan, I thought I would try. My first sketches were horrid. I tried to draw him standing in a fighting pose with his two swords, I tried to draw him just standing, and I finally moved on to other things.

During this process however, I was listening to my beloved ipod. I came across one of my favorite songs, All Along the Watchtower, sung by Middlebury's all male a capella group: Dissipated Eight. For some reason it struck me as it could possibly been about Jarlaxle and Zaknafein. At one point there's this conversation between "a joker" and "a thief." While I don't think Zaknafein is "a joker," what the joker says reminds me of him. Below is the conversation in the song:

"There must be some kind of way out of here..." said the Joker to the thief. "There's too much confusion. I can't get no relief."

"There's no reason to get excited," the thief he kindly spoke. "Because there are many here among us who think that life is but a joke. But you and I we've been through life, and such is not our fate. So let us not talk falsely now; the hour's getting late."

I really don't know why this strikes me as a conversation between Zak and Jarlaxle, but it just did. And this drawing stemmed from the inspiration of the song. I hope y'all like my first attempt at drawing the mighty Zaknafein.

This was drawn in my sketchbook, which I bought in Japan after realizing that I couldn't not draw for two weeks. The background sucks, I know, I'm really back at backgrounds. The rocks look really flat. Arg, I really need to take some classes.