What do you want this Founder's portrait art to look like? Please list the physical description, Action & Magic, Clothing, Accessories, and Background that you would like to see for Bjornaer's portrait.
Show her standing tall, wearing barbarian clothing, but looking west, where one can see a place reminiscent of Durenmar, to show her connection to Bonisagus. On the right side, she's leaving behind a group, some in human form, some in animal form, and some in hybrid form. And there's a hint of her Heartbeast around her.
Don't recall Birna ever having a particularly special connection with Bonisagus? The founder she seemed to have got along the most was Merinita as it was with her help that the Ritual of Twelve Years was devised.
IIRC. Trianoma and Diedne were ones noted to get along pretty well with Bonisagus.
Otherwise, yeah; some sort of Feral aesthetic would be appropriate. Maybe incorporate the Gothic scripture into her appearence, perhaps as tattoos, or written in ash - emphasis on her origin as a Gothic Witch?
As usual though, Pablo Moreno did many great artworks about the Founders; Birna included.
I think you definitely need some reference to Birna's heartbeast. I've wondered about making her shadow a bear; my big reservation is that I don't want to confuse people into thinking Bjornaer have such obvious visual tells when it's very much a thing that you can't tell (directly) that a Bjornaer in heartbeast form is anything other than a mundane animal (and I assume vice versa).
Given that, I'd suggest:
A woman is walking down a muddy path away from a stream. She's wearing a simple long brown woollen tunic, with no metal fastenings - indeed, she carries nothing that wouldn't be covered by Animal. There's something of the bear about her - she's significantly Larger than normal, both in height and general bulk [need something for scale?], and she appears to be squinting a little in the sunlight. On the path behind her are human footsteps for a few paces, but further than that they vanish, and are replaced by the paw-prints of a giant bear.
I have a similar idea to Salutor, with a stronger, more mystical atmosphere.
Birna is standing on a cliff, howling at the moon. A village is sitting at the feet of the cliff, with obvious section of a nearby forest being cut down.
She is a strong, female character, muscular, hair unkempt, dressed like a hunter, no apparent magical paraphernalia.
What makes her stand out is the misty bear-shape just behind her, several feet taller than her, standing in the exactly same posture has Birna.
Several feet behind her, dark shadows of various animals, with glowing eyes.
I'm being unconventional and taking some stabs at nightcafe art - literally inputting words from the HoH: MC book, using DALL E3 and editing. OBVIOUSLY these attempts can't be used, mainly trying to be inspirational and give people on the board something to react to and like/dislike/criticise.
Bjornear is an attractive young woman, with blue eyes, tanned skin from the sun with dark brown hair. Called the She-bear, she is unusually tall, athletic, and heavy (muscular with fat) build. Her expression is one of anger, she wants REVENGE.
Action & Magic:
I think Bjornear should be implied to be afraid of fire - an active portrait of a her being attacked by some kind of fire spirit maybe that traumatized her and led to her later weakness with fire magic.
Clothing:
Bjornear wears furs or animal hides.
Accessories:
A sage brush perhaps?
Background:
I was thinking some kind of epic scene along the stony bank of a river over a large cliff that she is being backed into by the fire elemental. Maybe with other shapeshifters in the distance watching her, watching her fail.
If anything, house Bjornear more than other houses strikes me as "family" like.
I'd be against showing any of the Founders failing in their portraits - they are part of the introduction to the character, and I'd want to show them as impressive (albeit in different ways for different Founders). There's a high risk of "failing at this specific thing" being taken as "a failure in general", which is rarely inspirational. And even if it's not taken as a general thing, you've got one key portrait - why waste it when you could be showing their greatness?
(Whilst aversion to fire is a stereotype of the Bjornaer in the Order, and may even have been a semi-accurate one prior to the House's changes following the Schism War, I think that was more a "savage beast can't cope with civilisation" thing than a "specific trauma" thing. It's possible Birna had a problem with fire / Ignem magic herself, but I don't think we've got anything definite on that unless I've just missed it - I certainly wouldn't call it a key feature of her character.)
