Jabrosky's Crimes Against Fantasy Art

It definitely was cold, though surprisingly there was no snow. However, on one day we took a little road trip to Milwaukee in Wisconsin, which was even worse due to severe wind.

 

Peloponnesian Raptors
Along the southern coastline of what will someday become Greece, two raptors squabble for leadership of their pack. As you might guess from the double sickle-claws on their feet, these particular raptors are based off the Late Cretaceous Balaur bondoc.

 

Gaythelos and Scota
In old Scottish mythology (as recorded by Walter Bower in his 15th century chronicle the Scotichronicon), the Celtic Gaels of Scotland and Ireland could trace their ancestry to an Egyptian princess named Scota and her Greek husband Gaythelos. Needless to say, it's a ridiculously fanciful account not supported by any archaeological or other evidence thus found, but nonetheless I like the idea of Egyptian, Hellenic, and Celtic cultural influences coming together in one place. So here's Gaythelos and Scota rallying some Gaelic tribesmen somewhere in the woods of the British Isles.

My usual technique for highlighting art in Photoshop is to create an Overlay layer on top of the art and paint pale yellow over where I want the highlights to be. For this piece, on the other hand, I used the Hard Light blending mode instead of Overlay and used a brighter yellow color matching the torchlight. It was a real challenge to get the effect close to how I wanted it to look.

 

The Great Questions
All over the world and throughout history, humanity has mused upon certain mysteries of existence. This was another painstaking project to embark on (took me a couple of days to get it finished), but I did get to draw multiple characters from diverse cultures.

Oh, and apparently the History Channel's Ancient Aliens show aired a brand new season just a month ago. How they're still up and running after four years of insulting the public's intelligence and critical thinking abilities remains the real enigma to me.

 

Wait, I might have an explanation for the ongoing persistence of Ancient Aliens after all.

 

Another, briefer attempt at a humorous comic strip.

In all seriousness, chemistry classes were never my favorite throughout my education, but I can see why other students might get more out of them.

 

Waiting for Leftovers
A troop of huntresses hides and watches as a Tyrannosaurus rex gorges on his kill. Hopefully the tyrant predator will leave some scraps for them to scavenge once he's done, but unfortunately his species has territorial tendencies. On the other hand, the tame raptor that the huntresses use as their blood-hound is already eager for the leftovers.

Detailing this whole scene was great fun, but it also made for an exhausting coloring stage. The whole project, which I drew on a 11x14'' Bristol, took almost two days to finish.

 

The Mother of Invention
200,000 years ago on the plains of East Africa, an expectant Homo sapiens idaltu (immediate ancestor of modern Homo sapiens sapiens) decided she wanted to join the boys and single ladies on the hunt. To circumvent her obvious maternal burden, she developed a novel technology that would shift the course of human development for millennia to come.

 

Another cartoon. Somehow it's grown a lot easier for me to come up with jokes in the past few days. I guess my new meds must be working:

A Plague of Trolls
Ever wondered how our history and mythology might have changed if the Internet had been invented at a much earlier date? Considering Moses is one of the most famous advocates for social justice from distant antiquity, he would have been quite popular with a certain, notoriously irritating subset of online trolls.

Also, it is a LOT more fun drawing a bed-headed Afro than it is a hand holding an iPad stylus.

EDIT: See this for a larger, more legible version.

 

Apep Attacks
Ra and Sutekh, two prominent Neteru (gods) from ancient Egyptian mythology, battle the monstrous serpent Apep while sailing through the underworld of Duat.

Sutekh (better known to Western audiences as Set) is often perceived as the Egyptian pantheon’s resident villain due to his power struggle with Heru (or Horus), but he was not always portrayed as an antagonist. Other traditions maintained that he helped Ra defend himself against Apep every night while their barge passed through Duat. OIf any entity in the whole Egyptian belief system represented evil incarnate, it would really be Apep rather than Sutekh.

While the long-nosed, long-eared creature commonly identified with Sutekh remains unidentified, I’m partial to the suggestion that it originally represented an aardvark, so I gave my rendition of Sutekh an aardvark motif. Since aardvarks have long claws for digging, the logical next step was to give Sutekh bracers with big claws on them, almost like Shredder from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

You may notice that Sutekh has reddish dreadlocks and lighter skin than Ra. This references a condition called rufous albinism, a poorly-known form of albinism more commonly observed in people of African descent. It’s characterized by ruddy-brown skin, reddish hair, and hazel or brown eyes. Some sources claim that Sutekh had red hair and that red-haired people were considered to be his followers, so I thought rufous albinism would make sense for his human form.

As for Apep, his facial features are based off a subspecies of the Gaboon viper called Bitis gabonica rhinoceros, which has larger nose-horns than the other subspecies.

 

A Rubbery Snack
This family of Edmontosaurus regalis has gathered together to extract gooey tree sap. Whatever the substance's nutritional value, these hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs) sure enjoy licking up and then chewing it like gum. Even dinosaurs can have bad habits.

Hadrosaurs aren't exactly my favorite of all the Dinosauria (that honor goes to tyrannosaurids and ceratopsians), but since they were one of the few dinosaur groups that had the ability to chew their food, they seemed the most appropriate subjects for a drawing of dinosaurs chewing tree sap. The claws on their pinky fingers are speculative, but then they needed some way to scratch for sap.

 

Romans Recuperating
Deep in the forests of what will someday be known as Germany, a patrol of Roman legionnaires has settled down to catch their breath. The most fun part of this was giving each of the legionnaires something to do, however insignificant, so that they wouldn't all be just sitting there looking bored.

Don't feel too scared for the Christian dude's safety. Satanic connotations aside, that snake he's about to receive is really supposed to be a nonvenomous species.

 

Awkward Swag is Awkward
It doesn't matter if you're black or white. If you're a male African rhinoceros, you may find yourself in that awkward situation where certain females just won't get into you no matter how hard you try. And your kind's poor eyesight won't exactly help you discern why.

Here's a pro hint: it's all in the lips, it's all in the lips...