Jabrosky's Crimes Against Fantasy Art

[Jabrosky]

Some world-building notes which have pissed off some people on Tumblr:

This chart, drawn for another one of my fantasy projects, shows both the three major races of my temporarily named "Fantasyland" and the physical variation (or sub-races, if you will) within each race.

Elves: Sedentary, agricultural vegetarians in the western lands who tend to have the most technologically "advanced" civilizations in the world. Although they have the greatest magical proficiency of the races, they tend towards greater competitiveness and individualism (think of them as being the modern Americans of Fantasyland). The elves' sub-races are the Flame Elves of the temperate forests, the Gold Elves who prefer alpine and boreal forests, and the chaparral- and desert-dwelling Dark Elves.

Orcs: In sharp contrast to the elves, the orcs of the eastern lands are nomadic carnivores whose economies depend on hunting and herding. They are the physically strongest race, but while they can be warlike and ferocious, they abide by a strict honor code that forbids killing the innocent or unarmed as much as possible. The orcs' divisions are the Wood Orcs, the Plains Orcs (who may also venture into desert), and the Bog (or Swamp) Orcs.

Humans: Residing in the tropical southern lands, these adaptable and intelligent omnivores show the greatest cultural variation of the races. Some human societies may have complex urban cultures whereas others prefer nomadic pastoralism or foraging. The human sub-races include the Forest (or Jungle) People, the Savanna People, and the Sand (or Desert) People.

 

[Jabrosky]

Left Tumblr for reasons I'd rather not get into here, but I'm still drawing as always...

[FONT=Verdana, Arial]Another queen from ancient Egypt, but not really meant to represent any particular historical personage this time. However, the crown did draw its influence from Nefertiti's famous bust. The dark marks around her face are supposed to be scars deliberately inflicted for beautification as seen in some Central African societies today. The chains running to the scarab from under her eyes have an East African inspiration, but I forgot the name of the exact ethnic group.[/FONT]

 

[Jabrosky]

This scholarly character, who's lugging around a codex with papyrus pages, works as a librarian for some learning institution similar to the Egyptian Per Ankhs or Timbuktu's Sankore University. I don't have any plans for her yet, but I had a blast when designing her look. It's supposed to combine elements of different African societies from all over the continent; for example, her headdress draws from both ancient Egyptian crowns and West African women's head-wraps. People like to stress that Africa is a vast continent rather than one monolithic country, but somehow there's a certain appeal to the idea that all the different African civilizations are distantly related in some way.

 

[Jabrosky]

Experiment with a more cartoon-like drawing style than I usually do

 

[Jabrosky]

Civilization 3 Leaderheads

Anyone here familiar with Sid Meier's Civilization games?

This series of portraits owes its inspiration to the animated leader heads from the strategy game Civilization III. Each of the game's playable civilizations had one historical leader's portrait representing it, but the really neat thing about them is that they would change costume as your civilization's technology advanced. I wanted to do something similar for the female Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut, portraying her as she might have looked in different time periods.

​From top left to bottom right, we have prehistoric, classical, medieval-like, and modern-day versions of Hatshepsut. I will color all these in the near future and may offer it as a download for Civ III players!

 

[Jabrosky]

Colored versions of my Hatshepsut Through the Ages portraits

 

[Jabrosky]

Hatshepsut (or Sobekneferu, or any other female Pharaoh in Egyptian history) shows off her leopard-skin mantle. Leopard skins are usually associated with the Egyptian priesthood, but some Pharaohs such as Seti I have been depicted wearing them on occasion. Besides, leopard print looks good on black women in my opinion.

And now for something completely different, a mother T. Rex with her son

 

[Jabrosky]

Lara Croft
I remember wanting to play the very first Tomb Raider game when I was a kid, albeit mainly for the dinosaurs (back then I was too young to have, uh, strong feelings for Lara herself). I actually did get to play the Anniversary edition, but could not get past the T. Rex (pistols are a lousy weapon against a large theropod). Apparently the Tomb Raider franchise is undergoing another reboot now, which inspired me to draw this redesign for everyone's favorite video game heroine. I rather like how her necklace came out here, but I suck at drawing modern firearms due to a lack of practice.

 

[Jabrosky]

Nthanda of Azenya
Nthanda of Azenya is the leading lady of a new short story that will keep me busy over the course of this Spring Break. Living in the 19th century, she hails from a rural village on the borders of a longstanding African kingdom named Azenya (known to the classical Greco-Romans as Azania). However, when her village gets sacked by invading British imperialists, she must team up with the vagrant Texan sheriff Michael Hancock to save what remains of her country (or something along those lines---honestly, I am still revising the plot).

This started out as another Egyptian princess portrait, but after I came up with my story I changed it to a portrait of my character. Her civilization owes its inspiration to southern African Bantu kingdoms such as Great Zimbabwe, although I didn't have a photo reference handy when I drew this.

 

[Meyer]

You capture the facial structure very well. It is very good concept art. A few of the pieces of African queens reminded me of the facial characterestics of actual African American ladies around the campus.

 

[Jabrosky]

Tyrannosaurus rex

 

[Jabrosky]

WIP which I will color sometime in the near future:

This is a hypothetical book cover illustration for a historical fantasy story I have started to write. The two heroines centered here, Kiya and Sekhmethotep from left to right, are loving half-sisters who grew up together in the royal family of Kemet. However, once their kingdom fell on hard times, the newly crowned Pharaoh Sekhmethotep found herself reluctantly marrying Kiya out to the Mansa of Mali as part of a difficult diplomatic maneuver. While Kiya struggles to cope with her spoiled tyrant of a new husband, Sekhmethotep must confront a nascent religion that promises prosperity and security...for a price.

And two colored drawings showing Kiya and Sekhmethotep from top to bottom:

 

[Jabrosky]

Colored version of my Half-Sisters cover.

 

[Lunaairis]

I really like the picture of Kiya? I think its Kiya sitting in a chair. There is a lot of nice weight to it.

 

[Jabrosky]

I really like the picture of Kiya? I think its Kiya sitting in a chair. There is a lot of nice weight to it.

Yes, the sitting woman with the West African head-wrap is Kiya.

 

[Jabrosky]

Mukondi, my dinosaur huntress OC, poses for a trophy shot with this young Allosaurus she has slain for dinner. I wonder if theropods taste like chicken?

 

[Jabrosky]

Neith the Nubian Archer
This started out as practice with drawing from a photo reference. As an artist, I have found that using references when creating art can do wonders for your characters' anatomy. This character, an archer from ancient Nubia, is named for an Egyptian goddess of hunting and warfare. Colored with Prismacolor pencils.

 

[Jabrosky]

And here's an antagonist for Neith:

Tabua the Sea Dragon
Tabua is the draconian avatar of a Melanesian sorceress who works for a gang of pirates, and she uses her dragon form to help them break into towns for plunder and terrorize the locals. Tabua may use her colossal head as a battering ram and shoot scalding water from her blowhole, among other powers. Tabua's name translates to "whale's tooth" in the Fijian language, and her design incorporates components of a sperm whale, great white shark, and a crocodile. She is around twelve to fifteen meters (or forty to fifty feet) long in dragon form, but her human form is said to be incongruously beautiful.

 

[Jabrosky]

Neith Dresses Up
My Nubian OC Neith dresses up for a special occasion, perhaps a fancy banquety or other elite social gathering. I originally conceived of this character as another pseudo-Amazon warrior chick, but this time I wanted to experiment with a classier, less martially inclined heroine. In addition I also wanted to portray a person from ancient Nubia in more "civilized" attire than the tribal get-up some artists give them.

She's not a natural redhead by the way, for she has dyed her Afro with red ochre. Both ancient Egyptians and Nubians would sometimes dye their hair red, and the practice still continues among modern African peoples such as the Maasai and Himba.

 

[Lunaairis]

OOooh I like Neith.