Jabrosky's Crimes Against Fantasy Art

[Jabrosky]

From Pharaoh to Slave
Once she ruled the ancient world's greatest and most ancient superpower. Since then she has fallen into the cruelest and most destitute servitude. Formerly renowned for her glamorous beauty, she now suffers the stigma forced upon this same appearance. But someday, she vows, she will ascend back to her former glory.

 

[Jabrosky]

Update of the above picture that now features backgrounds. On the left is the Photoshop-rendered papyrus I've used for several of my Egyptian images while on the right is the text from an actual advertisement for slaves from 19th century Georgia.

 

[Jabrosky]

Nefrusobek's Daydreams
My original heroine, Queen Nefrusobek of Kametu, is just lounging around daydreaming or otherwise musing on something. Originally I wanted to draw her as a bored teenage princess still undergoing her royal education, but her proportions came out looking too adult-like like I normally draw her. The headdress she's wearing at the moment is definitely borrowed from the Egyptian Nefertiti, but I want to emphasize that these are two separate characters despite similar headgear and names.

I imagine Nefrusobek must have suffered a rather stressful adolescence. She would have undergone a rigorous education in a variety of subjects to prepare her for ascension to her father's throne. With great power comes not only great responsibility, but a great preparation too.

Moshemud the Deliverer
For most of their existence, the Yisraalim have wandered the Sands of Shem as nomadic camel-herders without any common leadership. The various tribes would supplement their pastoral economy by raiding each other and merchants' caravans bound for the larger kingdoms beyond the desert. It has been a bleak and volatile existence, but one Yisraali prophet named Moshemud means to change all this.

Believing himself endorsed by the deity Ellahu, Moshemud's ambition is to unify the scattered Yisraali tribes into one greater kingdom that would dominate the whole of Shem at the very least. He also hopes to liberate those Yisraalim who have been captured and enslaved by outside nations such as the Kametians and Babelunyans. Obviously Moshemud's dreams of empire pose a threat to the civilizations beyond the Sands, especially with the divine power he claims to wield.

As you might infer from his name, Moshemud is a conceptual combination of the Hebrew Moses and the Muslim Muhammad. Originally he was going to serve as a minor character in Nefrusobek's story, but now I think he would work even better as a major antagonist for the Queen of Kametu. I should note though that even though he hates the Kametians and other "infidels" with a fiery passion, Moshemud may not necessarily be a total bad guy. He does care for his own people's welfare after all.

 

[Jabrosky]

Olmoceratops the Mexican Chasmosaurine
"Olmoceratops" is my (unofficial) name for an heretofore unidentified taxon of ceratopsian dinosaur discovered in the Olmos Formation of northern Mexico back in 2011. So far only one of its brow horns has been uncovered, but at 95.2 cm in length, it likely belonged to a very large dinosaur (for perspective, the horns of Triceratops run only around ~80 cm long). "Olmoceratops" was almost certainly from the chasmosaurine branch of the ceratopsian family tree, but is not to be confused with the earlier-found Coahuilaceratops. I've chosen to reconstruct its appearance as similar to Triceratops's relative Ojoceratops.

Olmoceratops lived during the Maastrichtian epoch near the end of the Cretaceous Period. The Olmos formation from which it was uncovered has also yielded the remains of the hadrosaur Kritosaurus and tyrannosaurid teeth (T. Rex?). Analysis of fossil leaves from the area suggest a humid, tropical rainforest-like habitat, hence the jungle plants I've drawn around my Olmoceratops.

References:

Porras-Múzquiz, H.G, Lehman, T.M, 2011. A ceratopsian horncore from the Olmos Formation (early Maastrichtian) near Múzquiz, Mexico: Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, v. 28, núm. 2, p. 262-266.

Upchurch, G.R., Estrada-Ruiz, E., Cevallos-Ferriz, S.S., 2008. Did tropical rainforest vegetation exist during the Late Cretaceous? New data from the late Campanian to early Maastrichtian Olmos Formation, Coahuila, Mexico. Eos Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 89(53), Fall Meeting Supplement Abstract PP11D-07.

 

[Jabrosky]

Father and Daughter
Memnon, the legendary King of Kush who would fight at Troy, spends some quality time with his beautiful daughter Helen. I think he is telling her how proud he feels to have given the world a woman whose face could send a thousand ships after her.

Gaius Julius Caesar
My portrait of one of the Roman Republic's last major statesman, Gaius Julius Caesar. He is perhaps best known for his vicious power struggles with other Roman politicians, his conquest of Gaul (a Celtic country located in what is now France), and his illicit relationship with the Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII. However, I'll always remember him as the arch-villain from the good old Asterix comics.

I was actually a little unsure on the skin tone I wanted to give Caesar here. Roman sources do describe him as relatively fair in color, but then "fair" is a vague and relative term. On the other hand I wanted to convey that he and his Roman compatriots were predominantly of Mediterranean or Southern European heritage and thus would have looked darker than my Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ancestors. In the end I went with what I would describe as a light olive complexion.

 

[Jabrosky]

Elf Man and Human Lady
This is actually a pretty old drawing which must have rested in my sketchbook for over a month before I finally got around to scanning and coloring it. It seems that the stereotypical fantasy inter-species couple combines a female elf with a male human, so I decided to reverse this trend by pairing an elf guy with a human lady. Furthermore, these particular characters come from a setting where all the humans are black people native to the world's tropical regions, whereas the elves live closer to the northern polar regions. Fantasy is a lot more fun when you get to subvert the cliches associated with the genre.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Melancholy of Andromeda
This Greco-African lady is suffering a bout of pensive sadness on a starry night. Maybe she's pining for her hubby who is away at war?

In Greek mythology, Andromeda was a beautiful princess of Aethiopia (known today as Nubia or Sudan) whom the demigod Perseus married after rescuing her from a sea monster. This isn't necessarily meant to represent her in particular, but I do believe ancient Greece had a minority of black people living there given its long history of trade and intercourse with African countries.

 

[Jabrosky]

Come Back With Your Shield
Queen Gorgo of Sparta bids her husband Leonidas farewell by telling him, "Come back with your shield or on it".

Of course there's no evidence that Queen Gorgo was Black African or otherwise different in appearance from the Mediterranean Greek norm, but I do believe there was a black minority in ancient Greece and wanted to portray that. Besides, it can't be any more egregious an historical error than making half the Persian characters black people in certain Hollywood films.

 

[Jabrosky]

They Shall Dine with Hades
Spartan hoplites form a single-file line on the Laconic plain in southern Greece, ready to do battle at Thermopylae. I wanted to make the phalanx even bigger by adding more Spartans behind the front line, but wasn't sure how to pull that off. Nonetheless I am proud that I managed to draw a scene with multiple soldiers in it for once.

 

[Gurkhal]

Good stuff as always. While I'm not sure that I agree that there might have been a black minority within Greece I totally agree that 300 was a horrible, horrible abomination of a movie. My favorite part is when the Spartans talking about opposing mysticism and standing for liberty - my teachers in Classical Archaeology at the Uni told me the Spartans were notoriously superstitious and petitioned this oracle and that for almost everything they did. And in regards to liberty I just laugh. The people who keeps the Helots in slavery should not speak about fighting for liberty.

And then we got all the other Greeks who were present and vastly outnumbered the Spartans, but that's a different story.

EDITED: To my untrained eye I would have to say that queen Gorgo came out very "living" to me on that picture.

 

[Jabrosky]

Good stuff as always. While I'm not sure that I agree that there might have been a black minority within Greece I totally agree that 300 was a horrible, horrible abomination of a movie. My favorite part is when the Spartans talking about opposing mysticism and standing for liberty - my teachers in Classical Archaeology at the Uni told me the Spartans were notoriously superstitious and petitioned this oracle and that for almost everything they did. And in regards to liberty I just laugh. The people who keeps the Helots in slavery should not speak about fighting for liberty.

And then we got all the other Greeks who were present and vastly outnumbered the Spartans, but that's a different story.

EDITED: To my untrained eye I would have to say that queen Gorgo came out very "living" to me on that picture.

I should have cited a source for my statements about black Greeks.

Blacks in Ancient Greece and Rome

When some people learn that the Greeks and Romans had a high regard for black intelligence and morality they assume it was because they had little contact with black people. Greeks and Romans not only had contact with blacks from Africa, but they had contact with their black neighbors. Frank Snowden discovered that, "The exact number of Ethiopians who entered the Greco-Roman world as a result of varied military, diplomatic, and commercial activity is difficult to determine, but all the evidence suggests a sizable Ethiopian element, especially in the population of the Roman world. The black population in Greece and Italy was larger than has been generally realized."

But yes, I agree that 300 was horribly inaccurate.

 

[Jabrosky]

King Leonidas of Sparta
My portrait of Leonidas, the valorous warrior king famous for leading 300 Spartans against the Persians at Thermopylae. Most people these days know him from Gerard Butler's shirtless portrayal in the 300 movie, but I wanted to depict my (hopefully more accurate) interpretation as better-armored and more Mediterranean-looking.

 

[Jabrosky]

Raptor on the Prowl
A Velociraptor takes a stroll on a savanna with tall grass. Because I've been neglecting my dinosaurs again and needed to show them some more love.

Hittite Spearman
This soldier's gear is based off the ancient Hittites who dominated the Anatolian peninsula (modern Turkey) during the later Bronze Age. They were actually among the first people in the Near Eastern region to manufacture iron technology in place of the traditional bronze. They are also known for their heavy chariots and their conflicts with the New Kingdom Egyptians.

Although I did use a reference for the Hittite soldier's clothing, I will admit that my portrayal of him as racially Asian (or Mongoloid) is artistic license on my part. In real life the Hittites spoke an Indo-European language and probably looked Mediterranean or Middle Eastern like most Anatolian peoples. However, some early scholars such as Archibald Sayce did claim they were Asian like Huns and Turkic peoples, and it tickles my artistic fancy to portray them as Asian anyway.

Maybe I should create a nation of Asian Hittite analogs for one of my historical fantasy worlds.

 

[Jabrosky]

Map time!

Empires of the Heroic Age
The Heroic Age is an alternative, fantastical version of our Earth's Bronze to Iron Ages. It may not be the most inventive fantasy world I've created, but a setting like this allows me to write pseudo-historical fiction without feeling too constrained by the need for strict accuracy.

Black Countries

Hikuptah - Based off ancient Egypt, with some Nubian and sub-Saharan African influences. (In earlier drafts I called this Kametu)

Yam - Based off South Sudanese peoples (e.g. the Shilluk and Dinka).

Wagadu - Based off medieval West Africa (e.g. Mali and Songhai).

Ife - Based off the West African peoples bordering the Gulf of Guinea (e.g. Yoruba, Dahomey, and Ashanti)

Sheba - Based off Ethiopia, especially Axum.

Punt - Based off the Somalis.

Atlantis - Based off the Carthaginians, with some Afro-Caribbean and West African influences.Shinar- Based off the ancient Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia.

Tawny (i.e. Olive-Skinned) Countries

Elysium - Based off the Roman Republic.

Pelasgia - Based off the Greek city-states.

Phaeacia - Based off the Phoenicians.

Zion - Based off the Biblical Israelites, with some Arabic influences.

Babel - Based off the Semitic Mesopotamians, especially Babylonians and Assyrians.

White Countries

Albion - Based off the Celtic tribes.

Midgard - Based off the Germanic tribes.

Eranistan -Based off the Achaemenid Persians, with some Scythian influences.

Makedon - Based off the Macedonians, with some possible Slavic influences.

Yellow (i.e. Mongoloid) Countries

Xiongnu - Based off the Huns and Mongols.

Heth - Based off the Hittites, with some Turkic influences.

 

[Jabrosky]

Look Me in the Eyes
Two arch-enemies from antiquity, an Egyptian queen and a Hittite warrior, have a hostile staring contest. Consider this a prelude to a battle scene between these two characters that I hope to draw soon.

The Hittite dude is supposed to look Asian, but Asian features are actually pretty tough to portray accurately from a side profile view. They seem more distinctive when you're looking at them head-on.

 

[Jabrosky]

Egyptian vs Hittite
An Egyptian warrior queen fights one of her country's historical arch-nemeses, a Hittite warrior from ancient Anatolia. This is of course a fictitious scenario, as there's no record of any of the few female Egyptian Pharaohs coming into conflict with the Hittite Empire.

 

[Jabrosky]

These ones are actually a few days old, but I've just thought back to them and so have decided to share them now:

Concept art for Ikaba, a warrior princess character from a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. This world once had several powerful and technologically advanced empires sprawling across it, but after a cataclysm everyone reverted to small tribes and chiefdoms while leaving their shattered cities to rot in the wilds. Anyway, Ikaba is the heir to her chiefdom's throne and likes to hunt in the jungle with her younger brother Tshiko, but that's all I know about her at the moment.

And this is Ikaba's younger brother Tshiko, who prefers the bow and arrow.

 

[Jabrosky]

Chuwen the Man-Chimpanzee
Concept art for the Chuwen, a warlike race of sapient chimpanzee relatives with a Mesoamerican cultural flavor. I created these as a sort of villain race for one of my worlds, where they come into conflict with African human protagonists.

 

[Jabrosky]

Jungle Treehouse
If you live in a jungle with giant trees and prehistoric monsters, where else to build but high up near the canopy? At least the tyrannosaurs and raptors won't get you there when you're asleep.

 

[Jabrosky]

Re-coloring an old art piece, with shading and mist effects added...