Jabrosky's Crimes Against Fantasy Art

[Jabrosky]

Gondor Architecture Sketches
And now some fan art for Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth!

Actually these sketches sparked in my mind when I noticed that Gondor, one of the great human kingdoms in Middle Earth, had a name similar to a real city named Gondar in Ethiopia. That's almost certainly coincidence as I seriously doubt Tolkien was the kind of white guy who would allow African influences on one of his world's "nobler" cultures, but the mental image of a Gondor with Ethiopian trappings was irresistible to me.

Someday I shall draw Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor, using an Ethiopian influence. Before then here are some sketches of how I imagine this Gondor's architecture would look like. The turret on the right side is obviously based on the castle at Gondar whereas the obelisk borrows from Axum and the rooftop at the bottom from Lalibela's rock-cut churches.

 

[Jabrosky]

"Men of the West, Unite!"
A soldier from Gondor, the greatest human kingdom in the west of Middle Earth, brandishes his shotel sword while shouting out his national war cry.

This is a continuation of a theme which I hatched after noting that Gondor, which comes from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, has a name very similar to a city in Ethiopia called Gondar. I'm sure this has to be coincidence on Tolkien's part, but nonetheless the idea of a Gondor with Ethiopian trappings was too tempting to resist drawing.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Historian
I wanted to try my hand out at designing an African lady with a more intellectual, scholarly background than the warriors and royalty I usually draw. I imagine this particular character is a professor of history, or maybe archaeology, at a prestigious university in her native kingdom. The bird figurine on her headdress is supposed to represent a sacred ibis, the totem animal of the Egyptian god Djehuti ("Thoth").

 

[Jabrosky]

Taharqa to the Rescue
Concept art for Taharqa, future ruler of the Kushite empire, as he might have looked when he was a young prince in the year 700 BC.

Last night I cooked up an outline for short story in which Taharqa and his half-brother Shabaka travel to what is now Italy to rescue their sister from barbarous Latin raiders. Inspired by their boyhood hobby of collecting turtle shells along the Nile, Shabaka has devised a cunning tactical maneuver which he believes will protect their forces against the Latin onslaught, but Taharqa rejects it as too passive and cowardly. Once Taharqa lands himself into the clutches of a Latin chieftain with imperial ambitions, he might have to reconsider his brother’s ideas…

 

[Jabrosky]

Early Roman Warrior
A prehistoric Italian warrior from the tribe that will someday become Rome. Because all great empires must arise from primitive beginnings.

The challenging part was combining this character's tribal aesthetic with design motifs that would make him recognizably Roman. In the end I settled on giving his shield eagle and wolf images, since eagles were used on the standards of Roman legions whereas a wolf was said to have suckled Rome's founders. The feathered crest attached to his headgear is supposed to represent a progenitor of the crests on Roman centurion helmets. As for the red and purple war paint, red is the color I most readily associate with ancient Rome, but the Emperors were fond of wearing purple too.

 

[Gurkhal]

Looks cool, although to be honest when I saw the Italic warrior I thought that you were giving him an Native American angle. But when you explain your reasons I see where you were going with it.

And good work with the rest as well.

 

[Jabrosky]

For the Lovecraft fans out there:

R'lyehan Priest of Cthulhu
This High Priest of Cthulhu, whose hand is still stained with sacrificial blood, probably enjoys prestige as the de facto---or maybe even de jure---ruler of ancient R'lyeh. Because whatever bygone humanity built that Cyclopean city would have needed some sort of leadership to organize its monumental construction.

Since R'lyeh is supposed to be located in the far south of the Pacific Ocean, I figured its human founders would be an offshoot of some Oceanic population like the Polynesians, Aboriginal Australians, or Melanesians. I went with a Melanesian, or possibly Tasmanian, origin in the end, but my R'lyehans have evolved somewhat lighter skin and blue eyes as an adaptation to the sub-Antarctic latitude they've settled in. On the other hand their kinky blond hair would have been inherited from their darker-skinned ancestors since blondism does appear in some Melanesian and Australian populations even today.

R'lyeh and Cthulhu (c) H.P. Lovecraft

 

[Jabrosky]

Jungle Ambush
A raptor leaps out to ambush this huntress. Which of these predators will end up the prey in the upcoming battle?

The composition and subject matter were both inspired by Atula Siriwardane's "Kushite Warrior", except that has a lion ambushing a male warrior. As for the raptor's lack of feathers, I was deliberately aiming for a 1990s look for it given the obviously fantastical setting.

Drawn on 11x14'' Bristol board.

 

[Jabrosky]

Torosaurus Needs to Scratch
Torosaurus latus, a close relative and contemporary of the more famous Triceratops, has an itch on its shoulder that needs addressing and so prepares rub itself against a savanna tree. In hindsight I should have tilted the dinosaur's body closer to the tree to better convey the scratching motion.

 

[Jabrosky]

Cultural Contamination Cast
These three characters come from a fantasy short story I recently finished called "Cultural Contamination". It's set in a world where imperialistic elves form the ruling class whereas orcs and humans lay at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. The protagonist Zaryasien is an elf who has befriended the orc Ugrok and fallen in love with the human Nthendi. As tokens of their companionship, Ugrok has given Zaryasien traditional orcish tattoos while Nthendi has cornrowed his hair in human fashion. Unfortunately this doesn't sit very well with the elven authorities who have Zaryasien arrested and tried for "cultural contamination". Zaryasien doesn't want anything terrible to happen to his friends too, but he may be powerless to save them...yeah, the current draft is a pretty sad story.

I drew the line art in my art class's sketchbook and recorded it with my iPhone, but the coloring was done in Photoshop CS6 as is usual for my colored art.

 

[Jabrosky]

Kong Battles for the Golden Woman
Deep in the jungle on a remote island off the west coast of Sumatra, a native maiden hides as the mighty Kong battles a tyrannosaur. She does not even know which of the two savage titans to root for, if she must take sides at all.

In the original King Kong movie from 1933, Skull Island's native inhabitants decide Fay Wray's character would make a unique sacrifice to their ape-god since she is a "golden woman" (i.e. blonde). The irony is that, since the dark-skinned islanders themselves appear to be of Melanesian stock, blondes would not be so scarce within their population. Blond hair does pop up as an indigenous trait in Melanesian populations, as well as Aboriginal Australians, and it appears to have evolved separately from the better-known blondism in Europeans. White American filmmakers need not show up on Skull Island's shores for the locals to have their prized golden women.

Although Kong was originally conceived by his creators as an over-sized gorilla (he was inspired by 19th century sensationalistic accounts that exaggerated gorillas' savage behavior), I chose to give my Kong a more orangutan-like appearance since unlike gorillas, orangutans actually are native to Southeast Asia near Skull Island's location. Nonetheless I gave his shaggy coat a blond-ish color since it would better match his "bride". Who knows, maybe this Kong prefers blondes since he's a blond ape himself!

As for the tyrannosaur, I reckon it is descended not from the North American T. Rex but an Asian species like Tarbosaurus or Zhuchengtyrannus.

 

[Jabrosky]

Cleopatra's Tanning Elixir
The early sunscreen industry of Ptolemaic Alexandria has decided their sales would soar up if they received Cleopatra VII's royal sponsorship.

All kidding aside, while sunscreen as we know it was invented in 1928, the ancient Greeks are claimed to have used olive oil for the same purpose whereas the Egyptians used myrrh or jasmine. I have no idea if those would actually work though.

 

[Jabrosky]

Zulu Night
A Zulu soldier on patrol pauses to admire the aurora australis shimmering in the South African night.

The aurora australis is pretty much the Southern Hemisphere's equivalent to our aurora borealis, or "Northern Lights". I don't know if you actually can see it from South Africa since it's usually an Antarctic phenomenon, but then nobody has lived in Antarctic for the vast majority of human history. Though I read you can see it from southern Australia or New Zealand, so maybe an Aboriginal Australian or Maori spectator could have worked too.

 

[Jabrosky]

Imperial Smugness
This Roman legionary feels smugly superior to the Germanic warrior next to him, but his "barbarian" counterpart isn't all that impressed.

Drawn in my art class's sketchbook and shaded with gray Prismacolor markers.

Fish for a Pharaoh
This Egyptian chick wants a bigger fish than usual to go with her chips.

Of course a hippopotamus or a crocodile would be a more common waterborne antagonist for ancient Egyptians, but being the unorthodox artist that I am, I went for the unorthodox choice of a bull shark instead.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Queen of Sheba
For this piece, I was practicing using a dib pen for inking and rendering value. It's a much messier and exhausting process than the marker pens I'm used to, and I am still not satisfied with how I rendered her skin tone (I had to clean some of the mess up in Photoshop after scanning it in). The pose and subject matter owe inspiration to an ink drawing I've seen from the late artist John Flanagan, who specialized in illustrating adventure stories. Flanagan's art somehow reminded me of the Queen of Sheba from the Bible, so that's what I'll name this chick.

Modern historians generally identify the Biblical Sheba with the Sabaean civilization in southern Arabia, but for this I was working with the old idea of a connection between Sheba and the Great Zimbabwe civilization. The bird statue behind the Queen is based off soapstone sculptures recovered from the Zimbabwean ruins, and its likeness graces the modern Zimbabwean flag.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Last Couple
A Smilodon fatalis, or saber-toothed cat, watches the last couple of leaves cling together before their inevitable parting. The summer is over, so the greenery expires.

 

[Jabrosky]

Pharaoh's Soldier
More practice with dib-pen inking on this Egyptian soldier.

Let me tell you, dark skin can be a real pain in the ass to render with this inking technique. You have to balance between conveying the dark tone using only black ink and making the anatomical features (e.g. muscles and face) clearly visible.

 

[Jabrosky]

Adding shading and highlights to my old "Antony and Cleopatra" piece. I also made Antony's skin a bit more of a tan, though the change is subtle.

 

[SugoiMe]

I like your highlights and shading in your digital works, and you clearly have a nice grasp on anatomy. Do you take art classes?

 

[Jabrosky]

I like your highlights and shading in your digital works, and you clearly have a nice grasp on anatomy. Do you take art classes?

Yes I do. The dip-pen techniques I learned in my current illustration class. However, I also had to teach myself some things about drawing before these classes.