Jabrosky's Crimes Against Fantasy Art

[Jabrosky]

Jurassic Forest
Deep in the forests of the Late Jurassic lurks this Ceratosaurus nasicornis. I grew up picturing this guy as playing second fiddle in the ecosystem to its larger contemporary Allosaurus, but apparently it preferred a wetter habitat than the dry open savanna where Allosaurus hunted. It may have been like how leopards can live in forests whereas lions prefer the open plains today.

I like how brilliant his color scheme came out.

 

[Jabrosky]

All Dressed Up
Ketabu, warrior princess of Akhiptu, does not care too much for dressing up fancy. Nonetheless it's a prerequisite on certain occasions if you're royalty and you have to represent your kingdom. For example, she may dress up like this when she's on a diplomatic errand to another country.

Before this, all my colored drawings of Ketabu gave her outfit and jewelry a predominantly red palette, but this time I chose blue since it's more like the national color for her country. It's also a color I readily associate with ancient Egypt, which is what her native Akhiptu is primarily based on.

 

[Jabrosky]

Rhino Sketch
Face of a black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) that I sketched using a photo reference.

I'm not usually a fan of art that simply reproduces photographs. It's one thing to use photo (or life) references to get a sense of how something is built and to inform your imaginative drawing, but outright copying seems artistically lazy and uncreative. Nonetheless the reference did give me a better sense of rhinoceros head anatomy.

 

[Jabrosky]

Priest of the Spider
This Akhiptan Priest serves a divinity represented by the Spider, which in Akhiptan culture is associated with magic, technology, and mischief. The circular scars on his face are meant to emulate spider eyes.

Moving on to the history of the real world, there never was a full-blown spider god in ancient Egypt as far as I know. However, the spider's spinning ability was sometimes associated with the goddess Neith who patronized weaving.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Nubian Grail
This started out as a graphite drawing, but then I colorized it in Photoshop (hence the faux colored pencil effect). The red-to-black color scheme is meant to emulate the distinctive pottery made by the people of ancient Kush (Nubia or Sudan) between 2500 and 1600 BC (example here). Think of this as what a grail might look like if fashioned by a Nubian potter.

 

[Jabrosky]

Maya Angelou RIP
Paying my respects to the writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou (1928-2014), who passed away yesterday. This was actually a commission from one of my Facebook friends, who needs an illustration for an article she's writing about Angelou.

Seti I Reconstruction
Reconstruction of the mummy of Seti I, Egyptian Pharaoh of the late New Kingdom. He's best known as the father of Ramses II, but you may recognize him as the daddy Pharaoh in Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt who ordered the killing of male Hebrew children. There is of course no historical evidence for that, and if anything that sounds like a really stupid move if you have a slave population you want to propogate itself.

I always thought Seti I's mummy looked vaguely like Michael Jordan, so that's the look I set out to give him in my reconstruction.

 

[Jabrosky]

King Arthur of Camelot
King Arthur of Camelot wields his magic sword Excalibur as protection against his enemies. This may include Black Knights and any Frenchmen who dare taunt him a second time.

Given the Celtic roots of Arthurian legend, I always preferred to imagine Arthur as a Celtic tribal chieftain instead of the traditional medieval king in a castle. He looks more interesting that way since we don't hear about Celtic tribespeople as often as we do medieval and Greco-Roman history.

The horned helmet is artistic license on my part, but horned helmets actually have been recovered from European archaeological sites (though ironically none of them date to the Viking period in Scandinavia).

 

[Jabrosky]

Ketabu's World
So here's a map showing Ketabu's home country Akhiptu and the surrounding geography.

Most of the countries here have African inspirations, with Akhiptu itself being based on ancient Egypt. However, the Haviki Isles off the coast were settled from further west, so their inhabitants physically and culturally resemble Polynesians rather than Africans. However, the Havikians have a Viking-like annual tradition of raiding the mainland coast. In addition there are Middle Eastern-looking people living along the Phunikan Coast and in the deserts of Shemar.

 

[Jabrosky]

Havikian Sea Raider
The Havikians are a fierce and warlike people who live on the tropical isles west of Akhiptu's shore. Venerating a volcanic war goddess named Oropele, they have an annual tradition of sailing eastward to raid the mainland coasts. For most of their history they also have squabbled among themselves, but recently the various Havikian chiefdoms have consolidated into a larger state under the leadership of King Mahana. This Havikian warrior is carrying a spear and club studded with sharks' teeth.

In a nutshell, think of these guys as Polynesians with a Viking-like appetite for raiding.

The Havikians are planned to be the main "antagonist" nation which my heroine Ketabu and her Akhiptan people will coem into conflict with.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Charge of Prince Memnon
Young Memnon, who will grow up to lead the armies of Kush against Greece in the mythical Trojan War, charges into a battle that will prepare him for his fate.

This started out as a random Kushite (or Nubian) warrior drawn in a different angle from what I usually do. You're supposed to be looking at him from behind. I added the whole Memnon theme as an afterthought because I really love the idea of an African warrior king featuring in Greek mythology.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Tyrant King Says Rawr
Tyrannosaurus rex blasts a territorial roar which echoes through his jungle kingdom.

The Staedtler pens I typically use for inking my drawings were running out of ink, so for this picture I switched to a Pentel ball-point. The results aren't as good as the usual, but I guess it got the job done in the end.

 

[Jabrosky]

Daughter of Horus
Just a portrait of a random African woman with eye makeup inspired by the ancient Egyptian "Eye of Horus".

More than anything, this was my first attempt to draw the so-called "Bantu knot" hairstyle or whatever it's called. I think one of the African-American chicks from the Matrix movies wore a hairstyle like this.

 

[Jabrosky]

Work-in-progress drawing of a Moorish guard. Inspired by old "Orientalist" paintings of African soldiers standing guard in Islamic backdrops (e.g. "The Palace Guard" by Ludwig Deutsch). For my version, however, I want this Moorish soldier's costume and backdrop to look native West African rather than Islamic or Arabic. If you look through the window to the left, you may notice architecture inspired by Malian mud-brick buildings such as those in Djenne and Timbuktu.

 

[Jabrosky]

Updated on the Moorish guard (still needs more shadows):

 

[Jabrosky]

O Romeo
"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

All right, this picture really has nothing to do with anything Shakespearean, not even the recent Romeo and Juliet adaptation with Condola Rashad as Juliet. I simply set out to draw a West African maiden standing at the edge of her balcony. Nonetheless, as I was drawing the scene, I couldn't help but recall the iconic image of Juliet talking to Romeo from her balcony.

 

[Jabrosky]

Moorish Guard (now finished)
This drawing of a Moorish guard was inspired by old "Orientalist" paintings of African soldiers standing guard in Islamic backdrops (e.g. "The Palace Guard" by Ludwig Deutsch). For my version, however, I want this Moorish soldier's costume and backdrop to look native West African rather than Islamic or Arabic. If you look through the window to the left, you may notice architecture inspired by Malian mud-brick buildings such as those in Djenne and Timbuktu.

 

[Gurkhal]

Looks good as always Jabrosky.

I wish I had the patience and talent to paint like you do.

 

[Jabrosky]

The Hisborian Peninsula
This map illustrates the peninsula of Hisboria, the setting of a short fantasy story I have started yesterday (almost finished with the first scene at almost 1,200 words).

As fans of medieval history might guess from the geography and labels, this setting was inspired by early medieval Spain. In the northern area there are a number of petty kingdoms who squabble among themselves, whereas the whole southern area is dominated by the Mourish Empire whose capital is in Kardabou. The Mours actually represent a splinter off the even larger Empire of Nyagadu which invaded from across the southern sea, bringing with the hallmarks of their foreign civilization.

Obviously my Mours are partly based on the "Moorish" Islamic conquerors of southern Spain, but actually their culture and even physical appearance more closely resemble that of sub-Saharan West African people than anything Islamic or Arabic. For example, their "idolatrous" religion venerates a pantheon of divinities similar to the orishas venerated by the Nigerian Yoruba.

As for the story itself, it's about an ambitious King of Oragan who receives a gift from the Mourish Empire, but this gift isn't nearly as generous as he first thinks...

 

[Jabrosky]

Jeboye the Mourish Maiden
Concept art for Jeboye, the protagonist of a short story I've recently finished titled The Gift of Empire.

Jeboye is a cunning princess from the Mourish Empire, which dominates the whole southern half of the Hisborian peninsula. Recently the King of Oragan, one of the petty kingdoms north of the Empire, has been pestering her people with demands of submission, so she's gone over to Oragan to resolve this conflict once and for all.

In this picture I've drawn Jeboye juxtaposed with her native Mourish architecture, but the whole story itself takes place in the Oraganese king's castle. I just like how this West African-style architecture looks (even if all the sticks are tedious to add).

And yes, my word Mourish does come from term "Moorish" used to refer to the North African conquerors who spread Islam to southern Spain during the Middle Ages.

 

[Jabrosky]

Savanna Gates
This Egyptian-style gatehouse was actually perspective practice for that drawing class I took at Palomar College earlier this spring. Getting the slanted turrets to look right was probably the hardest part of the whole exercise since it required setting additional vanishing points off the top of the page.