Art Post!
These are drawings inspired by a Live Action Role-Playing game called Empire Chronicles, which is still in the works, but well into the process of becoming an awesome game. Having been offered an opportunity to help with the game's creation, I felt there was little I could offer that somebody else couldn't do a better job of. That, and I was lazy, until inspiration struck. The storyline is simple and a familiar one to me, on the surface, but the flavor it's been infused with struck a chord, and after my inital Eureka moment I could hardly bring myself to put down my pencils.
Depicted below are eight of the playable non-human races the game has to offer. These are just the first of many images I aspire to create for the game. Maybe they can use them in their rulebook or something. The plan was, when possible, to depict individuals not so different from normal humans that someone couldn't put on
makeup and resemble the beings shown below. Rather than try to make players look like the creatures they were supposed to be, I thought it'd be more fun to make the races look just enough like you and me (well, me anyway) that someone could feel a kinship with them and see where it might be just the thing they want to spend a weekend pretendning to be.
I started with a page full of goblins and ogres. I'd intended to start with tengu but the upside-down fellow below popped into my head and demanded to be drawn. After him, I went with mohawk boy, an effort to show that goblins are not all ugly. And then came the ogre who is situated above him, who looks to me like Locke from 'Lost'. The real surprise to me was the fat goblin. I just couldn't stop working on him! It's largely because of that image that my little idea turned into more than just busts and headshots. He's actually much bigger, but mercifully his details remain fairly sharp despite the resizing. I think he has a dignity to him, like a grizzled veteran teaching new recruits the finer points of strategy, so they won't wind up pinky-less while learning them the hard way. And then there's the bathing beauty. She has little tusks, see. I should have drawn water, but at this point I was still being goofy. I had no idea how ambitious I'd become once I got my 'sea legs' for this kind of thing. I'd almost given up on drawing, so I was really rusty and tentative with this first undertaking. Otherwise she'd be hotter. The goblins and ogres need more love. Not to mention separate pages in my sketch book.
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Like I said above, this was the first sketchbook page of consistent drawings I'd done in -ages-. And the guy with the poop-encrusted topknot and the necklace started it all. I'm thinking that triangular bit on his necklace is either a tigerkin ear or a Dorito. The ogress geisha was an afterthought. When I go back and give gobbos and ogres the love they deserve, she'll get more exposure. The scarred lass to the left began as something altogether different, as I drew the scar and let the head take shape around it. But then I decided to make her a battle-weary matron rather than some ghastly mercenary warrior dude. I think she's especially dignified, perhaps having overcome the stigma of her race. Goblins are unlike all other races in Empire Chronicles in that they were born spontaneously from the essence of savagery itself, rather than designed into being by the Celestial Court to fill any certain role. Outcasts from the get-go, they tend to do little to earn a place in society, but exceptions can be found even among the common folk. That was my original goal with this, to draw commoners rather than heroes, using the argument that heroes are boring. These guys certainly weren't boring. I had a field day with this lot. Oh! And ogres were the strong arm of the Celestial Court until they rebelled. They're bigger than goblins and have horns, but I have a hard time separating the two even now. They're the 'ugly people', which is why I was so giddy to challenge that by making them look cool.
Second, I decided to tackle the Serpens, the snake people. They'll probably get another name before all's said and done. I don't care, really. I took these folks on because I knew they'd be hard. For one thing, I don't even know if they're meant to have hair, or ears, or secondary sexual characteristics or any of that. I fudged it, and I think I did okay. The snake sorceress really isn't doing anything for me, but she was fun to draw. Now, these fellers are supposed to be on the run after their homeland got obliterated by the forces of darkness. The makeup notes suggested Native American garb. I didn't feel like drawing that. Buckskins are boring. Maybe later. Anyway, I figure if they're a refugee people there's no limit to what they could've assimilated. So my bushman here is wearing a beaded corset of the style worn by the Dinka tribe of Sudan.They're meant to be worn until the man is married and have to be cut off. But this guy's a snake, so he can just..wiggle out. I guess. I gave him feathers. That's my concession to the original concept. I hope nobody gets mad.
More snakes. I drew four. The hooded one is supposed to be female. Whatever. The other guy is an exorcist. He's got his mirror out and his spiffy exorcist hat and forceful banishing gesture (kinda like a kung fu grip or super fisting action, collect them all!) and, well, he's gonna be doing his thang. Hooray. He's a snake, so somebody else will surely care about him more than I do. Snakes are cool, just..not my thing. And I wasn't really in my groove yet so their scales kinda got as little work as I could get away with. I think they look cool anyway.
Finally the tengu! They got postponed twice! I had lots of fun with these. I started with the one below, but was too worried about messing him up, so I focused on these three while he was just a sketch. The bottom left one is an actor, I think. I thought it'd be neat to show an 'actual' tengu holding a tengu mask, like maybe he's found it at someone's house and taken offense. I dunno. He looks like the pissy type. The guy above him is a nod to the 'classical' tengu, he's got his peppermint hat and rounded nose. I like his feathery beard a bunch. Decided these guys get feathers where other folks get hair. It'd be hard to do costume-wise, but most LARPers don't need to be showing so much skin in the first place. *shudder* And....to the right we have my utter failure to cleave to the 'historical accuracy' portion of my costuming scheme. It was midnight when the lines for her just kinda flew onto the paper, and I didn't want to cover up those curves. She's got her some egg-laying hips, and the oh-so-sexy tengu nose. I'd tap that. I'm not sure what's up with her lips. Maybe she got smacked in the mouth. But that kinda works for me to, so I ain't complainin'. But yeah. They didn't have spandex back then. And whatever they -did- have wasn't worn like that, I'm sure. But who cares? It looks cool!
Do tengu lay eggs? Hmm..
The tengu were once colorful bird spirits who were patrons and protectors of the arts, of things of beauty. When war broke out across Heaven and Earth, they realized that nothing beautiful would be safe as long as the war was on. Things were going badly for the home team, so they flew down (presumably) en masse and gathered up the swords of the fallen greater spirits, taking the front lines and turning the tide of battle. The blood and fire of their enemies stained their skins and feathers black, but it also gave them beaucoup bragging rights. Well, this fellow here is my effort to encapsulate all that is tengu, or in the short form to say -TENGU ARE BADASS!!- Which is true. I'll let it speak for itself. The calligraphy he's practicing is 'Arashi', which means 'storm'. Google is my muse. ^__^
It's not exactly obvious from the way everything starts looking more and more detailed and such later on that I was having the most fun with the first few races, but that's how it really was. I am especially in love with rat people. These three in particular. The one on the far left is a pearl diver. The popular myth of Japanese pearl divers is that they are lithe, perky little things who dive topless for oysters. The topless part is true, but they are apparently a little on the thick side and scarred after any length of time. Even so, I think this one's a keeper. And she thinks that monster pearl she's found is a more than sufficient dowry to let her marry any man in her village. Here's hoping something awful doesn't happen. But she's based on a person of Japanese extraction, and their stories are rarely happy. I explained this to someone and they told me the fact that I don't know if she'll have a happy ending told them a lot about my psyche. Ah well. Anyway, the lady with the peony blossom tattoo is more in keeping with what the Nezumi are all about. The rat spirits took it upon themselves to assassinate humans who trafficked with Chaos. Note the kunai in her left hand. Her mark doesn't see it. I read in the costume notes that shoulders were considered erotic back in the day. So I suppose this is a rather scandalous picture. ;P Anyway, the old dude at the end there is a sorcerer who got on the wrong side of some Chaos and it messed up his hand. But I'm pretty sure it's not stigmata earned by actually -serving- the bad guys. This much I can assert with confidence. This codger is Old School, and that's a war wound.
The nondescript ratling samurai on the left is just there because he was on the page and I don't want to waste anything. I don't like drawing robes if I can avoid it. Bwar. Anyway, the little ratling kid was the first inspiration I had for their page. I drew him on scrap paper while gaming the day before, but he looked even creepier.He comes closer to being psychologically unsettling in my sketch book, where he's also way bigger than the floating head on the left. So is the ninja on the far right. Rats=ninjas. It's just natural. I've passed up a lot of opportunities to do easy stereotypes and really wicked designs in the process of this project, but that wasn't gonna be one of them.
Having exhausted all the 'ugly' (i.e. interesting) races, I fell to the task of finishing the pretty people. The Liling, fox spirits, were afraid to take part in the war with Chaos and got banished to the Middle Kingdom, what we call Earth. They don't feel quite like they belong, so I figured they'd be a bit outlandish, if they weren't huddled away and subdued. The latter would've been boring, so I went for the former. The white fox is a miko invoking some blessing or other. The two acrobats are...well..being acrobatic. I've never drawn anybody contorted like that before. I figure their costumes are a garish color like safety orange to make up for being unadorned.
I had a hard time staying interested in foxes. I think I was having a bad week or somesuch. Anyway, I turned to anime for reference and came up with these two. The lady is as much of an afterthought as she looks like. Flambuoyant Lad to the right of her, though, was the only saving grace of that whole page in my opinion. Rogue sorcerer with a nice, flashy uber spell. Just the thing to shake me out of my doldrums
The tigerkin, who don't seem to have a proper racial name yet, were heralds of death when they served the Court directly as powerful spirit agents. A few of them got a little too kill-happy and provoked a civil war between two factions of tiger spirits. It's regarded as fortunate that the moderate thinkers won the fight. Touched by both aspects of the spiritual plane, they are particulalry resistant to Chaos and were instrumental in subduing it. It's not mentioned in the notes whether they were exiled, but certain of them have begun to relish their mortal existence a bit too much, as the image to the left is meant to illustrate. It wasn't just an excuse to draw naked people--that was purely convenient. ^_^ Anyway, I think ol' boy better be careful of the grapes. Maybe some of his partners in debauchery aren't as decadent as they seem... Okay, and the guy on the right started as an afterthought and wound up looking cooler than most of the stuff here. I went with an Indian motif for the tigers. I wasn't going to draw a tiger in a kimono. You can't make me. Oh, and in case it's become glaringly obvious, I didn't go the route of giving the animal spirits animal heads. For one thing, the more a player's makeup looks like what they're supposed to be, the better everything is. Also, animal heads look retarded. This isn't a furry game, it's oriental badassery that -probably- doesn't want the inevitable anime tinge it's liable to pick up. I'm all for that, by the way. I like to learn history not be constrained by it.
Angry Stompy Sickle Boy doesn't really convey anything beyond 'tiger with death-tools', because by this point I lost track of my original notion of drawing -people- instead of heroes or badasses. Ah well. I managed to squeeze in some Thai influence in his costume and that made me happy. Spear-chick is based on a photo reference of a belly dancer. But when I read that belly dancing was a Middle Eastern thing and not an Indian thing, I gave her a spear and now she's being a sexy badass. The cicada between her boobs (it'll show up if you look long enough) symbolizes life after death. Again, I thank Google. I was surprised to have such an easy time with the tigers after suffering the blahs while working on the foxes. Stripes are actually fun to draw. I wouldn't want it for a day job, but every once in a while it's spiffeh.
I saved the least exotic for last. I couldn't find any single frame of reference for the Sien, the oriental fey, so they very nearly didn't happen. But then I embraced the 'nature spirit' thing and they shaped up nicely. They're meant to have brown skin and metallic green under their eyes, with hair that changes colors according to the seasons. Pencil lead only accommodates so much of that. The original sketches, ungodly huge things that they are when scanned, portray the 'colors' better. Anyway, I had the most fun with these, although wolf-boy gave me fits and I'm still not at peace with how he turned out. I don't -think- he's naked, but I don't feel like moving the wolf out of the way to check. In the sketch I can't shake the impression of the wolf thinking 'I'm with Stupid' for some reason. Regarding the fey on the left, well, I had to work cherry blosoms in somewhere. I think she's neat because she's so understated. And I dodged the bullet on making an intricate kimono while still drawing a neat costume. Score!
As last things go, these most assuredly don't disappoint me. The sword dancer was a concept I'd wanted to tackle since early on in the project. More Thai influences here. The engraving on the sword is a bastardized version of the sanskrit that make up 'War'. (Google again) He's badass. I wanna be this guy if I grow up. And to the right of him we have my celebratory naked chick. And bamboo. And a half-assed attempt at addressing the issue of a light source. She's not as brown as the rest. Maybe she gets to be green or something. I figure it's summertime for her. Her hair is lustrous green. It's possible that the four Sien are in different seasons, but I hadn't thought of that until just now.