Armoured sea creatures

They can't protect themselves is the name of an exhibition intended to raise awareness about endangered marine species. From the project's mission statement: 

"Marine life has several natural defenses such as speed, camouflage and schooling behavior. However, these defenses are powerless against man-made threats including pollution, ocean warming, and overindustrialization. To convey our need to protect these animals, this collection of life-size armor was born. Transcending cultural and regional boundaries, these artifacts are meant to inspire all to preserve the ocean and the myriad of creatures that call it home."

How about a race of intelligent, armoured dolphins for your world?

Or samurai cranes?

A tribute to the Book of Worlds

This work of art is made by Incognito, a.k.a. Velimir Tito, a.k.a. Torje, one of the players in the Pius Chronicles. His blog is here.

Featured Artist: Matthias Grünewald

It's been a while since the last one of these, and this time I have something truly twisted for you. Matthias Grünewald (1470- 1526) is a bit special, in that he bridges the Renaissance realism that was all the rage back then, and the balls-to-the-wall, scaring-the-shit-out-of-you-to-make-you-pray mentality of the Medieval painters[1].


As has become the form of these posts, I'll skip any further pontification on the topic and show you some of the artist's work. Note that all of these images are sections of altar-pieces, not named or linked to due to good old laziness.

From my shelves: Leviathan

One of the things that naturally follows...er...precedes moving is packing. While boxing my RPG-books yesterday, I had to stop more than once to leaf through a tome I'd half forgotten. I'll readily admit there are books I probably wouldn't ever remember, should I decide to part with them, but there are also some treasures amongst them. One of these is Grendel's Leviathan. This "post-apocalyptic fantasy battle system" was published in -95, and I assume it never made it big.



I picked it up in a discount-bin sometime shortly after Y2K, not because I wanted a mini-game, but because of the artwork by Adrian Smith. Once I'd read through the fluff-section, I came to like the setting as well. The five factions of the game are dwarves, elves, goblins, humans and orcs. While this is far from innovative in and of it self, these five pieces should illustrate some of what's made me remember Leviathan. The goblins have become my standard go-to-goblins for my fantasy games, and the elves became the First Fallen of Argos. As for the steampunk dwarves, they're just too cool for school.


I did some light looking, and Leviathan-minis are still available, for those of you who have such inclinations.


EDIT: Yup, there's also a blog dedicated to this game. I love the internets.

Some art to ease you over

Lately Blogger has been making some decisions on it's own as to when certain posts should become public. For that reason, today's post appeared on your feed/reader a few hours before it was ready, tomorrow's did the same just now. To avoid people coming here to read about the Painted Man when there is no new post on that subject up as of yet, I'm giving you something else to occupy you with while I'm finishing up for the day.

As I've mentioned, I had the opportunity to visit Tate Modern a week or so ago. One of the artists I was made aware of was Helmut Herzfeld, a.k.a. John Heartfield [Wiki], a pioneer of photomontage. Some of his most famous work was done in the years between World War One and Two, and calling his art political may be an understatement. Since this post is thrown together in a hurry, I'll cut the introduction short and give you the art.

Featured Artist: Thore Hansen

This week's feature is a Norwegian artist, illustrator and author with more than forty years behind him. I think most Norwegians my age, and I'm sure, some of you foreigners as well, know Hansen from his illustration of the books about Ruffen, den lille sjøormen som ikke kunne svømme (Ruffen, the sea serpent who couldn't swim). I came across him again recently in the Norwegian RPG Itras By, richly illustrated by Hansen. I'll come back to the game later, but let me just say that those of you who don't read Norwegian are missing out.

The first set is composed of various images from the artist's career, starting  with Ruffen.

Click to humongify.

Featured Artist: Sidney Sime

This week's Featured Artist is the Englishman Sidney Sime (1867 - 1941). His fantasy-credentials has been secured not least through his work with Lord Dunsany. This collection is rather hastily put together, as my schedule this week has been somewhat hectic - and I have a Chapter-post to get done before play tomorrow. I also beg your forgiveness for simply forgetting the artist last week.


The Art of Sidney Sine on EMG-Zine
Wikipedia

As always, click'em to big'em.

Featured Artist: Jamie Jones

This week's artist is a master of perspective, scale and atmosphere, and every image tells a story. When I first became aware of his work, I was dumbfounded by some of his paintings.


I'll just skip straight to the art this time, so enjoy.

Featured Artist: Murray Groat

The object of this week's feature appeared on my blogroll last Friday. Nathan Long over at Sabrepunk posted a fantastic Tintin/Cthulhu crossover cover by Murray Groat, a.k.a. Muzski. A quick google-search later, and I had found the rest of the set on the artist's DeviantART page. Sadly, these are not available as prints, and equally sadly these are only covers for non-existent albums. Dammit.

Featured Artist: Harry Clarke

This artist was brought to my attention by a post at Fighting Fantasist earlier this month. The prints featured in this post are all black/white, and were published as full-page illustrations to E. A. Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, probably around 1920 (my sources differ). Harry Clarke (1889 - 1931) was born an Irishman, and was educated as a stained-glass artist and book illustrator, he was also a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement.

What captures me about this work is Clarke's merciless use of black. It is almost like the white in his pictures are fighting for survival, something that lends itself well to the images in Poe's writing. Coopdevil of the Fighting Fantasist managed to get hold of a copy of a book featuring these plates, and I must say I am a little envious. Then again, until he posted on the topic, Clarke was an unknown figure to me, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

For more Harry Clarke, follow >THIS LINK<

Featured Artist: Kerem Beyit (2)

I have long admired Kerem Beyit's work. In fact, I have featured him once before, but I feel he merits another round, as I was a little skimpy on the artwork back then. I came across this talented artist in the CG Society forums years ago, and I've been following him since. As you'll see, Beyit has appears to have a solid background in good old fantasy, probably even dungeons and dragons.

I'll just keep it short, and get to the pics. Remember, you can click on the images to view them in full size.

The first set features some of Beyit's dragons.

Battle Dragon

While I dig his dragons, it is his characters I like the most. Most of all I like one of his elves, and even if i've used that picture to illustrate an on-topic post, I'll gladly open the next set with it.

Elf

Half-elf

Paladin

Troll Hunter

Official website

Featured Artist: Theodor Kittelsen

This time I'll show you what's arguably the greatest artist of Norwegian folklore. Theodor Kittelsen (1857 - 1914) is famous for illustrating the Norwegian folktales, and he is acclaimed for having greatly influenced how trolls and other such creatures of the hidden world are percieved today.

The following four artworks are from the book Trollskap, which was published in 1892. The first depicts the classical forest-troll, lurking deep in the woods. The second is a sea-troll, one of the many terrors preying on fishermen and sailors, while the next is nøkken (wiki), a type of troll that hides in lakes, luring people to it so they'll drown.

The final is huldra (wiki). She is a beautiful woman, indistinguishable from christian folk, except from her cow's tail. She will seduce young men, hiding her rump in her skirts, and take them to her home, usually beneath a hill. Once there, the foolish lad will never be able to leave again.

Skogtroll
Forest-troll

Sjøtroll
Sea-troll

Nøkken

Huldra

The next set is from Svartedauen - the Black Death - and was published in the book by that name in 1900. In Norwegian folklore, the Black Death is personified by an old crone bearing the name Pesta, carrying a broom and a rake with broken teeth. In houses where she used the rake, some were spared, but where she used the broom, none survived. Sometimes she would pass a house all together.

Pesta farer landet rundt
Pesta roams the land



Musstad



Fattigmannen
Poverty

Between 1879 and 1887, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen published a series of books containing a collection of folktales gathered from around the country. Kittelsen was chosen to illustrate this work, although there were fears that 'the children would be scared out of their wits' by his pictures. At least one of his works were actually refused for that very reason. The next two are from these books.

Both these are from tales about clever young boys, who through their wits manages to defeat the dim-witted trolls - trolls are usually about as dumb as dirt. The first is from Smørbukk. The second is from Askeladden som kappåt med trollet. It depicts the boy fooling the troll into believing that the cheese he's squeezing is actually a rock, and beneath it you'll find an English version of that tale, curtesy of Wikipedia.

Haugkjærring
Hag

"Jeg skal klemme vannet av deg..."
"I will squeeze the water out of you..."

Boots who ate a match with the troll (Askeladden som kappåt med trollet)

A farmer sent his sons to cut wood in a forest he owned, to pay off debts. A troll threatened them as they came, one by one; the two older ones allowed themselves to be chased off, but the youngest asked for food. When the troll threatened him, the boy pulled out some cheese, claiming it was a stone, and squeezed it until whey came out. When he threatened to deal with the troll as he had with the "stone", the troll offered to help him with the wood-cutting.



The troll suggested that he come home with him. Then he went to build up the fire and sent the boy for water. The boy realized he could not carry the huge buckets, so he declared they were too small, and he could just fetch the spring. The troll exchanged chores with him.


When the porridge was made, they had an eating match, but the boy put more into his scrip than into his stomach, and when it was full, he cut a hole in it. The troll said he could eat no more. The boy suggested that he cut a hole in his stomach, which would let him eat as much as he liked, and it didn't hurt much.


The troll did so, and died, and the boy took his gold and silver and paid off the family debt.

Source

Sources:
Norwegian Folktales on Wikipedia
Nasjonalmuseet

Featured Artist: Keith Thompson

I have another one for you. I found Keith Thompson's work not too long ago, and I ended up going through all the pictures on his homepage. Not only does he have a distinct style that very much agrees with the images I see inside my own head, he also accompanies most of his work with short stories that tickles the imagination. I recommend that you visit his site and take the tour. It's well worth it.


While some of his artwork can be classified as steampunk, it's not the run of the mill begoggled-crazy-professor-type steampunkery you see so often. He also draws on references from both classical and contemporary art. Thompson's alternate pasts (and futures) have a distinct touch that sets them apart from the rest of them.


I have also discovered that Thompson has been working on the Leviathan series with author Scott Westerfeld. Without going into details here, I'll just say that those books have gotten on my reading-list.


So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

From Leviathan

Warden

The following is the vignette to this picture, and is written by the artist. Click the caption on the images below to read those vignettes. 

The Fey Folk, being barren, steal away human babies and raise them as their own, twisting them into fair forms. Often the fairies leave one of their own in the raided crib as a spiteful taunt to the oblivious parents. The Warden was a young fairy who took the place of a babe stolen from an old woodsman’s house deep in the forest. 

He would twist his face hideously as the old man and woman tried to love and care for him. Mischievously, the fairy would break valuables, set fires, and make the animals ill. Still, the parents patiently raised him.This continuing love puzzled the Warden, and he slowly became accustomed to it, growing tall and healthy as a young man would from such compassion.

He knew that he could never live as a man in the city, so he stayed with his new parents in their isolation until they eventually died, still thinking him their ugly, troubled son. In bitter grief, the warden took to the forest with the intent of returning the same sorrow the Fey doled out so generously. He now stalks through the forest, his size immense for a fairy from his humans’ diet, and the nurturing of the old couple. He captures all Fey Folk he comes across and lets them slowly waste away, savouring their pleas as they cry out in a language he hardly remembers. 

A young fairy with his wings clipped is chained to the turret in the Warden’s hat, where he is forced to use his man-catcher to snag those flitting high in the trees. An adder lives in the warden’s sleeve, darting out to capture fairies skulking in the underbrush. 

Men who find themselves lost in the forest often wake up to discover a small leather purse in which is a drawn map showing the way to town, and a bundle of small, iridescent wings tied together with the finest hair.

The Prophet

The Tower

Damned 02

Sedales Serpent from the Iron Grip game

The video below is from the on-line game Iron Grip. Here you can see some of Thompson's concept-work in action.

Iron Grip: Warlord - Stand My Ground from JohnBart on Vimeo.

Featured Artist: Zdzisław Beksiński

It's been a while since I've posted under this header, but I think this may very well be the best one so far. I recently came across the works of the deceased Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński.  Born in Poland in 1929, he lived through one of the most dramatic periods in the history of the world - World War Two and the Cold War. While his works often depict post-apocalyptic landscapes, warped human shapes and nightmare-like scenarios, Beksińsky himself is said to have viewed his work as optimistic in nature.


The artist was brutally murdered in 2005, and was found in his flat in Warsaw with 17 stab wounds.


Below is a selection of his works, but I highly recommend clicking through to Zdzisław Beksiński's stunningly beautiful official website, run by the Belvedere Gallery.

Sources:
The Beautiful Nightmares of Zdizlav Besiński on Coilhouse
The official website

Wikipedia

Because it's Awesome!

...and because it's a slow night at the asylum.

A while ago The Official Star Wars Blog posted a few pictures of steam-punky SW-characters by the talented Mr Greg Peltz. I finally got around to looking at his blog, and DAMN! Suffice it to say he's now on my blog-roll.

But wait, there's more...

He's also done C-3P0 and Bobba Fett. I suggest you pop over and have a look for yourself.

Featured Artist: Mr. Jack

Just a quick post before going off to earn a living. Thanks to Nathan Long of Sabrepunk for the tip. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr. Jack.

Undead Warrior 2

Demon Samurai

Forest

Lictor

All pictures hosted by: Deviantart

A random intermission

~Hänsel and Gretel 1945~

Artist: Peter Oedekoven

Again Peter Oedekoven captures my imagination.

~public transportation~

some people are really taking the bus.

and they should.

Artist: Renan Motta Lima

...just that.