Fantasy Sketchdump (02 04 2017)

I've had a bit of down-time during the last day or two, so I've taken the opportunity to compile some sketches from the last couple years for the fantasy setting I've been building.

Reina-Rapid Iteration:  Recent sketches testing out some alterations to Reina's fantasy design.  I'm partial to how C turned out (clearly, since it ended up being the most refined sketch).

NPCs-Southron Reach:  Common folk of the Southron Reach, the territory where the Lion's Band forms and begins their adventures.

Trent-Battle Stance:  Not anything too special, just some development art showing Trent's standard ready stance in combat.

Lionheart (both):  Development art for Lionheart.  While he's not specifically aligned with fire, he's a bit of a wandering vigilante, so the idea of "cleansing flame" seems thematically appropriate.

Edgar:  An attempt at adapting a friend (and a real-life archer) into the setting.

Reina's Blades:  The dagger is fashioned from an ancient spear-head which Reina found while exploring the forests of the Southron Reach.  The hunting knife's gutting hook has been found to be particularly useful in dismantling skeletal undead.

Physick (Right Forearm):  This one requires a bit of background.  In the setting, all superhuman feats are based on the exertion of a person's Will.  Magick is the process of manifesting Will outside of a person's body, whether it be throwing fireballs, healing wounds, enchanting weapons, or the like.  Physick, on the other hand, refers to channeling Will within the body in order to surpass one's own physical limitations.  The sketch was my attempt at showing how I'd want Physick to be visualized: when Physick is being used, the veins in the most affected part of the body emit a soft golden glow.  In the case of the illustration, Reina is using Physick to draw her longbow past the point at which her arm would ordinarily give out in order to perform a power shot.

And now on to the monsters!  I decided long ago that if this setting were used as the basis for a video game, I'd want to use Capcom's Dragon's Dogma as the basis for the combat and movement mechanics, and that means lots of big boss monsters that you can grab onto and climb all over to get at their weak points.

Griffon:  A fairly conventional design.  Probably the most notable aspect of the design is the coloration, which I've based on the African Fish Eagle.

Basilisk:  An extremely dangerous reptilian creature.  Its mouth contains a pair of brightly-colored sacks which store and release a deadly petrifying toxin.  When combined with a powerful roar, it can emit its petrifying agent as a mist.

Troll:  If its immense strength wasn't deadly enough, the many bony spurs protruding from the Troll's body further enhance its killing power.

Watcher:  An Entropic Avatar, spontaneously generated by unbound Will seeping back into the world.  While the central eye casts powerful magick, the smaller magickal vortices on its body are capable of generating spell-casting tendrils.  Its body is composed of stone from crumbled ruins.

Manticore:  While the Manticore is smaller than its felinid cousins, the Griffon and the Chimera, it is arguably the most dangerous of the three.  Despite having wings, the Manticore is flightless.  Instead, it uses the heavy, tough membranes as armor, wrapping its wings around itself to protect it from injury.  The wings can also be used to augment its leaping movements, allowing the Manticore to both create and close distances between itself and its prey with frightening swiftness.  Additionally, the Manticore is a natural magick-caster, and its tail-sting is capable of inflicting a potent poison.

Dragon:  Ancient and elusive creatures, Dragons are so rarely encountered than many believe they are mere legend.  Others suppose that only one Dragon can live at any given time.  Dragons are immensely powerful, both in body and in Will.  They are highly intelligent and naturally adversarial, seeing the world around them in terms of conflict and struggle.

Lesser Dragon-kin lack the intelligence of a true Dragon, and are more animal in their behavior.  They represent individual aspects of a Dragon.  The Drake is a Dragon's strength, all muscle and brute force.  The Wyvern is a Dragon's grace, its wispy form glides effortlessly through the air.  The Wyrm is the Dragon's Will, though unfocused.  It is a natural magick-caster surpassing even the greatest mages among men.

And that's what I've got for the moment.  I'm pretty pleased with most of these sketches, but I just didn't think any of them was quite good enough to be posted up on its own.

Setting; designs; artwork ©