Sketchbook Sunday, Part The Second

Hello and welcome again to my lazy Sunday post, where I put up some pieces from my sketchbook for all to be underwhelmed by. Let's dive right in, shall we?

Left to right: Blur The Peripheral,  Aurisath of Serelet, Carapace Arcana, and Daimhyo Angus-Born

This is my party from The Legend Of Grimrock, a seriously awesome throwback puzzle-rpg game available on steam now. I particularly liked how the game introduced an awesome idea for a playable race that I'm surprised hasn't been explored that often in fantasy: An insect race. We've had lizard people, minotaurs, cat people, orcs... Why have fantasy authors in general ignored the fascinating premise of an insect race? I look forward to seeing how it ends.

Keeping on the theme of fantasy, I drew these two ages ago when I was considering writing a fantasy of my own. I wanted to portray Elves and Dwarves somewhat differently than they were normally portrayed. Elves were pretty much glorified hippies, living a scant existence in lazy squalor. I kind of imagined them like Lion prides, in that the females do all the work while the men just lie around and be spiritual leaders. It's traditional for males to wear their hair long as a sign of status and females to have very 'boyish' hair, cropped extremely short. I also wanted to base the dwarves on an ethnicity that actually has a reputation for industry and scientific progress: Arabic and Indian culture. I also wondered why on earth dwarves were portrayed as having piggy little eyes when I would have thought living in a subterranean environment would cause them to develop large eyes to capture as much light as possible. I also gave them that reflective pupil cats have too help them see in the dark, as well as look freakin' awesome.

Lastly, to round off my fantasy kick, here's one I did today just to experiment with different styles of armour. This was meant to be some kind of 'spirit of the hunt', so I can be as outlandish and impractical as I wanted. You can see how my drawing ability kind of deteriorates the further down the body I attempt to draw. I do like the helmet, though, I thought it turned out pretty good.

Movie of the day: Ever After. This is my favourite chick flick. Wait, let me rephrase that: It may well be the only non-Austen chick flick I can actually stomach. It's clever, sweet without cloying, geniunely funny, very quotable, has lots of action beats and still gives you the fuzzy feeling you want. It also helps that Angelica Huston is fantastic as an ever-so-slightly complex stepmother and we have Richard O' Brian (New Zealander and writer of the Rocky Horror Show) playing a villain so gorgeously grotesque you wonder why the guy doesn't get more work. Drew Barrymore's accent may be all over the place but it's a small niggle.

Song of the day: When The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash. I absolutely love it when a song sends shivers up my spine, and when I heard this in the opening credits of Zack Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead, it did just that. Sublimely serene with an effortless twist of malice, it was an amazing marriage of image and music and elevated it to one of my favorite movie openings. I think it's the three notes that play just before Cash sings the title lyrics that really cement the mood. Sorry, bit of a geek-out there.