Gallery Warden's Art Thread

sorta. Not as much as I would like But it is my next art project after the current sketch is completed

I have written down some (sloppy) notes in my notebook for which colors will go with which clan, plus the one I already had of preferred weapons and the clan mon crests. I also have been gathering a small database of Japanese ukiyo-e pictures for inspiration, I plan to use some of them to change up the "helmet-crests" of the saurus warrior helms, and/or make the individual saurus clans have different head crests to go with their individual spawnings or spawn-clans.

I am considering using the saurus painter as a starting point, and make a skink and a saurus for each clan, with a bonus saurus oldblood (daimyo) for some of the greater clans.





I noticed that @n810 used photoshop to make some unique skink and saurus color schemes in Ye Olde INTERACTIVE Saurus Painter (the one with the skeleton-tattooed skink is still my favorite), but I am a bit intimidated to use an art program I have never used before... all I have ever used on the computer is just straight up Microsoft paint. And the sketch-up, but that was to build the temple city.

More progress will be made shortly. I am currently coloring in the last picture, but I seem to have misplaced by dark brown colored pencil. And I can't decide if I want to make the creepy cold-one the standard green or go with a more sickly brown or alternate color.


Edit: Another problem that I encountered working on a saurus template- the Japanese samurai didn't use shields very often! They did sometimes, but not enough to justify every saurus heraldry example to have one. I am not sure what to use as a replacement for the shield!!! I was thinking potentially a dagger, a second macana, or some other weapon. Or just leave it as a fist.

 

Here are the notes I have together so far, next is the sketches for the first saurmurai and askinkagu models. Not sure if I am going to cover all the daimyo or not as each one will be unique.



Also took WIP shots of where I had to stall out on the Tlaxeda Clan warrior:

Spoiler: saurmurai

yellow


adding red


starting to add black.


If I can do this right, and maybe repaint it, it would make an excellent Lizardmen of the Dragon Isles army book cover!

 

Happy (belated) national green day

In honor of the Old One of the Emerald Isles, I offer the following tributes: green saurus pics direct from the saurus painter.

Spoiler: More pics

Since the painter is so easy to use I went ahead and did one drawing for each of the saurus units I have in my army blog (green, red, black, and yellow).

I am currently still experimenting with using the saurus painter as a starting point for working on my samurai lizardmen pics; using Microsoft paint I edited the image to remove the shield and bring the weapon down in front of the saurus.


Originally I planned to keep the "mayan-aztec" look for the samurai lizardmen main weapons (macana-clubs), but I am increasingly feeling the need to swap them out for straight up Japanese inspired katanas instead. I also plan to add shoulder-armor, a back banner, and a helmet, with potentially some battle-dress robes as well.

 

More WIP shots, this time with some saurmurai armor. This project would look a lot better if each individual lizard was hand drawn on paper, but that will take too long for the amount of time I currently have for this project.

Spoiler: earlier WIP shots

with the sword:

first armor/banner test.

Figuring out where to put stuff on these drawings is tough mostly due to all the spikes.

And the head-crest gets in the way of making a true samurai looking helmet. I think if I ever were to make an actual model-army version of these dudes I would consider going the 5th ed saurus route, where they don't have all the spikes. Would make it easier to fit into the samurai-helmet motif, and it would be easier to place the banners on their backs.

 

On an unrelated note, do they have Cold Ones or Coldonealikes in the Dragon Isles?

 

Yes they do! Specifically this clan, but nearly all the saurmurai clans have access to at least some of these creatures (saurmurai were basically knights, after all, and very experienced both fighting and firing from horseback). I have been calling them "raptors" as well, as they are kinda like velociraptors.

I also am still working this picture (here is an update for you, had to put it on hold).

Spoiler: saurmurai on cold-one

Cold-one:

 

Some quick sketchs for Mayan-inspired/Lizardmen murals to go on the inside of some terrain I am currently making:

Spoiler: WIP

Spoiler: WIP

Spoiler: Inspiration

The blue one is supposedly from Tulum, images are also here.

 

Awesome!

 

i concur

 

Awesome sauce! Love it!

 

Try mounting the banner pole parallel to the backbone [?] and go with a triangular banner [?]

Japanese / Nipponese but adapted to the Lizardman posture. You are right, the 5th edition plastic Saurus would probably have straighter more vertical backs.

 

I have been assigned a burial mound in the summer Fun Terrain contest, so I have been sketching out some ideas.


My plan is to make a fairly small burial mound, nothing fancy, just with some Lizardmen snake statues or a lizard-mouth for the doorway. If that works well I might try something more ambitious:


Since the vast majority of Mayan temples fulfilled the role of both ritual center and receptacle for the bodies of the dead elite (usually kings or queens), I am thinking of making a small pyramid/large tomb, with doorways open on the sides. I tried using magnets in one of the last small temples I constructed, and am thinking of using them again to allow the top to open for potential Mordheim skirmish-action.


Edit: the House of the Serpent Mouth project is complete, I added tons of pictures to my Mayan Lizardmen thread, plus more interior shots.

 

Inspiration struck this weekend after musing about Samurai Jack, and I wound up producing this painting! Fun to do, I am planning to hang it up in the office:

Spoiler: WIP photos

The painting was done with generic acryllic paints from walmart; I made the sketch and gave it its first coats of paint on Sunday night, and finished the detail/second coat of black on Tuesday. In total the painting took about 2-3 hours of work; a very fast, fun painting!

Source Material:



Test Sketch:


WIP stages:





95% complete:



It looks pretty good with all the halloween decorations up around the house!

 

Not much work has been done this weekend, except for some sketches similar to the mayan-stelae doodles I did way back on the first page of this thread.



Picture is a little rough but they are some quick drawings of mayan stelae from across the Mayan world, for future projects. The slann version in the center didn't turn out good, so I decided to just draw the Mayan versions instead.

Spoiler

Monument 168, from Tonina, of ruler Bahlam Yaxuun Tihl (Jaguar Bird Tapir) in 577 AD.



Three stela, from left to right-

1) Stela D, from Copan, ruler K'ahk' Tiliw Chan Yopaat, 19 Feb 766 AD

2) Stela 14, from Piedras Negras, ruler Yo'nal Ahk III, 755 AD

3) Stela 26, also from Piedras Negras, of ruler Yo'nal Ahk I in 628 AD. Unlike the one to his left, his headdress is much more reminiscent of a Teotihuacan serpent, rather than the "mayanized" one his grandson/descendant wore.



Last two-

1) Not actually a stela, but a giant face on the side of a temple at Kohunlich of the sun god K'inich Ajaw

2) Either Stela U or Monument 26 from Quiringua, unmaned Ruler 3 in 493 AD, apparently his name is undecipherable currently.

 

More project sketches are complete, plus going over some older ones.

I am planning to make a new terrain piece with a side-profile similiar in spirit to this one:



Known as the Ruins of Ake, they are a site in Mexico that in this picture remind me very much of Weathertop from LOTR. I don't know anything about the site other than traveler/artist Frederick Catherwood sketched the mayan site during his travels across the Yucatan.

Spoiler: ruins of Ake

Ruins of Ake:



Catherwood's sketch: at the time the ruins were completely overgrown, but not enough to disguise the overall shape:

Some top-down sketches of what I am planning, I am probably going to go with the one on the top-right. All the yellow portions are going to be the columns, and the front will have a staircase leading to the reflection pool I will place in the center.



Also a random teotihuacan kulkulcan-mask.

Next part of the project: slann palanquins!



The backs of the thrones are going to be painted versions of the Mayan stela of the previous post.

And as a random sketch, I also drew this little glyph-dial:



The four main old-ones of my temple city (minus Tzunki in the center) are depicted by their respective old one glyphs (from top left and clockwise: Tepok, Sotek, Chotec, and Tlazcotl). Inspiration was ripped right off the helmet of Mazdamundi from total war... a very cool design!

Spoiler

 

I found this old drawing from high school art.

Rain Snakes:



It is an edited and colorized version of a Mayan/Aztec codex, possibly the Madrid Codex? I am not sure which, back then I certainly didn't know. I plan to frame it up and put it in my new game room...

Spoiler: Rain Snakes

 

5 minute sketch for my Xochicalco Platform project ; helped me get the general design down before I started painting.



I have written "Xochicalco" so many times now I actually know how to spell it without looking in a book

Spoiler: inspiration

 

Goooooood!