Urgan Nagru Portrait

One of the most interesting, descriptively, of the Redwall Villains, yet he has always confused me a bit. How can a fox wear a wolf’s skull on his head like a hat, as he is often depicted, with the wolf‘s teeth resting on the top of his head? That would imply the wolf was smaller than the fox (unless it was a wolf pup’s skull)? His death made little sense as well, for surely the skull would shatter or the teeth wouldn’t be able to pierce Nargu’s own, larger, skull?

So, this was designed accordingly to answer those questions. Nargu is only wearing a part of the wolf’s original skull, then having a helmet-like ornament built around it so it would fit snugly on its head (the metal ‘teeth’ will also be able to get through Nargu’s skull if it rode up his head during the moment before the impact with the tree, as he was being lifted up.)
Other than that his design was also based on the Grey Fox, even though that is a desert animal…I could have used an artic fox or a silver morph of the Red Fox, but I liked the blend of russet and grey in this animal (besides, I always pictured Nagru’s mate, Silvamord, being a silver Red Fox).
Oh my! All That fur! *feints* haha, only kidding, I find painting fur (with no custom brushes) very relaxing and I really like how it came out in this one.



From Redwall WIKI
“Urgan Nagru the Foxwolf was a male fox who commanded a vast horde against the kingdom of Southsward.
Urgan Nagru's true name is unknown. While he was ruler of the Land of Ice and Snow, he found a dead wolf, whose pelt he took for himself. Fixing iron hooks onto the claws of the pelt, he could strap his hands in the paw area and wield them as deadly weapons. He also took the skull of the wolf and used it as a helmet. With his new attire, he declared himself the Foxwolf and named himself Urgan Nagru. (Urgan being the wolf's name, he spelled it backwards to give the impression he was coming from the front and back.)

Eventually, Nagru and his mate Silvamord grew tired of the frigid land, so they and an army of rats numbering about 500 took three ships and sailed to the warmer southern regions, specifically the country of Southsward. There, Nagru and his mate deceived Gael Squirrelking into thinking they were peaceful creatures, and were permitted entrance to Castle Floret. A few days after entering, Nagru held Gael's son Truffen hostage and threatened to kill him if Gael didn't allow Urgan to take the throne. Gael was forced to accept, and the army of rats took over the countryside.

Urgan, like many vermin rulers, did not appear to actually like his mate. Silvamord continually insulted him and threw projectiles at the Foxwolf, who did not appreciate the attention.
After that, life was pretty easy for the Foxwolf. Being complete ruler of all Southsward, he felt that he had no enemies and was completely safe. However, unbeknownst to him, a loyal otter named Rab Streambattle, the leader of Gael's Otter Guard, planned to free the king and his family from the castle. Rab succeeded in rescuing Gael's wife Squirrelqueen Serena and Truffen, but couldn't get to Gael. Nagru, outraged, chased after the otter, but was held back when the badger nursemaid Muta ran to Rab's aid and stalled them long enough to make their own escape. The Foxwolf ordered that his army find the escaped prisoners and any who aided them and return them to him.

The Foxwolf sent out his dreaded trackers, the Dirgecallers, (horrific, blood crazed, female ermines) to find the escapees, but they were killed by Mariel Gullwhacker, Dandin, and Meldrum Fallowthorn the Magnificient. Nagru consoled his loss by capturing the trio, but was surprised when they escaped the dungeon and joined with Gael and Glokkpod and formed a blockade in the highest tower of the castle. The Foxwolf was furious that his mighty army couldn't even hold on to a small group of woodlanders, who by now had escaped the castle.

Soon enough, Gael reappeared to storm the castle with a mighty group of Southswarders who were willing to fight for their freedom. None of them counted on Nagru's cunning as a general, and soon they were the ones in need of assistance. But then, to the utter dismay of Nagru another army led by Joseph the Bellmaker appeared and started to force the Foxwolf's army back. Left with only his personal guard, Nagru tried to make his way back to his ships, but encountered Finnbarr Galedeep. Nagru tried to wrestle with the otter, but was lifted up by Finnbarr, who rammed Nagru's head into a nearby tree. The curved fangs on Urgan's wolfskin helmet were driven into his own skull, killing the Foxwolf and ending his reign over Southsward.”

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Character from Brian Jacques’ book The Bellmaker
Character Design by Myself.
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Gabool the Wild Portrait

Aaa, Gabool! My second favourite Redwall Villain from my second favourite Redwall book. “Mariel of Redwall” was such an epic book, one of the few that hooked me emotionally and maybe because it links so nicely with my favourite of the series “Redwall” (I wouldn’t be surprised if Brain Jacques decided to make Gabool an ancestor of Cluny, as they share a twisted fate with the Joseph Bell and it could explain Cluny’s sudden impulse for his own kinghood.)

Gabool probably has taken the longest to paint out of all the Redwall Villain Portraits I have done so far, just because he has such in depth physical description (Badrang and Tsarmina had barely any description in their books). I also wanted to have his golden bell in the background which effected the lighting and colour. But, I had a lot of fun with this.


From Redwall WIKI:
"Gabool the Wild was the self-proclaimed king of all searats, his titles included King of Searats, Lord of Terramort Island, Captain of Captains, Warlord of All Rodent Corsairs and Warlord of All Waters.
He wore a red cloak and gold earrings, and his beard was tied with blue and red silken ribbons. He also had gold teeth studded with emeralds.
As a youth, Gabool captained the Ratwake with his second-in-command Greypatch. Later, Gabool ruled from Fort Bladegirt on the island of Terramort. One of his fleet captured Mariel Gullwhacker, her father Joseph, and his bell en route to Salamandastron. Gabool was a ruthless rat, killing off allies he believed to be enemies right and left. This led to the desertion of Greypatch.
Eventually, Gabool's obsession with interpreting symbols on the stolen bell descended into insanity. His dreams were haunted by Rawnblade Widestripe and every night he was awakened by the bell sounding mysteriously on its own. These continued nightmares caused Gabool to become more dangerous than ever. It was then that the escaped oarslaves, Rawnblade, Mariel, Dandin and Durry Quill, launched an attack upon Fort Bladegirt. After pursuing Gabool through Fort Bladegirt, Rawnblade Widestripe fell into a pit with the rat's pet, Skrabblag, but with the help of the spirit of Martin the Warrior he threw the scorpion at Gabool, which proceeded to kill him out of hatred for seasons of imprisonment. The scorpion was then slain by Dandin using The Sword of Martin. "

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Character from Brian Jacques’ book Mariel of Redwall
Character Design by Myself.

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the Wendigo & the Reindeer

The blog title may sound like the strangest (gruesomest) children's story known to Man, but its all linked.

Well, I’ve been getting pestered by my family members to paint some Christmas cards and I have been trying my damn hardest to convince them I won’t. I had this cringing notion that they would want me to do sickly cute angels, robins, winter scenes ect ect ect… but I’ve been given freedom to do what I want (hell! They ain’t paying, so they get what they get! No complaining, haha!)

I was going to tease them and paint this Wendigo sketch (as I was reading up on the myth and felt inspiration kick me), just to spite them in a ‘I ain’t painting no cute robin’ sort of rebellion, but my mood improved.

I was brainstorming Christmas-y stuff when I came across Santa’s nine reindeer.

( By the way, why, in the media, do these reindeer never look like reindeer? Why does a fallow deer with red deer antlers seem a better design choice?…and also why do they still have antlers, male reindeer shed their antlers by winter, only female reindeer keep their antlers…. Why am I questioning the logic of flying deer? ) Their names interested me and evoked a lot of imagery in my head, more than any other idea I jotted down, especially Donna and Blizten (which means ‘Thunder’ and ‘Lightning’ in the Germanic tongue). Even Rudolf has a strange name, the name has ‘wolf’ as part of its meaning. A deer with ‘wolf’ for a name, that’s curious, it’s like naming a mouse ‘cat’.

So this is Comet, the one I wanted to do most (for unknown reasons) the celestial reindeer. I had a lot of fun painting this. That space scene frightened me a first, but I found it quite fun. John Howe’s gorgeous Tiamat/Dragon of Chaos painting and Terryl Whitlatch’s Nebula ( sorry, can’t seem to find an online link) were great inspirations.

Swartt Sixclaw Portrait

Swartt is probably the most cruellest of the Redwall villains, ''The Pitiless One'' indeed. I can't think of anyone else who would abandon their son in a ditch without a second thought. I don't recon he treated his wife, Bluefen, any better either (probably for the best she didn't feature much in the book). hoenix-Vampyrum probably got it right on the money in her fanfiction. In this painting I wanted to convey that cruelness and intimidation.


Not that pleased with this. There was the six claw and the necklace of teeth and claws about his neck, but they were distracting from the face. I may come back to Swartt one day and do a proper portrait.






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Character from Brian Jacques’ book Outcast of Redwall
Character Design by Myself.

Vilu Daskar Portrait

Another picture for the "Redwall Villain Portrait" project.

Vilu: Well, hello there. Come in and let me impress you with my exquisite manners and good breeding... XD


Oh, Vilu, you sexy devil. Shame you were only in 1/3 of your book.

I tried to have two light sources in this painting, one from the top left and another from the bottom left (candle-light), but I think I failed on that. It probably looked wrong because the two light sources made the painting look unbalanced. If I had shoved the second light to the right then that might have been better.

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Character from Brian Jacques’ book Legend of Luke
 

Tsarmina Greeneyes Portrait

By the rats beard! I love this painting! This was my second stab at her after the previous painting went all wrong, so I scrapped that and started anew (some of the best decisions are the hardest to make). From the previous painting you can see she had a different fur colour and costume. I got rid of that sticking up collar, I thought it would be really cool looking but the more I looked the more ugly it became. Tsarmina wouldn’t want to wear something ugly, she’s a queen damn it, she’ll wear slick regal stuff.


I think this is also my first attempt at painting gold. Haha! That was a pain. Thanks goes to issue 77 of ImagineFX magazine for a brilliant tutorial, by Lauren K Cannon, that helped me not screw up too badly. I also have to thank ImagineFX’s edition, “Anatomy 2” that helped with the different fabrics Tsarmina sports and how to paint them.
All in all, very pleased with this. Learnt so much from it.

The Gloomer

A full character sheet of my previous post/painting.
I'm not too sure about the anatomy, but its still an improvement compared to other past paintings.

The Gloomer (B&W Portrait)

So much fun making the Gloomer as gross as possible! I am going to paint a full view colour Gloomer, because I find him just so awesome.

PN: Photoshop went a little weird when I was painting the collar, the greys wouldn’t blend well. Luckily the collar was the only thing I had to do so it didn’t effect the rest of the painting.

From Redwall Wiki:

The Gloomer was an enormous, frightening, mindless black water rat that lived in the underground lake of Kotir and was controlled by Tsarmina and her army. Verdauga captured and imprisoned him long ago. He was used as a sort of attack animal to fight the wildcat's enemies and met his demise upon battling the vicious Stormfin, an enormous pike, in the River Moss.

The Gloomer was blind and hard of hearing, but had enhanced smell. He did not exhibit self-consciousness and was veritably insane from many seasons of imprisonment in the dark lake.

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Character ©: Brian Jacques’ book, Mossflower
Art + Character design © Myself




Abaddon Ukiyo-e

Abaddon, Lord of Chaos, and the main villain of the PS2 game, Primal

I had a lot of fun with that line work and trying to write/paint Abaddon's name in Japanese (don't butcher me if I've got it wrong! I used Google Translate) The script in the background are quotes from the game put through the translator, but you can't really read it.

NOTE: I don't know how to do translucence without killing the picture quality, so that light blue/grey is meant to be invisible.

Pike Bait / Ol' Abbaron

Nothing like a online contest to get those art juices flowing.

This is my first, real, attempt to add colour onto a black and white painting. It turned out a lot better than so of the other attempts in the past.



Dump

Some unfinished works that I didn't have the heart to finish.

The Vûûk: Size Chart

Just a little something to break up those Redwall portraits.

This is a Vûûk, commonly known as Lava Ammonites, that dwelling in the volcanic islands on my fantasy world, Dahllol. They are filter feeders, shifting the nutrients pushed up from the earth’s core, and are in turn preyed upon by the Okslann Deep (Lava Mosasaur)

Blimey! Painting that shell was boring. Haha!

Badrang the Tyrant Portrait

I think Badrang is just pleased he actually looks like a stoat this time (yes, I'm looking at you, crappy TV cartoon character design - seriously? A Black 'stoat' that look more like an mishapen canine?-)


Would have been nice if didn't have to re-paint this halfway through thanks to Photoshop crashing. That'll teach me not to save regularly.

It also would have been nice that, while painting this, I didn't have a nightmare of this character burning me alive on a pyre...

Ungatt Trunn Portrait

Back in 2010 I painted this monstrosity.

Urrrhh! *scrapes hands* unclean unclean! (but nice to see I actually have improved since then)

I have decided its about time that I re-painted it. Plus, I'm still in the Redwall mood from the last painting.
Above is the first fella, Ungatt Trunn. One of only two warlords to successfully invade and occupy their target.

He's a Scottish Wildcat (as in the books he was described as coming from the "Cold North" so he has that tartan wear and woad dye (but that's relevant for in the book he was Master of the Blue Hordes, who dyed their fur blue)... He also has an obsession with spiders...

Mattimeo Poster

 I felt the need to get my previous painting printed to a glossy poster...and an excuse to try out Artflakes quality (could have gone for a smaller, less expensive size...meh! *shrug*)
It printed out darker than the original painting, but that's to be expected on a glossy 'photo' paper.

Just A Little Speed Paint

Just a little speed paint of a character from the book featured in the previous post.

Mattimeo Book Cover

Not a real book cover, a fan-made one...

It feels good to be plunging into some Redwall art, like visiting an old friend. Must be how John Howe feels when he gets a Lord of the Rings painting.

Slagar has that metal thing on his nose because I figured he’d need to, you know… BREATHE with relative ease. Having a blooming silk mask over your face is surely stuffy, not to mention suffocating, making it hard to breathe when kidnapping children. I’m also playing Final Fantasy VI so Kefka’s outfit had an impact with Slagar’s costume.
I think in the book, Ironbeak is never described as having a metal helmet, but thanks to the cartoon adaptation I shall always picture him with such. Obviously if this was a real cover commission I wouldn’t have a helmet, so fan-boys get off my case!



Mattimeo Book Cover (DRAFT)

Seeing as the Redwall series, written by Brian Jacques, was the childhood obsession that drove me to a passion for illustration, it seems outrageous that I haven't done any fan-art of it in soo long. Redwall is my Lord of the Rings, lets just leave it at that.
I used to dream of being hired to do an illustrated re-print of the series, or at least doing some book covers. And now that I am older its inevitable that the covers would mature with me...I now have a more adult picture of the Redwall world, as opposed to the bright colourful one of my childhood. It's like I've moved on from the Batman: The Animated Series and gone onto Nolan's grimmer versions.  This isn't so far'fetched as the books themselves could be surprisingly dark at times, though Jacques wisely didn't go into gruesome detail and allowed your mind to go into as much detail as you wanted in your imagination (while still keeping it friendly for a younger audience). Cannibalism, warfare, sibling murders are some themes that have popped up. This book, Mattimeo, deals with child kidnapping, slavery, vengeance and attempted genocide.

Jesus, I'm giving a big lecture for a damn draft. I've had to put this on hold for a commission.

I Got Vamp'ed

This is the result of reading Hellsing manga and gallons of PIMMS cocktails. Just a quick digital sketch to get this out of my system. Also a good warm up for what I'm going to do next, a manga tribuit/tryout.



The Doubting Deep

A creature inspired by an Ink Blot.

The Mother

This is 2nd of 3 examples I am doing for a tutorial sheet on my ‘Splice’ technique. It’s basically a random ‘name-out-of-the-hat’ method to create unexpected paintings. I got Silverwing Character (Ariel) - Fictional Dog Breed - Renaissance style for this one.
 I have absolutely no idea about this one. I started painting it while I had a cold so this dragged on a long time due to my lack of energy.
This was good practise for hair/manes/fur, whatever the outcome was.



Ultimunlamiasaur Sketch

Sketch of a fictional (obviously) Vampire Tyrannosaur called Ultimunlamiasaur (Which Google Translates as 'The Last Vampire Lizard')

Was going to paint this but having a cold really brings your energy levels low. So this is just a sketch, good pratice on trying (and failing) Tyrannosaur anatomy.

Karyu'awkx Sketch

Was having a flick through a 'Feild Guide' for James Cameron's Avatar world and got the urge to draw one of my own creatures. This is Karyu'awkx (which in Na'vi means, "Cliff Teacher" - I think-), or Gargoyle in the English tongue, who dwells upon the mountains and rocky terrain of Pandora. It uses its 'bulb wings' to flash signals to other members of its species and its 'tentacles' for extra grip.

Psst, you forgot the extra limbs... Pandora creatures have 6 limbs!...
*face palm*

Failed Nouveau Work

I was going to do a nouveau styled piece, but by the time I had sketched the frame I felt the urge to do something else. That's the luxury of personal work, you can drop it if you feel like it.

The subject was going to be some sort of Crocodile-Horse hybrid, that looks more like a dragon, hence why there are a lot of bones/scales and the croc skull in the frame.

Demon's Demise

Illustration of the climax from the book, “Wolf Brother” by Michelle Paver, where the demon bear is washed away by an avalanche on the slopes of the Mountain of the World Spirit. God I love these books!
The red smoke/fire/thing is meant to be the demonic power leaving the bear, it was a good excuse to play with the smudge tool.

This is probably my best painting to date and is greatly inspired by the paintings of John Howe and his use of bold colours. His painting “Zirak Zigil” was a prominent influence, as you could probably tell by the colour scheme.

VIDEO

Nicx the Devil

This is 1 of 3 examples I am doing for a tutorial sheet on my ‘Splice’ technique. It’s basically a random ‘name-out-of-the-hat’ method to create unexpected paintings. I got 'Dragon-Deformed-Black and White Sketch' for this one.

“Deformed Dragon, that sounds a lot like my character Nicx!” I thought,
Nicx is the title character and villain of a plan sequel to a story I am writing. She is the unfortunate result of intense inbreeding between the Vitis Dragons of the dark islands of Pélé, where the aristocracy have hunted them to near extinction. The Vitis Dragons use their two pairs of ‘tentacles’ to grab, strangled and hold onto prey.

Mothman

VIDEO

“Paint Mothman, but make him as unthreatening as possible.” that was the brief I set myself. Not particularly the easiest thing to do with a big black creature with red eyes.
I have always envisioned Mothman to be a giant black owl (with no visible beak) rather than a humanoid. It also fits with the eyewitness depictions of Mothman without a neck, as owls puff themselves up when they feel threatened, giving the appearance of no neck. This portrait does show his neck, as if he was just startled (by some snotty wood walker with a yapping dog) and is thinking “The fuck is that?! I was snoozing!”

Mainly done in ArtRage, but switched into Photoshop for the detailed parts and colour alterations.

-- Original Sketch ... what was I thinking with those 'whiskers' and antennae?

Blackout Phoenix

VIDEO



Commission for Phoenix Rise for his upcoming album. He wanted something similar to a scratchboard look so this painting was done entirely in ArtRage with the pencil tool (only later touched up in Photoshop.)
It was fun to return to the ArtRage program, I neglect it so badly, for it was perfect for this type of painting. It’s curious the client chose this pose from the thumbnails (see below) as I was starching my head for ideas when I glance at my Peregrine Falcon model by Schleich perched on my CD collection. And that’s where those wings came from.

Baron Tower Exterior Sheet

I was going to do an interior design sheet and a illustrative painting, but I think I’ll save that for a later date. This was mainly to try my fingers at Google’s 3D tool, SketchUp. I then used the 3D model as a base to draw/paint over.It was tricky at first but I got there in the end, at least on a basic level. However, It's quite clear I need to brush up on my building painting skills.

This is the Baron Tower, that features in the prologue of my story I'm writing and briefly, later on as a ruin. It’s were the mother of the main character was shot down and rather symbolic in a number of ways (details of which I’ll not bore you all with).It was interesting trying to think in terms of cultural influences and purpose to a building. This was, to begin with, built to be a watch tower, but turn into an arrogant status symbol of Man’s dominion over nature. The Bron (the land of whom the settlers descended from) have certain features in their architecture that I had to bring into this. In Bron their buildings are made of redstone and feature arches and round ornate windows. In Fëylonn they had no access to redstone, but they make do with other material.

Gigalith

The last pokemon interpretation I plan on doing for a while. This is the odd looking rock pokemon (who I also mistakenly thought was a Rock/Dark type because of the colour palette) Gigalith. There’s not much I can really say about it. Only that I imagined it to be a pissed off rock. I’m glad to see I’m thinking and improving more in cast shadows.

Honchkrow

My interpretation on my second favourite pokemon, Honchkrow (yet another dark type?) The head crest, that’s meant to look like a hat, was tricky to figure out in realistic terms, but I think I nailed it.

Honchkrow, in his descriptions, are the bullies/ bosses/ the Godfathers of the corvid mafia, so he had to look big, tough, and intimidating. You almost get the feeling that, if this was a real crow, it would peak your eyes out if you looked at it wrong.

*In a Mafia Voice*: You come here, disrespect my family... I shit on your car.

Quill Cat Skeleton

A preview of a creature design that I'll eventually add some flesh to, literally. It took so long to do the spinal cord, even though I mostly copy and paste each part I still had to paint over so it they looked like individual bones.