[Madrun]

Hello all,

Long time lurker, finally manning up and joining the board. I've been surfing this site for some years now, followed many a good topic, rant, troll smackdown etc... always a good time. I am continually impressed with the posters here, and have come to respect many of them. You guys have answered a plethora of questions over the course of the series, and are about the only people I can go to for discussion of this wonderful world (I live in Orange County, CA).

I read GOTM about 7 years ago, and am hooked. I have enjoyed every book that the Erikson hath written. Love the writing, the world, the magic, the characters, the monsters, the oh shits!, the oh no's, and the oh WHAT's! Will just say now, DOD broke my heart, more than TTH, and I am oh so eagerly waiting for TCG for some redemption. But I could go on and on and on...

The long and short of it is I am a conceptual artist, in the gaming industry, and well, with all the visuals in the books, it was inevitable that I would have to draw some of it.. These are some of my interpritations of some of my favorite characters. As an artist, what I love about this series is how vague the Erikson is when writing character descriptions. I mean, there are times he goes in to detail, but it is generally left to one's imagination to fill in the gaps. It is very refreshing and engaging, yet from an artistic standpoint, there are things I NEED to know! (jaghut tusks, forkrul assail joints, lizardcats, oh my).

These concepts are unfinished and several years old, but with the wait for TCG making my life miserable, I just thought I'd post some of these to see what you guys think, and possibly generate something to talk about.

If you guys like my work, feel free to check out my blog, www.MitchellDesigns.blogspot.com . I have some more things there that are of Malazan origin, and am currently working on some new stuff, and I promise to post it here.

I'm no Komark, but one can hope...some day.

Nice to meet you all, and thank you Steve, from the bottom of my heart.


Cheers,

Madrun

 toblakai1.jpg (818.51K)
Number of downloads: 38  seg1.jpg (298.16K)
Number of downloads: 34  kallor1.jpg (301.25K)
Number of downloads: 27  rakeandfriends1.jpg (602.65K)
Number of downloads: 34  jaghut1.jpg (221.38K)
Number of downloads: 31  imass1.jpg (311.77K)
Number of downloads: 27

This post has been edited by Madrun: 15 January 2011 - 09:54 AM

[Hocknose]

Wow Impressive work.
I zoomed out to 50% and it made it a little clearer. Can you tell me who is who or what?

[Sinisdar Toste]

very very nice, i especially like the segulah, and your take on the jaghut tusks. seems we have as many interpretations of those bad boys as we have artists! would give you welcome rep if the function was working

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Really, really, nice works. Would give rep if I could.

[rhulad]

Indeed, very nice. Have imaginary rep.

[Puck]

Imaginary rep going your way for these [and real rep as soon as it'll work again ]

Several things..

1. I'm really into your style. Love your blog as well and would love to see more malazan stuff from you. Keep it coming, pretty please!

2. If I've got read about another good artist here on board compare himself to Komarck and whine about not being as good I'm going to go into Icarium mode. Seriously.

3. Not wanting to sound snarky, but as a concept artist you ought to know how to resize images. Especially when working digital.
You also can resize them and edit the new sizes in.

4. Back to 1, because that's what I wanted to say first and foremost

[Madrun]

Thanks all!

as for names and such, in order-

Toblakai
Seguleh
Kallor
Rake
Jaghut
Imass

@Puck- haha no worries, you're not being snarky. totally deserve it. Its more an unfamiliarity to the board than anything. i dont post on many boards, will resize later tonight.

Thanks for the kind words.

-Madrun

This post has been edited by Madrun: 16 January 2011 - 11:19 AM

[Abyss]

i particularly like your take on the Jaghut - the art conveys the larger than human yet graceful elements and the tusks are VERY on.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Amazing work. Definitely going to check out more of your stuff.

[Coalhands]

Fantastic! Your gritty style is great, and the silhouettes really define one race from another. Just checked out your blog too; amazing, particularly your use of values and colour. Definitely gonna follow your work - I hope to one day become a game concept artist, so you're an inspiration for me Hopefully we'll see more Malazan stuff from you when you get the time between projects

+rep

Oh, and welcome to the boards ^^

[Dolmen 2.0]

Welcome Madrun, Really impressive ARTworks!

The physics on your giants make sense, lanky mass and limbs shows you have a brilliant grasp of anatomy.

I like the seguleh most still I'm not certain how you'd invision the marks of rank? patterning
those images would almost feel like heresy but character wise I think you should give it a try!

If you say some of these are WIPs I cant wait to see you take on scenes and such.
very good to have you on the boards, welcome!

One post and I've already refreshed so much of my own ideas
for these characters, do you have a Deviantart account we can track?

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

I'd like to see you (or anyone else for that matter) draw a Moranth. I don't think I've seen anyone draw one of those guys yet -- I couldn't really describe how I picture Moranth myself and it would be interesting to see other people's interpretations of them.

[Madrun]

You guys are too kind

Abyss- Appreciate it. I always saw the Jaghut as tall and willowy, muscled, but ultimately lean. The tusks I think are the hardest part. I have spent many an hour wracking my brain as to how they would look, and attach to the lower jaw, and whatnot. Cannot wait to give Hood a shot, and the provost... that guy kinda throws off the lean look, and has "ram horns" for tusks...should be interesting.

Max- Glad you liked my blog. I am trying to break bad habits and post more, but if you come back from time to time, there will be new stuff. Nice to meet another artist, have you posted any of your work here?

Dolmen- Most of my art training was "traditional" figurative studies so anatomy is huge for me. One of my biggest gripes in fantasy games is the lack of, or complete disregard of anatomy. Yes, it is a fantasy, but fantasy grounded in reality, true to form and function is always preferable...to me any way... Will be getting to individual Seguleh eventually. Most of these concepts are just prototypical designs, trying to evoke the feel of the race/culture and whatnot. Have a few more species to flesh out before I get to individual characters, but that may change. And I don't have a deviantart account, but my blog is always up.


Green Pig- I LOVED the Moranth in GOTM. Such a cool concept, all the armor and colors and giant dragonflies. Not sure what I am going to work on next, but will be thinking about it


-Madrun

This post has been edited by Madrun: 18 January 2011 - 02:38 PM

[Puck]

You know, the more I browse around at your blog, the more I like your stuff. It's right up my alley. Initially I was a bit sour because of the image sizes. My screen is somewhat old and somewhat small-ish, a problem I have to deal with on a daily basis. I have to copy-paste every image into another window to view it as a whole. But that's got really nothing to do with you and I love your images. Just wanted to emphasize this once more
I'm right with Dolmen there in admiring your grasp of anatomy. Pity you're not at DeviantArt, you'd be a huge gain to the Malazan Art Guild over there Guess I'll have to resort to stalking your blog

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Green Pig, on 18 January 2011 - 12:17 PM, said:

I'd like to see you (or anyone else for that matter) draw a Moranth. I don't think I've seen anyone draw one of those guys yet -- I couldn't really describe how I picture Moranth myself and it would be interesting to see other people's interpretations of them.

I picture their armor making them look like what a beetle would look like if it was in a human shape. Lol, not a very good description

[Madrun]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 19 January 2011 - 04:07 AM, said:

Green Pig, on 18 January 2011 - 12:17 PM, said:

I'd like to see you (or anyone else for that matter) draw a Moranth. I don't think I've seen anyone draw one of those guys yet -- I couldn't really describe how I picture Moranth myself and it would be interesting to see other people's interpretations of them.

I picture their armor making them look like what a beetle would look like if it was in a human shape. Lol, not a very good description

Not very far off. An insectoid aesthetic to their armor is a given. My question with the Moranth stems from what we learn about them- their barghast blood. I had always seen them as taller than humans, but pretty sleek. Being related to the barghast, and thusly imass, I lost this mental pic, now favoring a more statuesque body type. Thats not to say that they are all musclebound of course, but I'm not seeing these guys as armored elves anymore, but a tall people that are a tad more beefy. The armor is going to be a bitch if I ever attempt it, but with the insect source material there is a lot of room for iterations.

Btw- you guys ever think we will see a Moranth out of his/her armor? RoTCG was such a tease...

This post has been edited by Madrun: 19 January 2011 - 06:24 AM

[Hetan]

Very nice indeed and I particularly like Kallor - that is probably the best interpretation of the way I see him. Also the Seguleh, I think you've managed to capture their grace very well.
Nice work and I do hope you stick around and post some more.

[Madrun]

Puck- Hey man, I was the one who butterfingered my first post, so its all good. I am sorry they were so big the first time around, I have had similar issues with monitors and it can really suck. Is anyone aware of a thumbnail option on this board? As per the deviantart guild, I will check it out, and possibly make an account, but that remains to be seen. If I do anything Malazan, I will be sure to let you know

Hetan- So glad you like them. I have to admit I was worried a bit when I saw you post. Didn't know if I broke a rule or something, and was kinda worried about the moranth info possibly being spoilerish... But it sounds like I'm good. Thanks for taking the time to check these out. Kallor has always been one of my favorites, but I need to do some versions of him that match the descriptions of the books...ya know, chain mail and the ubiquitous "plain bastard sword hung at the hip" and such. I was just going for gnarly old knight guy or something. Regardless, thank you!

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Madrun, on 19 January 2011 - 06:09 AM, said:

Btw- you guys ever think we will see a Moranth out of his/her armor? RoTCG was such a tease...

I doubt it. From the little bits of info we are treated to, it's kinda indicated that the armour doesn't actually come off.

...They're probably born with it or something...helm and all.

[Hetan]

Madrun, on 19 January 2011 - 09:52 AM, said:

Kallor has always been one of my favorites, but I need to do some versions of him that match the descriptions of the books...ya know, chain mail and the ubiquitous "plain bastard sword hung at the hip" and such. I was just going for gnarly old knight guy or something. Regardless, thank you!

Sure - the details and stuff - the long hair the chainmail etc etc so for me it's probably the gauntness of the face and the stance - it's the attitude I guess.