Ice Golem

The ice golem! Terrifying frozen construct of the cold wastes, servant of sorcerers of frost! These towering guardians wander the snowy surroundings of their masters' domains and can swiftly glide across or climb any icy surface. The power to animate this creature is held in the runes that have been carved into its body. For offensive capabilities, the golem is capable of shooting great shards of ice from its body, tearing surrounding intruders to shreds. Yowza!

Of course the ice golem can also be created by the wishes of children. Not quite as powerful or big as something made by a wizard or druid, and prone to free will, but still pretty impressive.

A somewhat belated Christmas / New Year's image for the blog. But it's still winter and the twelve days of Christmas are barely over so... eh?

Blanca’s Tumblr

Ice Weird

The Ice Weird is the more solid version of the Snow Weird, water-influencing rather than air-influencing. Like other Weirds, she's an especially powerful elemental tied to the mortal world by an elemental pool, a roiling mass of ice, which she cannot leave except to return to the Elemental Plane of Water, closing the pool behind her. Unlike the Snow Weird, she is unable to control the weather, her powers being more directed towards physical and mental handicapping.

Trying to make the Ice Weird sufficiently similar from the Snow Weird was a pretty tricky challenge, especially since there were aspects with the first drawing that I was happy with, but didn't want to repeat too much in the second one. Also there were a couple of visual tropes related to snow women that I wanted to avoid, namely the icicle / snowflake crown and white hair. Also, despite the fact that she and all weirds are supposed to resemble human women, I wanted there to be something somewhat inhuman about her. Whether I was successful or not is up to the viewer, but I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Zeuglodon

A Zeuglodon is a giant marine creature with a great crocodile-like maw and long-flexible body. Despite its vaguely reptilian shape, the Zeuglodon is a real-life ancestor of the whale. Like many whales, these fellas can be found primarily in cold waters. Despite their impressive teeth, the tail of the Zeuglodon is especially dangerous, being used to stun prey and break apart ships.

You know what I find tolerable? Model-building. You know what I find incredibly frustrating? Photography. The raft of the model was especially fun to make, which  is made from various sticks from around where I live. I decided to do this to challenge myself with some different materials, and was a good deal inspired by the model-work of my friend Grethe Bentsen.

Uldra

The Uldra are a race of short Fey creatures common in colder climates. Although fierce by necessity in a harsh environment, the Uldra are highly concerned by ecology and the wildlife with whom their share their territory. The other notable trait of the Uldra is their love of decorative hats - with an especially high regard for height and pointiness. Since the Uldra are naturally resistant to the cold, their clothing is primitive (and in Summer is rarely worn at all), but it is rare indeed to see one not wearing a hat.

Hope y'all are having a splendid Christmas this year, gang - Blanca and I have accordingly illustrated choices from the always-chilly Frostburn book. Actually, hearing about the snowstorms in the US I'd imagine quite a lot of people could do with seeing less of Old Man Winter right about now.

 As you might imagine, the above drawing is a result of me being away from my usual art stuff (CS6, wacom tablet) and for once manning up and using real implements. It's a shame I can't colour it here (well I could but it would take too long) but it was fun to make. As a mostly digital artist you forget about how permanent marks can be when you're making a finished piece. I saved my butt in a couple of places with white-out (rescuer of many a drawing).

Anyway, I don't think the feel of it is a million miles from my digital stuff, which is what I was aiming for. Consistency is professional, innit!

Urskan

Dag nabbit, Phillip Pullman, it's your fault fantasy is required to have at least one armored bear in it now. Well I ain't gonna draw no bears in armor (plenty of those) and they're supposedly good at making armor so... Also more people need to draw bear men the way bears actually look when they stand up: weird and skinny. They're like buff weasels.

Urskans are D&D's required warrior bear-in-armor race. I'm showing them here standing up, which is a pose they're comfortable with, but you'll  be more likely to encounter them on all fours. They have a thumb that's just opposable enough to wield tools, but not opposable enough to make a common habit out of it. In battle, they're more likely to use steel-clawed gauntlets than an actual weapon. Like the Salamanders, Urskans are excellent smiths. But where Salamanders get their skill from mastery of fire, Urskans get it from sheer brute strength, which probably makes them better for making big crude things rather than dainty little things.

Also, they wear half-plate. Seems a little strange since half-plate is described as plates of armor attached to chainmail and leather. Making those little loops for chainmail is delicate, intensive work. Just imagine one of these guys squinting down as they try to bend a tiny ring. You'd think they'd just go for straight-up plate. Maybe it's to avoid breaking the ice sheets they walk on.

Another thing I love about doing stuff for this blog is an excuse to look up trades as well as monsters. Armoring's pretty cool and despite what this image might imply, you don't really need that much heat, just a lot of hammering. You might need some extra heat it you're trying to hammer a one inch thick piece of plate though.

Domovoi

Domovoi are fey of the helpful variety. They're normally found near places of civilized activity, homes or campsites. In exchange from some scraps and maybe some milk, these hairy little men will keep your fires live and warm. They're slippery creatures, and prefer not to be seen by the people they're helping. Even if you got your hands on one you'd find it difficult to keep a grip on them; they're covered in a fine layer of soot and ash, making it difficult to keep a grip on them.

"...wants to help me" was the winner for last week's poll. It was pretty close for a while, since "wants to eat me", "is three times bigger than me", "is tiny" and "is surrounded by its minions" where all tied with four votes each before the winner got an extra two clicks. I'd actually found a creature that could fit all four categories. Oh well.

Domovoi are creatures of Russian/Slavic folklore (as if you couldn't tell). They have a slightly more malevolent counterpart called the Dvorovoi. These other little men were in charge of barns and livestock, but could make your cows sick if they were in a bad mood.

The poll for this week is terrains. You can select multiple answers in this one.

Also, more work on the goblin. A friend helped me out by making some suggestions on the hand and clothes modelling. He's also now got teeth. Further crits would be appreciated. I'm probably going to start trying to figure out how to do blend shapes soon and that's the kind of thing where I need to be 100% certain on the model itself.

Frost Giant

The Frost Giant is a massive blue-skinned humanoid that makes its lair in icy caves. They live in groups, ruled by their wisest, strongest and most evil among them, called Jarl, and served by slaves snatched from raids.

Okay, I'm going to straight-up admit that I strayed a little from the desciption in the books, becaue the books essentially describe 15-foot tall blue Vikings. Not that Vikings are bad or anything, since the Frost Giant is based on the jotunn anyway, but I just wanted to do something a little different.

I feel all rested up now from doing that big animation for the last post. Maybe I'll start a new one.

Edit: Now with alternate colors. Does anybody have a favourite version?

Marzanna

The Marzanna appears as an old woman, frostbite-blue and dressed in torn rags of animal hide. Despite its relatively humanoid appearance, the Marzanna is far beyond human - viewed by villagers as a personification of death and winter, she wanders the snowy wastes, tricking stray travellers and feasting on their cold flesh. Tales tell that if you can trick a Marzanna, you can fool death himself.

Merry belated christmas! Both our monsters this week come from the Frostburn book, something of a nod towards the fiendishly chilly climes we currently find ourselves in. Hags are some cool creatures, and the Marzanna is one of my favourites. The name actually comes from an old Russian goddess of winter which in some parts of the world is still venerated each year by burning, then "drowning" her effigy to bring winter to an end. Cool, huh? My picture this week is sort of special in that the inking was actually done with a pen by hand. I still used photoshop to comp it all together but I think i need to at least start more stuff by hand! Using a computer still feels like the quick-and-easy route. Maybe that can be my new years' resolution!

Snow Weird

The Snow Weird is a diviner hailing form the Elemental Plane of Air. Her face is so bright it can't be looked at, and her whirling lower body tapers to pool of rumbling snow. She's is able to predict fortune and destruction, much like an Earth Weird. However, she's more powerful and fickle than her stony counterpart. She sometimes decides to surround her territory in snowstorms and whirlwinds for the sake of it, regardless of who may get trapped in them.

Enjoy your winter-related festivities, y'all.

Megaloceros

The Megaloceros is a gigantic deer that wanders in herds over the frozen tundra. Its likeness is found carved out of bone, stone and wood in many towns and tribes, since its commonly used as a totem creature. Atop its skull are two massive horns, its primary means of defence. If you are not trampled underfoot, the deer will gore you with its horns, lift you up with them, and toss you away. Their skulls are coveted as ornaments, and live ones make powerful mounts.


This is the first chance either of us have gotten to do something that properly goes under the animal catergory. Most animal-like creatures in D&D have some kind of magical power; anything that falls under the category of an animal is just your average, mundane critter. Not something that's really meant for a fantasy art blog. We have more interesting things to draw than a dolphin or a badger.

But these guys are pretty exceptional. A megaloceros is an actual prehistoric creature (the Frostburn book has a lot of those) that roamed the world when it was a little bit colder and animals were a little bit bigger. A simpler name for these guys are Irish Elk, even though they aren't really Irish. The skeletons for these are amazing to stand next to.

Shivhad

The Shivhad is a strange creature that will build its nest in cold, mountainous areas. Despite its crab-like appearance it is a being of uncertain origin and immense intellect. While other creatures are compelled to expand their territory, secure wealth, food or a mate with which to reproduce, Shivhads appear to be driven by none of these motives. Where Shivhads have made contact with other races they establish themselves as near deities, ominously demanding a toll of a weekly sacrifice. Whether this is merely to indulge a power fantasy or fulfill some darker function has never been ascertained; Shivhads speak nearly all languages but are so unthinkably dangerous that very few races will dare to provoke them. A Shivhad is usually the size of a large house.

This week's theme (a feature we'll probably instigate with more formality sometime soon) is that both our creatures are from the Frostburn book, one of many "add-on" books for D&D which introduce new weapons, quests, spells and monsters. Frostburn is, as you might expect, focused on creatures that live in incredibly cold environments.

The Shivhad is the first "epic" creature we've illustrated here - "epic" in Dungeons & Dragons being a term that describes very high level play (above level 20, which is initially as high as you can get). Basically, to kill one of these you need a team of adventurers of near demigod-like skill and experience. I really like how inexplicable the Shivhad is - a giant, superintelligent crab that lives in glaciers. I think it's pretty original as fantasy creatures go.