| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Gouf |
Posted - 05 Oct 2011 : 15:18:35
I recently picked up an import graphic novel, 'Les Rois Forgerons', i.e. 'The King's Blacksmith'. The art work is buy an artist named Tregis and his art work is phenomenal!!! It's a 50 page, legal size, full color, hard cover book. It's the artists first published book, and I look forward to more in the series from him.
It's only available in french, but I was able to read it even with my 25 year old high school french. And the art work is to die for!
http://www.amazon.fr/Rois-Forgerons-Sceau-Karzac-Rork/dp/2302016203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317823804&sr=8-1
Here are samples of his art work on his Deviant art page;
http://tregis.deviantart.com/gallery/24683674
I one day hope to be able to draw my dwarves this well. He really has an outstanding command of figure and pose.
I highly recommend picking this up!
~Duncan |
| 18 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Dennis |
Posted - 31 May 2012 : 07:51:57
Reading too many Feist and FR novels made me appreciate dwarves. Enough that I'm seriously considering to include them in my stories.
Nice art. Wish I'm gifted with 'colors.' |
| Fellfire |
Posted - 21 Mar 2012 : 15:24:37
Yes, the art is impressive. I hope it makes it to the U.S. in English. |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 21 Mar 2012 : 14:14:17
Now I imagine golems, armed with whips and bad orders, assaulting (standing in front of) the unassailable walls of a mighty fortress doing little more than making a whole lot of noise. No doubt the citizens of this fortress would cheerfully feel their doom is inescapable and inevitable ... "given time". No doubt they'd celebrate an annual "Siege Day" festival while their soldiers fondly spit insults and curses upon the golem from the parapets, viewing it decade after decade as something of a mascot. They might even post guards upon this living statue, if it becomes interesting enough to attract trade and the local lord can invent a means of taxing tourists. |
| Lord Karsus |
Posted - 21 Mar 2012 : 13:39:28
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
The tip of a whip produces a sonic crack, exceeding the speed of sound. But the truth is no matter how inhumanly skilled with a whip one might be, no matter how fancy at tripping and entangling ... a whip is just never going shatter a sturdy shield or breastplate. Trying to whip down stone castle walls is patently laughable.
-Give it time, and there you go. |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 21 Mar 2012 : 12:14:19
But of course there are tradeoffs, and millennia of applied weaponcraft have engineered quite optimal "real world" solutions.
The tip of a whip produces a sonic crack, exceeding the speed of sound. But the truth is no matter how inhumanly skilled with a whip one might be, no matter how fancy at tripping and entangling ... a whip is just never going shatter a sturdy shield or breastplate. Trying to whip down stone castle walls is patently laughable.
On the other hand, it's quite impossible for humans to heft an axe or mace so that the impact point strikes at Mach speeds. Well, at least not without levers and machines which would be ridiculously impractical in melee. Yet many varieties of these weapons saw extensive use across centuries and continents. Even without tremendous velocities, a heavy chunk of metal attached to a stick and swung really hard can break flesh and steel.
There's some argument that with extreme accuracy a whip wielder might be able to bypass armor, perhaps deliver instant brain death through an eye slit or something. By the same token, the axe wielder might land that perfect strike which penetrates an armor joint through the exact right force applied at the right point from the right direction, severing entire limbs and sections off a target. A swordsman might deliver a handsomely spun decapitating blow. A sniper might shoot down another sniper's bullet. This could certainly all happen in theory, but not so certainly in reality, not with any reproducible consistency, not in the sort of engineering any (non-gnomish) warriors would trust their lives upon.
[Edit]
Insofar as hirsute speedos ... well, I vehemently advocate Voltaire, so intellectually I'm compelled to agree. Still, there are some who might have rights in the sense of having no restrictions imposed on their freedoms - and yet they'd still be "wrong" if they insisted on wearing speedos. Such is my bias. |
| Icelander |
Posted - 21 Mar 2012 : 11:47:13
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
I think we should broaden your exclamation such that no hirsute race is ever permitted to wear a speedo, Markus.
I resemble that remark!
Actually, I just resent it. As it turns out, I don't own a Speedo and haven't for some time. All the same, I demand the right to wear one if I should so desire, regardless of the luxuriousness of my facial and bodily hair!
In any event, the lack of clothing is far less scandalous on a properly hirsute man than a shorn one, seeing as a pelt that can keep one warm over an Arctic winter is also thick enough to make the issue of whether an article of clothing is currently covering an area of skin mostly academic. |
| Icelander |
Posted - 21 Mar 2012 : 11:44:22
quote:
Originally posted by Therise
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
You got to love fantasy pics with HUGE, unwieldy weapons. I'm not belittling it - I think the guy is a terrific artist - I just get a kick out of it every time I see that sort of WoW/Anime weaponry. 
Remember the dude with the massive hammer in the first Conan movie? Good stuff. 
If you -can- wield it, you -should- wield it. Bigger weapons = more smackdown. 
Actually, velocity is far more important than weapon weight when it comes to delivering energy to the target, as per the E = mc2 equation.
Even if we were to concede that momentum is significantly more important in terms of the 'smackdown' effectiveness of muscle-powered weapons in many cases, it still remains that swinging a lighter weapon faster is just as good or better than swinging a heavier one more slowly.
And that's just taking a single datum, i.e. terminal effect, and using it as the be-all-end-all measure of weapon utility. As weapon utility must be evaluated holistically, incorporating defensive value (how well can you parry?), recovery time and follow-up attack capability, as well as responsiveness and many other factors, it is clear that in actual practice, heavy weapons have a plethora of disadvantages.
As it turns out, the optimum weapons are those strong enough to be durable, long enough to give good reach, light enough to be responsive and balanced in a way that best suits your tactical role, style of fighting and the level of protection that you mean to penetrate.
Even a massively strong man, say the strongest man who ever lived in reality, would find that he could do far more damage, not to mention fight more effectively overall, with a 5-7 lbs. polearm slightly longer than he is tall than a much shorter 20 lbs. hammer. |
| Marc |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 11:54:47
There is a low level spell that lets you do that. PHB 2 I think. Pathfinder iconics look good with such weapons. |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 07 Oct 2011 : 03:24:42
The BFS "anime" trope does get exaggerated to ridiculous extremes. Even D&D core art is guilty of this crime. No wonder people want to wield telephone poles and tallship anchors (in each hand!) as melee weapons. |
| Gouf |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 20:31:15
quote:
Originally posted by Therise
This one is my favorite:
http://tregis.deviantart.com/gallery/24683674#/d2iy6r0
The shadowing, the little scuffs on the armor, it's perfect.
Yeah, I see what you mean. And I love how the helmet completely covers the nose.
And oh, yeah, all about the smack down. I forget the damage from a 2 handed axe off the top of my head, but it hurt things rather nicely and you could sweep an arc with it.
 |
| Therise |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 17:44:32
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
You got to love fantasy pics with HUGE, unwieldy weapons. I'm not belittling it - I think the guy is a terrific artist - I just get a kick out of it every time I see that sort of WoW/Anime weaponry.
Remember the dude with the massive hammer in the first Conan movie? Good stuff.
If you -can- wield it, you -should- wield it. Bigger weapons = more smackdown. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 17:34:07
You got to love fantasy pics with HUGE, unwieldy weapons. I'm not belittling it - I think the guy is a terrific artist - I just get a kick out of it every time I see that sort of WoW/Anime weaponry.
Remember the dude with the massive hammer in the first Conan movie? Good stuff. |
| Therise |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 17:20:39
This one is my favorite:
http://tregis.deviantart.com/gallery/24683674#/d2iy6r0
The shadowing, the little scuffs on the armor, it's perfect.
|
| Gouf |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 17:06:25
quote:
Originally posted by Therise
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Beach dwarf?! 
A Dwarf should NEVER wear a speedo.... 
Otherwise, great find. 
No men, of any race, should ever be permitted to wear plum smugglers. Unless they're in the Olympics.
Yeah, the speedo must be a French thing.
I'm rather fond of this one:
http://tregis.deviantart.com/art/dwarf-01-152760389?q=gallery%3Atregis%2F24683674&qo=12
To get the angle right for the perspective shot of the body and axe...man, I need to be able to draw perspective like that.
|
| Therise |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 09:17:11
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Beach dwarf?!
A Dwarf should NEVER wear a speedo....
Otherwise, great find.
No men, of any race, should ever be permitted to wear plum smugglers. Unless they're in the Olympics.
|
| Ayrik |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 05:57:32
I think we should broaden your exclamation such that no hirsute race is ever permitted to wear a speedo, Markus. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 00:55:57
Beach dwarf?!
A Dwarf should NEVER wear a speedo....
Otherwise, great find. |
| Yoss |
Posted - 06 Oct 2011 : 00:21:15
Pretty cool stuff. The artwork, anyway. I don't think I know more than 2 words of French. |
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