Race Anatomy Study
Added 2015-03-18 02:53:44 +0000 UTCI actually posted an unfinished version of this over on DeviantArt. Strangely enough, a huge debate started over whether I had depicted the elves "wrong", by having them be shorter than human.Despite having been told that it was concept art for a personal story, people kept comparing it to games, like World of Warcraft, or Dungeons and Dragons. In the end, I just decided to take it down. It's hard to focus on developing a world and setting for an original story if you have random people "taste testing" before the "soup" is done, so to speak. After some thought, though, I decided it would be best to just post it here! I feel more comfortable posting it here, since the people who view my gallery here are devoted enough to actually donate to my cause, despite how slowly I have updated the project, up to this point. In other news, I have some changes/updates I'd like to go over, in hopes of providing more content and speeding things up a bit around here. I'll go into that very soon. Until then, enjoy this study on fantasy character race anatomy!
Comments
The one on the very far end with the spiky ponytail is a gnome, or at least, this was a potential design for them. Thanks!
RoninDude
2015-07-23 05:48:01 +0000 UTCLovely halfling cutie down there at the end. I love that attitude she's copping. Or is she fae? Either way. Dorbs.
James Champlin
2015-07-23 05:32:42 +0000 UTCThanks! Yeah, I don't want useless human characters. :)
RoninDude
2015-03-19 06:51:44 +0000 UTCI think its cool having humans be tallest. Finally gives them a clear advantage over the other races, since most of the time humans kind of suck or are just "average" in typical fantasy settings. So nice work.
GojiraMon
2015-03-19 02:21:04 +0000 UTCYeah, I thought it would just be better to post it here. Less randoms! XD Actually no, I haven't ever watched Tenchi Muyo. I just pictured them as being a bit thin and with bushy thick hair. I am not even really sure if these other races are going to be used, but I wanted to just try them out and see how they would look if I drew them. Of course, they might end up evolving as I go, we'll see.
RoninDude
2015-03-19 00:56:14 +0000 UTCGreat to see this since I missed all the hubbub over the weekend. And as I mentioned I'm in the shorter elves camp too. Grew up with classic D&D and that is just how they were described. I certainly see the Dragon Age influence in the dwarves, that is pretty cool because I really dig how they handled them in that series (pun only slightly intended). But I was really excited to see Halfling and Gnome races pictured here (as well as that fairy again!). Looks like you've got some serious world building going on. And is it just me or am I seeing a Tenchi Muyo-esque influence in gnomes?
Rallyguy33
2015-03-19 00:46:20 +0000 UTCHaha, well, that would be cool! Yeah, a lot of people got up in arms about it, like I was trampling holy ground. I think they just wanted my art to fit their own personal role play sessions, so they could use it as supplemental art. I am glad you like how it turned out!
RoninDude
2015-03-18 17:42:09 +0000 UTCI couldn't believe all the grief you got over the elves...ok I was on your side about the height of elves anyway but even if i wasn't I would never have contemplated saying "I think you should do it my way" Now i see the whole thing complete I love it! WOTC should licence this from you! :)
Michael
2015-03-18 09:53:12 +0000 UTCI agree. It's tricky, I don't want to stray too far from what people expect when I mention "elf" or "dwarf" etc... But I also am not interested in making carbon copies. It's a tricky balance, so I feel it's best just to go by my gut on it.
RoninDude
2015-03-18 05:15:07 +0000 UTCIt's funny that fantasy fans would tell a story teller how to depict his races... Just because Tolkien did it doesn't mean it's the only way. Unless you do something like Eragon, were you basically copy every race and creature from another book and just rename it...
B-S
2015-03-18 04:22:05 +0000 UTCThanks for the thoughtful comment, man. I just felt that I would have an easier time sharing my concept work to a smaller, more dedicated audience, than to the open public. Less distractions, and less people tugging on me to make it their way. I found most people were trying to get me to change things so that it would fit better with their own role play sessions/game. I didn't make this as a supplement for other peoples games, I merely wanted to have a measuring tool for when I make new characters for my stories. And yeah, I never liked bearded dwarf women, hehe... If I had to pic a favorite version of dwarves, it would be the way they appear in Dragon Age.
RoninDude
2015-03-18 03:44:42 +0000 UTCHonestly I think you should have left it up, but then told me about it so I can recite references from writings of Tolkien to games like EverQuest, D&D, etc and explain the differences between elves and humans. Not all Elves are traditionally taller than humans. Wood Elves and Dark Elves were on par or shorter than humans. High Elves were considered lanky, tall and thin. I'm not entirely sure how elves could be considered wrong in a world that you are creating. There is nothing saying that Dwarves have to be short and Elves have to be tall, why does everything have to be based on something else. Usually people are their sizes and shapes based on their environments and where they were. Dwarves were short, stout because of being mining and living in the mountains. Dark elves although elves, also known as Drow, were darken skinned because of living in the caves and thus were also shorter. Wood Elves were shorter in stature because of the forest living. High Elves, or Royal Elves were tall in lanky from living in the Castles, cities and usually considered the purest lineage (although this lead to wars). Now that doesn't mean that is how it has to be in anyones self created world. I clearly see you have Dwarven women wrong, there are no beards on them (joking, not serious) but its funny that people pick on elves.
Shinlocke
2015-03-18 03:23:05 +0000 UTC
