Saturday, January 31, 2009

Gorgeous fantasy art and FREE stuff from Selina Fenech

A is for Angels, the guardians of the sky.
B is for Brownies, who oft make mischief and lie.
C is for Centaur, the gallant half men steeds.
D is for Dragons, who don't always do nasty deeds.
E is for Elf, the noble forest race.
F is for Fairy, with pretty wings of lace.
G is for Griffon, the part lion, part eagle beast.
H is for Harpy, who sometimes on men feast.
I is for Imp, the playfully evil critters.
J is for Jinn, who may grant you three wishes.
K is for Kirin, the unicorn of the East.
L is for Leprechaun, whose avarice never ceased.
M is for Mermaid, who swim under ship and sail.
N is for Naga, with a long and snakey tail.
O is for Ogre, who fees and foes and fies.
P is for Pegasus, the horse who soars the skies.
Q is for Queen, who will rule for many days.
R is for Roane, the Irish seal faes.
S is for Satyr, who plays upon his pipes.
T is for Treante, the twisted tree man types.
U is for Unicorn, with horn upon their head.
V is for Vampire, the cold, blood drinking dead.
W is for Wyvern, the drakes with wings for arms.
X is for Xylo-Fae, the wood spirit with charms.
Y is for Yeti, the white ape of cold heights.
Z is for Zephyr, the wind that lifts up sprites.
Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Selina Fenech. There's so much to see and do on her site that you'll probably want to take your time with this one before moving on to have a look at her related sites.

At the core is beautiful fairy / fantasy art, and she distributes it in more ways than you can count with your fingers and toes: Some of the less commonly seen items are Oracle and Affirmation Card Decks, Handcrafted Journals in faux suede, and Mirror Compacts.

Definitely worth dropping by is the possibly even-more-fascinating Free Gifts section that includes a complete Decorative Alphabet (based on the rhyme above -- also written by the artist!), a Fantasy Paperdolls Game (using Shockwave), and wallpapers so beautiful yet given away freely that you'll want to see what the artist has reserved for sale as prints. Here's a teaser, and a slideshow of her wallpapers.

Silver Sisters by Selina Fenech

Friday, January 30, 2009

The Fantasy Art of Christine Mohr

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Christine Mohr. You may also like some of her older work in her "retired" images gallery; though the pre-2005 artwork may look "less polished", flipping through the images may be interesting for those who like to see how an artist's work evolves.

Fading Dreams by Christine Mohr

Dark Halloween by Christine Mohr

My Eyes Are Made Of Sky by Christine Mohr

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Fantasy Art in Second Life - Naiad Teskat

Hi Everyone!

Today, I'd like to introduce the Second Life fantasy art of Naiad Teskat. She has a smallish portfolio on Flickr, but with some really stunning derivations from Second Life avatars.

17

20

17

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

New Second Life Fantasy Art from Kim Dench

Hi Everyone!

A while back, I wrote about Second Life artist Kim Dench, and I'm happy to show off some of her more recent work today.

She strives for photorealism, and takes care to avoid showing some common modelling flaws such as body parts sticking inside objects -- a common but necessary result of collision checking reduced to reasonable amounts. Smooth curves are still somewhat lacking in Second Life, but the medium is no fault of the artist's.

I do highly recommend you visit her Flickr photostream to see the images in the largest possible size, especially for the last sample I am sharing today.

The Kim Suite II - fantasy

The Curse

The Dining Room

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Worth Visiting - The Fantasy Art of Michael Parkes

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Michael Parkes, whose works are occasionally available as limited edition bronze sculptures.

The official site has a smaller gallery and smaller and somewhat inferior scans, but does have the artist's commentary on each piece.
If you are just looking for gorgeous pictures, try here instead.


The Letter

Angel of Dawn

The Creation

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Fantasy for the Whole Family - The Cinsay FUN Channel

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of stuff I come across that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce a website with classic cartoons (and "classic" fantasy art): cinsay.com. While you are there, you might also want to check out the other channels available.


Friday, January 23, 2009

The Fantasy Art of Neven Shadowbourne

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Neven Shadowbourne. Last work posted July 2005 on DeviantART. No significant web presence that Google or Pipl can detect... Where do artists go on the net? At least their work lingers on in spaces like DeviantART and Epilogue.

The Warrior by NevenShadowbourne

Hour of the Witch by NevenShadowbourne

Conqueror by NevenShadowbourne

Hope by NevenShadowbourne

Of Ice and Fire by NevenShadowbourne

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Gothic/Dark Fantasy Art of Rebecca Sinz

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.


Rebecca Sinz

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Rebecca Sinz. In addition to the usual prints and a Zazzle store, she also hand-makes pendants and accepts special orders if a particular portrait is not presently in her Etsy inventory (though something feels a bit off to me about wearing close to your heart a pendant or cameo featuring a fictitious person).

Artists, especially prolific ones, frequently go through phases in their expression, and this artist has recently posted an interesting retrospective on her own work since 2003:

Art_Progression_2003_2008_by_Elvenstar83

Arctic Queen, by Rebecca Sinz

Fairy of the Autumn Wood, by Rebecca Sinz

The Ghost, by Rebecca Sinz

Paint It Black, by Rebecca Sinz

*

As you know, I store the pictures for my blog articles on Flickr. I frequently prep posts, and this artist's pictures have been on my Flickr account for a few days.
Check out these stats on January 20th. "Fairy of the Autumn Wood" is pretty popular, I guess. (^_^)

"Fairy of the Autumn Wood" views on January 20th, 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

WASP 15 - Titan Quest - Assassin's Cover

Wednesday Art Showcase Presents - The Fantasy Art of Titan Quest

Both models are wearing the Assassin's Cover ensemble. The male model is carrying the bow Suanmi. The female model wields the Stymphalian Talon and the Oath Breaker.
(Suanmi is one of the Dragon King's nine sons, fond of smoke and fire; his likeness can be seen on the legs of incense-burners.)

m Assassin's Cover, Suanmi

f Assassin's Cover, Stymphalian Talon, Oath Breaker

Click image for full-size image at Flickr. Link to Flickr is mandatory per Flickr terms of use.
All images are copyrighted by their respective owners.
Fantasy Art and Portraits: Because Art Lovers shouldn't have to play games to enjoy great art.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Incidental Artists - The Fantasy Art of Rayson Lozada

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Rayson Lozada. His portfolio is very small and has a number of what look like half-finished pieces (the artist seems more gamer than artist!), and I'd normally give it a miss on this blog, except it had this one particular piece that I thought was just gold.



If you are a roleplayer looking for a drawing of your character, you may want to check out his offer: "Pop me a message and if I like your character concept and if I have the time to do it, I'll draw it for free. Yay. I'm trying to be a good samaritan here." (posted under the pseudo "green_girl")

Note: Clicking on a link will take you to the artist's site. Clicking on the picture will take only you to Flickr, per Flickr Terms of Service.

Monday, January 19, 2009

When the Trailer is Better than the Real Thing - Dungeon Siege II

Hi Everyone!

Even if you haven't paid much attention to computer games over the last 10 years or so, you may still have seen one of the trailers, possibly even on television. You may even have initially mistaken it for an animated movie trailer. Here's one from Dungeon Siege II, a now well-aged kill-everything-to-save-the-world game. (The music, incidentally, is by the critically acclaimed Jeremy Soule).



If you had bought the game soley from this 2003 trailer, I think you would have been profoundly disappointed. Only two or three scenes happened to you in the game, but as non-interactive cutscenes. One or two more happened to someone else. The rest of the exciting snippets (or were they made exciting by the music?) didn't make it into the game. And none of the scenes showed actual gameplay.
The in-game models looked like the models, but were a lot chunkier. Mood-wise, the game didn't come close to whatever stories were hinted at by the provocative scenes. Even so, it looked good for its time and had innovations for its genre, and was worth playing.
Nowadays, the trend has moved toward using "in-game assets" -- the models you actually see in the game -- to make cutscenes.

You can see some of the in-game cutscenes and movies on YouTube, but they are best viewed in BIK files played using BINK. BIK files can be converted into other formats, but the quality usually either diminishes or the resulting file is huge and strains system resources.
You can download some of them here:

Dungeon Siege II

Dungeon Siege II: Broken World

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Fantasy Art of Baldur's Gate II - Mosaics

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games. I've been working on a section on that old roleplaying game favourite, Baldur's Gate II, and collected the mosaics.




In Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, when the game paused to load a new location, the GUI showed a context-dependant mosaic. For example, when the story moved on to the underwater city of the sahuagin, we got a green-fish-thing mosaic. The expansion and finale to the story, Throne of Bhaal did not continue with the mosaics, sadly, but the artistic direction might have been off for the theme of that final storyline and the war-torn feel of the locales.

Here are a couple of the better ones. The rest are here.

CH04CSAH

CH04ASHP

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Fantasy Art of Natalie Shau

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website Fantasy Art and Portraits presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.


Secrets by takeyourhatred, model Natalie Shau

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Natalie Shau. Even if you don't like her art, do have a poke around her website, which has a wonderful interface, especially in how the thumbnails are presented. It's no-nonsense and introduces you to her artwork right away. To download anything, however, you're better off going to DeviantART.

The picture on the right is a photomanipulation of the artist, by another DeviantART artist. Direct link here, others here, apparently.

Bones and Silk by Natalie Shau

Cabinet de curiosites by Natalie Shau

Carmine by Natalie Shau

Friday, January 16, 2009

The Fantasy Art of Heidi Darras

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website Fantasy Art and Portraits presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce the Belgian artist Heidi Darras, whose artwork includes the Mystic Dreamer Tarot. Her earlier work, before she more strongly re-branded herself as Azurylipfe, can be seen on Elfwood. Her website has some biographical information and links, but the gallery there simply refers to her on DeviantART.

When the Moonlight Comes by Heidi "Azurylipfe" Darras

Mictecacihuatl by Heidi "Azurylipfe" Darras

A Cold Heart by Heidi "Azurylipfe" Darras

Atlantis is Rising by Heidi "Azurylipfe" Darras

Thursday, January 15, 2009

404 Not Found - The Fantasy Art of Kyla Sturgeon

Hi Everyone!

As you know, my website Fantasy Art and Portraits presently showcases the fantasy art of computer games, so there's a lot of art out there that doesn't fit there at the moment. I can, however, introduce it to you on this blog.

Today, I'd like to introduce the art of Kyla Sturgeon. Searching for a good gallery produced dead links all over the place, including her official site, www.mutesoul.net. Her artwork is used at Shards of Alesya, a site that only shows intermittent signs of life and a lot of "404 Not Found". Enjoy while it's still around at all. Here are some of my favourite pics:

artwork 1 by Kyla Sturgeon

artwork 2 by Kyla Sturgeon

artwork 4 by Kyla Sturgeon

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