Ranarh's Art Blog

A portrait of a Genius Loci character, or rather, profession: a mindsmith. I also created a GIF progression, so you can see how I made him (I believe it's a him - I'm honestly not sure, raganaj aren't dimorphous). You can find the article about these powerful psychologists in the Genius Loci blog, Starmaker's Gaze: http://starmakersgaze.blogspot.de/2016/12/mindsmiths.html

A domed city somewhere on the coast, not sure where in the world; but given that there's fire, maybe it's Sawa. I mostly used Photoshop's mixer brush, and I like the effect for the rain and reflections. Probably overdid it a little, though. Secondly, a concept of one of the cavern cities of the desert continent Lozir. I started with a beach photograph and ended up having used it only for the colours. Visit my worldbuilding blog Starmaker's Gaze for more about Genius Loci.

Two fast paintings for my setting Genius Loci I made recently. The yellow forest is one of the many coloured forest of the continent Gdera, and I always try to get some interestingly shaped plants in the paintings. The denizens of said continent have a brightly gleaming skin, which some folks hide under extensive body painting. I painted the portrait from a pencil sketch, and it's my first Genius Loci of 2015.

Some speedpaintings I did the last weeks for Genius Loci, the fantasy world I'm building. Check it out in my other blog, Starmaker's Gaze . I try to make the world blog nicely structured, but that also means that if I don't have anything of greater substance to say about the painting, I don't usually post it there. If you're interested in more speedy paintings and sketches, check out my sketchbook thread on conceptart.org as well: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php/278955-Ranarh-s-sketchbook

I had long plannend a calendar and finally got around: you can get the 2014 calendar on my deviantArt account. For lack of private paintings across all categories, it is themed around my world  Genius Loci .

A character illustration oo sorts - Radseri is the guy happily floating there held by the spirit's tentacle/tail-thingy. It's for my world Genius Loci, whose development you can see on my worldbuilding blog starmakersgaze.blogspot.com . I made the tail segments for the two larger spirits in Sculptris and painted largely in Painter.

From a recent activity in an online drawing group, the assignment was to paint a downstream river where it becomes wild. 1 - I use basic brushes in Painter for thumbnails, drawing wild water within appealing landscapes. 2 - I expand the lower right sketch and rearrange the landscape with transform tools and overpainting in Photoshop. 3 - Using references for colours I start to paint over in Painter, paying particular attention to the atmospheric perspective. I make heavy use of papers for the textures, especially for the rocks.   4 - I keep refining the depth appearance throughout the picture and add much detail to the foreground, keeping the structures as diverse as I can. I create the village huts and cattle enlarged and shrink them into place. The river is done with basic and custom brushes and textures of coffee stains and clouds. 5 - I start the woods with tree brushes in Photoshop and overpaint them with scraggly brush movements. I add small details li...

I decide against my sloppy handwritten names and get a nice free font from dafont.com to type everything (of course handwritten text is much nicer, but takes a lot more time). I use no more than three font sizes and rotate the names when needed, but keep them straight; curved text will be reserved for landmarks. If a name really doesn't fit, I put it outside, either overlapping the border when there is a lot of room, or connect the name and land with a line. This requires a little shuffling to make sure everything is readable. I now have three maps on poster format. The prices for having these printed are murder, so I divide them into nine pieces each, add the topology as grayscale, print them at home and tape them together, then hang them up the wall. From now on every time I pass my maps, I will add a little something; a mountain here, a capital there. I have often found that taking my time will give better results, and I expect this step of naming everything to take just u...

Now for some colours. Right now I want a topological map showing the heights of the land. Green is for sealevel heights; the colours go from brighter green to yellows, ochre, browns, and the highest mountains will become grey, then white. This is standard, anyway; you might want to try other colours. I keep the outlines on a separate layer set to Multiply and lay down flat colours. I keep the landmass as a selection made from the outside of the linework, and the water on top. I roughly blend the colours with low-opacity brushstrokes, and then put several textures (rust-stained paper, acrylics paint strokes) over them to provide details. I use them on low opacity as Overlay and Soft Light layers. After that, on a new layer I brush in shadows on the lower right sides of the mountains, and use some of the texture details to put in even more mountains. I fix up the rivers with the lasso tool and add some more. I could of course texture the water as well but find it too distracting for no...

The lizard people of Kitas are called garren, or singular gar. Don't be irritated by the race template, they normally wear clothes. Their long tail is flexible, if clumsy, and can be used as a weapon, mostly they drag it on the ground. Smaller body parts like the tail or fingers can be grown back, although it takes several months. Garren can have practically any colour and pattern; they can change it by eating certain foods, and after a little while they change in appearance. The patterns are never quite certain. The crest is covered in soft thin scales and flexible between stabilizing spikes. Garren have quick reflexes and lots of stamina; since they are also cold-blooded, they prefer the southern region and are most common in northern Lozir, but can be found anywhere. Psychologically, garren are impulsive and usually the first to act. They tend towards polarized views; because of the trouble the combination can get them in garren are often found in voice houses getting counsel b...

I think of Genius Loci as a world of its own and not a sibling to earth - different but the same - an especially not in any medieval terms, like cold dark castles, muddy streets, and dirty people, but not in unproblematic high fantasy terms either. The peoples of the setting are the classical races - there are humans and elves, dwarves and lizard people -  but I also invented some races that have not appeared elsewhere, and the "classics" are a little different, as are the relations between them. I am often bored with stereotypes and try to avoid them in my own creations. For example, elves and dwarves are not at odds, but in fact friendly towards each other since both are long-lived; elves are not superior. There are other creatures that take the place of the traditionally mysterious elves; the elves themselves are very down-to-earth, because I am bored with the overly powerful, overly magical, overly beautiful guys you meet in every fantasy forest. Many of the creatures wi...

I scan the maps in two pieces each and puzzle them together in Photoshop. Taking a moment to set the scanner up correctly will save you a lot of work later; I only need to regulate the contrast a little and have nice outlines. Still, I go over every line zoomed in closely to fix up all errors, like smudges and grey areas. For a first printable version, I put all maps on the same format, add a border and name - and look, a previously mediocre scribble looks totally professional all of a sudden ;) If you are happy with the map like this, think about using different font-styles for the features, like italic for mountains. Let the names follow the direction of the map feature, but don't put them in too wildly or the map will be hard to read.

The beasts called wempons were among the first concepts I stuck with when I began developing Genius Loci years ago, and their design has never changed much. My main inspirations were anteaters, watussi cattle, and pangolins, but there's a bit of elephant and camel in it too, the latter mainly in their behaviour. Wempons have large burrowing claws they can also use for climbing (yes, there are trees on Kitas that can carry a beast of almost four tons). Their muscular tails can grab, although they are not very dextrous. They are mostly vegetarian, preferring leaves, fruit, and roots, but also eat bugs and the likes. Thick scales protect their upsides, long thick fur the underside, their horns are enormously long - riders climb their mount holding on to them or stepping on a bent leg. They are great mounts if one can get along with them. Wempons are picky about riders and hard to get used to being rented; usually they belong to a single rider. They need additional training to serve ...

I wanted to share some of the things I thought you might find useful for the creation of fantasy maps. The examples are from my own fantasy world "Genius Loci". First things first: Decide how the world will look, and how big the map will be, geographically. If you are creating an entire world like I am, start with the continents. The very first layout can be however messy you want, but then get some large paper (the line sketch is on A3. I already marked some major topographical landmarks). Mark the general shape of the continent lightly with a pencil, then draw the land. Just wiggle your pen while you make your way around the landmass. Don't forget interesting shapes, like bays, islands, peninsulas, and so forth. It doesn't have to work all at once; you can go over the outlines as many times as you need until you're satisfied. I imagine there to be a much larger amount of islands later, but these are as small as I want to see on this scale. I tra...

Over the last decade I have been thinking about my own world, but never took a longer time period to work on it seriously. That time has come now. Prepare to enter a world filled with mysteries. Genius Loci is a setting spanning an entire planet. From the endless forests of the contintent Gdera to Sawa's volcanic wastelands to the vast deserts of Lozir, mysteries from ages past lay scattered in lands that have not been traveled since the ancient times. Places of magical puzzles are populated by spirits of nature or those of the dead; ghostly figures roam their former homes, while the most powerful spirits' domains cannot be entered without protection. The mages and wizards, while hunting the same goal, will wage war on each other at even a slight provocation. It is a place where strange customs await the traveler. Never be too sure what to expect around the corner. Some of the races and landscapes of Genius Loci will be familiar, while others are entirely new. I have a lo...