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Author Topic: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook  (Read 10225 times)

KharBevNor

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Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« on: October 31, 2012, 11:13:58 pm »

Hi, I hope this is appropriate to post here, I'm more a lurker than anything...

Some background; I'm a fine art postgrad student, mostly working in digital print. A few months back, I felt the need to start a little side project radically different to the stuff I normally do; something that would remind me of the reasons I started drawing as a kid. I wanted to do something that was rough and ready, with physical media. I was stumped for a subject, when it came to me in a flash. My favourite game, of course! I bought myself a sketchbook, and decided that I would fill it with Dwarf Fortress drawings. I decided to keep things loose and play with a lot of different styles, and I had a great deal of fun letting my imagination run inventing things; it was also nice to do something that was very different to the 'normal' sort of DF art, which tends to be digital; especially as the graphics tablet is normally one of my most important tools. I wanted to create something of an old-school pen and paper RPG rulebook feel, with a modern twist. Some pictures were more successful than others.

Anyway, enough waffle, here are the pictures.

Spoiler: Large Images 1 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Large Images 2 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Small Images (click to show/hide)

Robocorn

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2012, 11:23:30 pm »

This is some amazing stuff
I especially like the crafts on the third spoiler. What specifically is engraved on the axe, a carp?
Also, what medium did you use to make magma man? it really pops.

KharBevNor

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2012, 11:32:35 pm »

It's a mixture of two types of acrylic paint, Daler Rowney System 3 and Pebeo Setacolor. Setacolor is designed as a fabric paint, and I use it in seperate layers to the acrylic, normally as highlights (all the white lines in that picture are Pebeo). It gives a really excellent mix of extremely strong colour and precisely variable transparency, almost like an opaque ink. On top of this I've drawn in black rollerball (Mitsubishi Uniball, in the 0.3mm and 0.5mm line thicknesses are my general go-to drawing pens).

And yeah, it's a carp. One thing I didn't try was drawing specific artifacts, but it was fun trying to visualise what some slightly more sane variations might look like. I've no idea how to visualise turtle bone floodgates or diamond buckets.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2012, 11:39:04 pm by KharBevNor »
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Vattic

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2012, 04:22:27 am »

Cheers for posting these; I really enjoyed looking through them.
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Enzo

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2012, 05:00:27 am »

These are mostly pretty cool, but War Elephant is fucking amazing. Dat contrast bro.
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joss

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2012, 03:42:05 pm »

These are really awesome.
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bombzero

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2012, 04:20:13 pm »

That's some fine art...
(Sorry I feel inclined to say that everytime somebody opens their art thread by telling people they have a fine arts education)


But in all seriousness, wonderful stuff man.
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Urist McScoopbeard

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2012, 04:21:25 pm »

This is the kind of art that inspires me into playing df again! Magma Man and the Under Gate ones are sock rockin!
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KharBevNor

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2012, 07:49:50 pm »

That's some fine art...

Heh, sorry, I had no idea it was a cliche.

Anyway, thanks for all the nice comments guys, it's good to see some people in the DF community getting some enjoyment out of it.

dreadmullet

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2012, 08:31:36 pm »

All of these are amazing! You have absolutely nailed Dwarf Fortress's tone. Your rendition of dwarves, their size, beards, and -capybara leather cloak+s is perfect.

I have to point out one flaw, though: elves are the same size as dwarves (or at least the same volume, according to the raws). Also, all of the dwarves in my fortresses end up being "just incredibly fat" by eating prepared meals, but obviously that wouldn't make for very appealing art. :P
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Gamerlord

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2012, 03:35:30 am »

These are awesome. I don't mean to impose or anything, but do you have any others, and even if you don't can you put these into a zip folder or something for easy downloading? I've got a collection on my laptop of art I really like and I'd love to add these.

Yoink

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2012, 08:33:39 am »

Very, very nice! I don't have much time to study them right now, but 'Approach By Moonlight' really appealed to me for some reason. :)
'Strike the Earth?' made me smile.
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Armok

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2012, 08:34:50 pm »

These are amazing.
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Zanzetkuken The Great

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2012, 09:41:17 pm »

Impressive work.
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KharBevNor

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Re: Dwarf Fortress Sketchbook
« Reply #14 on: November 02, 2012, 10:53:25 pm »

Wow, thansk for the great response.

I don't mean to impose or anything, but do you have any others, and even if you don't can you put these into a zip folder or something for easy downloading? I've got a collection on my laptop of art I really like and I'd love to add these.

As I said, the thing's been a bit of a project in and of itself. If I did any more DF pics, they'd probably be digital ones, but I'm a little burned out on the subject at the moment; I don't normally do fantasy pics. Anyway, the ones I posted here are the web copies (120 dpi), so I thought I'd put the 300 dpi print quality versions in the zip.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f7k5z4z444k870b/DFpics.zip
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