Updated art for Mines of Khunmar
Posted: October 28, 2011 Filed under: art, Mines of Khunmar 10 CommentsAs time allows I’ve been working on some pictures for the Mines of Khunmar project here and there. If all goes as planned, it will be a pretty art-heavy book because that is where my interest is.
Earlier, I presented this drawing of an encounter level on level 1 (the Kobold Caves) (click to see bigger):
I noted that in the drawing I had taken the original D&D at it’s word that Kobolds were ‘dwarf-like’ rather than dog men… but in the drawing they just look too big. I think my assumption in making the drawing is that foreshortening would cause the humans to look smaller and the kobolds to look bigger, but it just doesn’t work. So I decided to fix that by drawing a new set of kobolds (and making them dog-men this time) and scanning them and them putting them in the drawing via the magic of photoshop like so (again, click to see bigger):
OK, that’s better.
Here’s another one that tickles my fancy:
OK, that is all for now.
awww, I like the dwarf-like kobolds. The scale issues caused by presepective are notable however.
The new corrected piece does however look fine and dandy and likely is more what people will expcet to see if the art is inserted in a section with kobolds in the final work.
J.D.: Yeah; I go back-and-forth on the issue of to dwarf or not to dwarf the kobolds. Based on the description in the Holmes book, I always thought of them as scrabbly looking little skinny gnomes. Since I drew the new kobolds separately and added them via photoshop, I could redraw them a 3rd time (in correct scale but as scrabbly little dwarves). I'll think on it.
Ahhh, the new mini-mini dog-kobolds look so cute đŸ˜‰
awww, I like the dwarf-like kobolds.
As do I. It's how I portray them in my Dwimmermount campaign.
I like the new little dog-boy kobolds, only I notice that the arrows peppering the adventurers are now as big as the koblods' javelins đŸ™‚
I vote for small dog-men…it distinguishes them from the other humanoids (minus gnolls).
I often describe kobolds as The Small Dog-Men, parroting Gygax in Keep on The Borderlands. However, I actually prefer the scrawny skeevy gnome definition, since I immediately looked up 'kobold' in the dictionary back in 1981 and found they were tiny men making noise behind the walls in German mines.
Migellito: When I was a really little kid, I had an illustrated book about the Heinzelmannchen (gnomes) of Cologne… who were these little guys who lived underground and only came out at night. Although they didn't do anything bad in the popular folk tale, they seemed kind of fascinating and creepy. The tale is a very persistent one and has been around for a long time… there are even little gnome guys carved on stonework of the Cologne cathedral. They were a big part of how I imagined the kobolds at first.
I also read that miners in England believed in the same kind of spirits/gnomes who lived in the walls of caves and mines and caused collapses and made strange noises to scare the miners, but they called them “knockers” instead of “kobolds.” I guess because they would make knocking noises.
Definitely going to do some research on the Heinzelmannchen, and I always enjoy searching the internet for knockers.. (pa-ching!)
Yeah, unless I'm mistaken that's where Stephen King got the idea for 'Tommyknockers' but I've never read it..