Pictures for this week. It's been nice to remember this series and do it again. I've got so much digital art stashed away. Much of it is mediocre, but I kept it for some reason, and it's nice to pull it out every so often.
I believe this is only a detail of what is otherwise a larger image, of the Triumph parading Queen Zenobia through Rome after her defeat. Although having a reputation for beauty and chastity, unlike her fellow Seleucid-descended queen during Roman years Cleopatra, she also is almost certainly responsible for the assassination of her husband and step-son, which allowed her to step in as regent on behalf of her own young son, and rule the so-called Syrian Empire or Palmyrene Empire, a very brief splinter group from Rome during the general chaos of the Crisis of the Third Century. This naked power grab backfired shortly, of course—Palmyra was recaptured by Aurelius, and when it rebelled a second time shortly thereafter, the city-state was destroyed completely. Although Zenobia's ultimate fate is unknown, and there are romanticized fantasies about her charming her way out of trouble in Rome, most likely she was ignominously put to death for treason.
Larry Elmore's classic cover art for the expanded Star Frontiers game. I'm not a huge fan of Star Frontiers, but it was one of the very first forays of the RPG market into space opera in the wake of the success of Star Wars beyond Traveller itself, and the first by TSR. Although I didn't really love that setting, I always thought this was one heckuva cover art. I wouldn't mind a framed print of it at my house one of these days. Elmore himself sells prints of that. This, along with the Basic, Expert and Companion set covers would make for a nice rec room wall decoration set. Now, if only Wayne Reynolds would offer the same, I'd be ready to roll.
One could argue that space opera is really the true home of Lovecraftiana, I think.
Although I'm not sure I'm in complete agreement of turning stories of Herakles into pseudo-manga style artwork, or at least manga-influenced comic book artwork, this is still a pretty nifty image. The mythological fidelity is a bit dubious. Although Herakles was well known for the use of a club, most sources talk specifically about him decapitating the hydra with either a sword or a sickle, not bashing its heads with his club.
In image of the piratey themed area of Eberron. Although the palm trees make it feel piratey because of our association of the Golden Age of Piracy with either the Spanish Main in the Caribbean, or the Pirate Round in the Indian Ocean—both of which are tropical areas—the Lhazaar Principalities aren't really exactly tropical in Eberron. I'm going to call that a slight fail on the art side. Good image taken out of context, however.
Nice image, but this lich either has one of the worst hairstyles in the world, or he has very weirdly oriented curled horns.
James Gurney's Dinotopia had an oddly and disappointing kumbaya hippyness going on, but the idea of people living in this subtropical Mediterranean paradise with domesticated dinosaurs was just an awesome set of visuals nonetheless. I highly recommend picking up the books and flipping through them but not even bothering to read the text. It'll only disappoint you, I'm sure.
The Master. Even when he was just sketching around with pencils and less fantastical subjects, he was still better than his imitators and competitors both. I mean really; nobody has ever compared, even today, I don't think. I love Frazetta's work.
A Livyatan, a Miocene whale related to the sperm whale, but more hypercarnivorous, and considered "the largest tetrapod predator" yet known. The species name is melvillei, and you can probably guess why.
A less D&D-ish interpretation of a lizardman.
Lolth killing some elves who look bronze age in their equipment, for some reason. This isn't one of WAR's best pieces, but it's a good example of his style.
The older southern province of Laramidia tyrannosaur Lythronax. There is still not agreement among dinosaur paleontologists on the origin and dispersal of tyrannosaurs. The latest study (from 2020 by Jared Voris) suggests three provinces of tyrannosaur geography; east Asia, northern Laramidia and southern Laramidia, with the most advanced radiation taking place in Asia. This would make T. rex itself not a descendent of any of the tyrannosaurs from the southern province, but rather from Asia, who spread into northern Laramidia displacing albertosaurs and daspletosaurs, rather than being a descendent of Daspletosaurus (an earlier theory) or the southern tyrannosaurine dinosaurs like Tetraphoneus or Lythronax after all.
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