Kaladin --- Healer (Fanart)

[grantmhansen]

 

 

 

 

I've already added this guy to the gallery, but I wanted to toss it into the Forums for a bit more exposure =)  

 

Here's the first in a series of works centered around Kaladin. A scene of the aftermath of a battle with the Parshendi. They're on the retreat, and Kaladin is going to the aid of a downed bridgman. And he's yelling something.. Or yawning really hard.. 

 

I'm going to try to toss in some of the process work so you can have a look at the phases this thing went through if you want =)

 

Lemme know what you think!

 

(p.s. looks like the progress shots are all scrambled in order. Basically, if it looks crappier, it's from earlier in the process)

Edited August 12, 2015 by grantmhansen

[Argent]

I dig.

[Curious Anamaximder]

I shovel.

[The Sovereign]

I dig.

 

I shovel.

 

I'm more than just a hammer!

 

In other news... the subject of this topic actually made me think of something interesting, I would very much like to see someone look at Kaladin while burning Malatium.

[grantmhansen]

Oh glowing poop daggers!! I forgot to paint in his brands!! :/

I'm going to need to amend that.

[Ardjet]

Looks awesome! The world needs more Stormlight fan art like this.

[grantmhansen]

Looks awesome! The world needs more Stormlight fan art like this.

Thanks much! I'll keep making 'em =) 

[tobar14]

This is really awesome!!!

 

My only criticism is that this scene was happening on the "Shattered Plains", not the "Shattered Plains Plus some Mountains"

 

Other than that, the shading and coloring of Kaladin's arms is amazing (sounds weird, but I know from experience how hard it is to make a person look real)

[Patrick Star]

This is really awesome!!!

My only criticism is that this scene was happening on the "Shattered Plains", not the "Shattered Plains Plus some Mountains"

Other than that, the shading and coloring of Kaladin's arms is amazing (sounds weird, but I know from experience how hard it is to make a person look real)

That's being unreasonable. The plateaus had multiple levels, and there were definitely uneven structures, such as the tower. It looks mostly accurate to me.

[natc]

Plus, the Unclaimed Hills basically walled in the entire Shattered Plains, right? Further out being the Frostlands.

If there were no mountains blocking the other three sides that the Alethi warcamps didn't occupy, sieging the Parshendi would be impossible. They would simply leave.

[Patrick Star]

Plus, the Unclaimed Hills basically walled in the entire Shattered Plains, right? Further out being the Frostlands.

If there were no mountains blocking the other three sides that the Alethi warcamps didn't occupy, sieging the Parshendi would be impossible. They would simply leave.

Exactly. That was the crux of dalinar's plan. The parshendi couldn't flee. Only the gemhearts ruined the plan.

[Cemci]

First of all, excellent artwork. As a former student of art, I'm jealous of your skill.

 

Regarding the setting:

The Alethi armies marched for hours, and the Shattered Plains are enormous. I would consider it unlikely that the Plains are themselves that mountainous, and after hours of walking, the army wouldn't be in this close proximity to mountains. Furthermore, there are multiple maps of the Plains in the books. None indicate that any plateau is this elevated, except for the Tower and one other plateau (where Adolin and Jakamav fight once - it's 30 feet high on one end). 

 

I would also consider it unreasonable that Kaladin pulled his injured bridgeman companion this far away from the chasm, or that, if we assume the chasm is directly to their right, the bridge is that huge that it could span anywhere near the distance between the armies behind the boys and on the plateau far below. Added to that, from the book we know that the Tower is an elevated plateau, but not mountain-high, and that no Alethi army has ever won on that plateau. It would be unlikely therefore that Kaladin heals his friend on an elevated plateau. The bridge is only about 40 feet long I think? Curved at front and back, 5 feet across or so (I'm probably getting the dimensions wrong). That's nowhere near big enough to span any sort of chasm with that big a height difference.

[tobar14]

First of all, excellent artwork. As a former student of art, I'm jealous of your skill.

 

Regarding the setting:

The Alethi armies marched for hours, and the Shattered Plains are enormous. I would consider it unlikely that the Plains are themselves that mountainous, and after hours of walking, the army wouldn't be in this close proximity to mountains. Furthermore, there are multiple maps of the Plains in the books. None indicate that any plateau is this elevated, except for the Tower and one other plateau (where Adolin and Jakamav fight once - it's 30 feet high on one end). 

 

I would also consider it unreasonable that Kaladin pulled his injured bridgeman companion this far away from the chasm, or that, if we assume the chasm is directly to their right, the bridge is that huge that it could span anywhere near the distance between the armies behind the boys and on the plateau far below. Added to that, from the book we know that the Tower is an elevated plateau, but not mountain-high, and that no Alethi army has ever won on that plateau. It would be unlikely therefore that Kaladin heals his friend on an elevated plateau. The bridge is only about 40 feet long I think? Curved at front and back, 5 feet across or so (I'm probably getting the dimensions wrong). That's nowhere near big enough to span any sort of chasm with that big a height difference.

Exactly.  If there were enough elevation changes, then it would be called the shattered hills.  Plains are just that, plains...Flat...which makes sense since highstorms are the strongest when the hit them, and wind and water would have eroded it to the flatness that we see, with some minor deviations.  There would certainly not be any pointy mountain tips, especially that far east. 

Again, this is an amazing picture.

[natc]

Then again, Natanatan (I think?) is buried underneath this entire area and probably wasn't flat.

Edited September 14, 2015 by natc

[Cemci]

Then again, Natanatan (I think?) is buried underneath this entire area and probably wasn't flat.

 

Natanatan was a kingdom, not a city, and as such couldn't be buried underneath the crem.

 

Do you mean Stormseat? That city was limited mostly to Narak, or in any case close to and around the plateaus that the Parshendi make their home. Stormseat was indeed not flat, but as we see in WoR, the buildings that the Alethi know as crem hills and weirdly shaped structures are only vaguely hill-like. The picture shows craggy mountains and enormous cliffs. If Natanatan indeed lay underneath the crem and had not been flat (if Natanatan had been a mountainous kingdom), the highstorms, with gale winds, boulders tossed around and the sheer amount of rain could probably have altered the geological picture considerably, especially since the Shattered Plains are one of the first places usually hit by a highstorm on Roshar. 

[grantmhansen]

I LOVE that there's so much good discussion cropping up over this. 

 

Honestly, I've been subscribing more and more to the flattened plains camp myself over time. I love the potential visual drama that could be created by having Southern Utah-esque rock formations formed over time by all the wind, but as many of you have pointed out: these are the Shattered Plains. 

 

My current mental picture of the place would be much, much flatter, but will retain some unevenness and variety from the long-buried buildings of the cities that were buried out there. I think particularly of the scene where Adolin climbs up basically a three-tiered cake of cremmy rock to bash down the Parshendi with the help of Benedict Arnold. 

I'll be toning down the crazy mountain stuff, for sure. Fun as it was to experiment and learn from this piece, I don't agree with most of my own statements i've made in it =) heh. 

 

 

I love the feedback, you all! Thank you much, and keep it coming! Any and all the inside info I can glean about this world is welcome. Maybe someday I'll get it down well enough that Brandon will have me paint him something... We can dream, right? =)

[natc]

Natanatan was a kingdom, not a city, and as such couldn't be buried underneath the crem.

Do you mean Stormseat? That city was limited mostly to Narak, or in any case close to and around the plateaus that the Parshendi make their home. Stormseat was indeed not flat, but as we see in WoR, the buildings that the Alethi know as crem hills and weirdly shaped structures are only vaguely hill-like. The picture shows craggy mountains and enormous cliffs. If Natanatan indeed lay underneath the crem and had not been flat (if Natanatan had been a mountainous kingdom), the highstorms, with gale winds, boulders tossed around and the sheer amount of rain could probably have altered the geological picture considerably, especially since the Shattered Plains are one of the first places usually hit by a highstorm on Roshar.

A kingdom that, evidently, doesn't exactly exist in its original form anymore.

I'd find it odd that you have a relatively defensible spot surrounded by mountains with a radius wide enough to be seen on a world map to some extent, and you build a city smack in the middle surrounded by absolutely nothing for miles upon miles. So much space that you can't even cross without a highstorm striking long before you get to the other end. That sounds bad for infrastructure.

[Patrick Star]

A kingdom that, evidently, doesn't exactly exist in its original form anymore.

I'd find it odd that you have a relatively defensible spot surrounded by mountains with a radius wide enough to be seen on a world map to some extent, and you build a city smack in the middle surrounded by absolutely nothing for miles upon miles. So much space that you can't even cross without a highstorm striking long before you get to the other end. That sounds bad for infrastructure.

 

I mean, it's definitely been done in other universes.  Just look at the Imperial City in the Elder Scrolls.

 

You can see clear as day from half of Cyrodiil.