Mark A. Nelson - Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures

FANTASY

WORLD-BUILDING

FANTASY

WORLD-BUILDING

A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures

MARK A. NELSON

Foreword by

TODD LOCKWOOD

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Mineola, New York

Copyright

Copyright 2019 by Mark A. Nelson

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures is a new work, first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in 2019.

International Standard Book Number

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-82865-7

ISBN-10: 0-486-82865-4

Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

82865401 2019

www.doverpublications.com

CONTENTS

by Todd Lockwood

FOREWORD

There is a monster in the heart of Texas.

I first met this beast in 1996, shortly after joining the art staff at TSR, makers of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. I was surrounded by luminaries in the field of fantastic illustration; they all knew and admired him. He visited once or twice, and I was struck by his gigantic personality and enormous good cheer. I quickly learned that his outsize presence and sense of humor are dwarfed only by the immensity of his talent.

I speak, of course, of Mark A. Nelson. He taught illustration at the time at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, not far from the TSR offices. There he helped to launch the careers of a great many notable illustrators: Tom Baxa, Jeff Laubenstein, Jim Nelson, rk post, Armand Balthazar, Mike Sutfin, and many, many more. Its a long list. All were touched by his glorious madness. Suffice it to say that his influence on the industry has been gargantuan.

He invited us to his expansive home one time. It was like walking into the treasure hoard of a dragon. We drooled over countless flat files full of arthis own and othersand his massive collection of amazing memorabilia. I recall, in particular, the skull of a saber-toothed lion, which I covet to this day.

Eventually, the university and the monster parted ways. He found himself in the Lone Star State, where he still resides, like an ogre-mage determined to populate the world with all manner of monsters, demons, primordial behemoths, fairies, dragons, and maidens fair and foul. His particular alchemy draws on a bottomless well of anatomical knowledge, creative energy, and diabolical wit. He is easily the most prolific artist I know. Hes unstoppable. And thats a good thing. He makes the universe a bigger, scarier, more mysterious, funnier place.

You hold in your hands a link to his special magic. Enter, sharpen your claws, file your teeth, and prepare to unleash monsters of your own on the world.

Todd Lockwood

Naples, Italy

November 2018

VISUAL PROBLEM SOLVER

W orking as a visual problem solver is what most artists do. We develop or are presented with a series of descriptions and ideas to create worlds, characters, and stories. It is our hope that we do this in believable scenarios in the form of finished artwork.

Sometimes you work within a set of parameters set by the project. Other times you set these considerations yourself. When you are dealing with licensed properties, you have to work within provided guidelines. This by no means should stifle your creativity. In fact, you can find many ways of working and creating outlooks within these guidelines.

I have worked on many licensed properties and have designed buildings, creatures, spaceships, rooms, interiors, and costumes that ranged from the humorous to the dark. I have drawn funny animals to terrifying ones, hard sci-fi to horror, and realistic settings to the fantastic. Each represented a new answer within this world, an avenue for me to conquer as an artist and grow my skill set. I try to look at it all as a challenge. What can I do to bring it to life with a set of visuals in an interesting way, a new way, or build upon the existing world and add my personal touch? When do we start talking worlds? You get to fill them with everything, and I do mean everything! This includes your favorite habitats, rocks, grass, trees, critters, buildings.... The list goes on and on. It is a rather daunting challenge, but here is where the seeds of this book came from.

SOMEONE SETS A PROBLEM: A SWORD.

Just what does this mean?

The mind starts: short sword, broadsword, two-handed battle sword, more than one blade, etc.

What type of pommel? Grip? Cross guard or rain guard? Leather grip or bone grip?

Type of metal? The finish? Damascus steel? Engraved? Flutes? Is it old and rusty? New and highly polished? Does it have decorations or engraving? And so on.

And if the character has a very well-defined sword, you can always practice your skills in drawing and/or painting metal and researching the method of how it was made, with the hope of adding more believability to your finished product.

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH

I am a huge proponent of research. When I started doing illustration, there was no Internet. If you wanted to find things, you went to the library, checked out books, pored over magazines and other periodicals for reference. As you collected images, you put them into file folders and labeled them. You created what was called a morgue. When illustrators died, their morgues often were passed on or sold. They were rich depictions of periods in time, examples of work by other illustrators, and amazing collections of images. Needless to say, it was a lot of paper, file cabinets, and weight to move.

Nowadays, the Internet has given us a worldwide morgue of images, but I still have reference files on my hard drive. The digital camera has added another file-gathering tool. I have shot many different references with my camera and smartphone. The information highway is just a touch away, and your information gathering has never been easier. The morgue is an old habitat. It allows you to place materials where you need them, find images quickly, and forces you to organize photos and references.

CHARACTER

Model sheets, FBS (front-back-side), or character design sheets is where we start. Everything is worked out by height, body shape, and clothing. Then the character is rotated to the side and back, and the drawing is finished. Sometimes a three-quarter shot is added for a mild action pose. Occasionally, when deadlines are imminent, I will do a three-quarter shot of a spaceship or other element and the modeler will finish the 3-D sculpture of it.