Art Project: The Lords of the Nine

[Jotunheim]

Hello there!

Way back in the day when I was a wee lad of about 20 and I had started out learning how to paint, I had this crazy idea of doing an illustration for each of the Lords of the Nine Hells in D&D canon. At the time I only got to about 3, and as I had just started painting, they were not that good.
The images can be found here (One is slightly nsfw):
http://laquerhead.deviantart.com/art/Dispater-Lord-of-the-Second-66959330
http://laquerhead.deviantart.com/art/Beelzebul-102966417?q=gallery%3Alaquerhead&qo=0
http://laquerhead.deviantart.com/art/Belial-and-Fierna-102966269?q=gallery%3Alaquerhead&qo=1

The other day, I got to think that I might be at a point where I could do the characters justice now, so I'm redoing the project, starting out at the first archdevil and moving my way up to the ninth.

The arch fiends are as follows:
1. Bel, Lord of Avernus, the First Layer
2. Dispater, the Iron Duke, Lord of Dis, the Second Layer
3. Mammon, The Lord of Greed and of Minauros, the Third Layer
4. Fierna and Belial, Lords of Phlegethos, the Fourth Layer
5. Levistus, Lord of Stygia, the Fifth Layer
6. Glasya, Daughter of Asmodeus, Lord of Malbolge, the Sixth Layer
7. Beelzebul, Lord of Flies and of Maladomini, the Seventh Layer
8. Mephistopheles, Lord of No Mercy and of Cania, the Eigth Layer
9. Asmodeus, King of Hell, and Lord of Nessus, the Ninth Layer

As I'm doing them numerically this time around, I'm currently working on Bel. He is described like this:
"Crimson scales cover this large fiend, from its bestial head to its clawed toes. From its back spread great bat-like wings. Foul green venom drips from its teeth, sending up streams of smoke wherever it falls. Cinched around its waist is a belt of a dozen shrieking angel heads, their necks neatly severed by the massive flaming sword the creature holds in his clawed fist."

So far I've only sketched the basic layerout of the painting down. Next I'll be adding color.
http://ow.ly/l1r5z

If anyone is interested about the rest of my art you can check out my art thread over at the Goblins boards: here! (http://www.goblinsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=107)

[Jotunheim]

It's coming along pretty well. With the perspective on the army Bel might end up being slightly bigger than he is actually supposed to be, but eh :D He's an arch devil of war. He's allowed to be bigger than your average pit fiend.
http://ow.ly/l6nOY

[ShadowFireLance]

...Dude....
:smalleek:

Awesomeness.
:smallcool:

[Cealocanth]

Awesome. Can't wait to see Levistus :smallsmile:

@V: Now that would be taking the easy way out, wouldn't it? :smalltongue:

[Jotunheim]

*Not tempted at all to just draw Levistus as a giant iceberg* :p

[TheCountAlucard]

Very impressive. Then again, I thought the old paintings were pretty good. :smalleek:

[flyingchicken]

While I honestly think your 5(?)-year improvement was a bit limited with the forms and figures (not to belittle your achievements though!) I think it's pretty marked with your use of colors and values--which gives me hope that my own skills would escape the horrible depths of badness...

[Jotunheim]

Heh. Well, my anatomy is more sound, and my figures a good deal more dynamic. The new version is obviously not anywhere near finished ;) Those old pieces are from about 7 years ago. We'll see how this one looks once it is finished

[Savannah]

Woah, that's awesome! :smallbiggrin:

[Akrim.elf]

realy awesome!

i wait for Belzebub and Mephisto!

[Jotunheim]

Thanks for all the nice comments. I've had a busy couple of days, what with a gig with the band and some other things keeping me occupied, but here's the progress on this painting. Everything is more or less where I want it to be (though the hands are still very much in the doodly "Hands go here" stage).

http://ow.ly/lbIps

[Jotunheim]

Update on the Bel painting.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Bel8.jpg

[TaiLiu]

Oh, very nice!

[TheCountAlucard]

A little TOO impressive. Makes me wish I could afford to commission you NOW. :tongue:

[Jotunheim]

Rob a bank :p

[Jotunheim]

So, this painting is at the stage where I put it away, and then come back a bit later to see if anything needs fixing. Otherwise, I'm declaring this one done, and on to Dispater.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Bel11.jpg

[Jotunheim]

So, I got a commission which will tie up a lot of my art-time over the next few months, though I still plan on going ahead with this project in my spare/practice time.
Bel is finished, and I move on to Dispater, the Iron Duke.

http://ow.ly/lpJqR

[Jotunheim]

And now I'm working on Dispater. He was kinda difficult to get a hold of, but I think I finally doodled a design for him that I like. We'll see :P I ended up giving him the Ragnar Lothbrok hairdo, because why the hell not :D

His description is as follows:
This dark-haired figure stands just over seven feet tall(2.1 meters). He could pass for human if it weren’t for the small horns protruding from his brow and his glowing red eyes. Dressed in regal finery, he carries a long rod capped with a macelike head.

The concept of the piece I'm doing is him using his touch of rust to off a paladin.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Dispater1.jpg

[CryWolfCorrupt]

I would love to see the update on the next Lords

[Blueiji]

Subscribing to the thread, these are awesome.

When I first started reading the thread and saw the rough sketch version of Bel, I thought it was impressive enough to be the finished product. :D

[Jotunheim]

Thanks guys. I'm coming up on the end of a large commission project, so I should be able to get back on this soonish. I notice that I drew Bel like 10 times too big, but eh. He looks cool like this xD