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#armor #dwarf #dwarven #dwarves #hobbit #lotr #mask #tolkien #warrior
Published: 2014-11-10 18:16:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 29456; Favourites: 506; Downloads: 247
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Description
I'm working on my designing and rendering skills lately, and I intend to focus on one theme at a time. The first theme I am working on is Dwarves, so you can expect to see a whole lot o them here.
The idea here is to portrait two different castes of warriors, one noble one and one of a much lower class.
The historical references for the dwarven culture that I am using is basically a blend of Islamic, Indu and Japanese cultures, and of course the angular aesthetics established mainly in the LOTR movies, with some other ideas taken from the latter Hobbit movies.
The first warrior displays a lot of gold and many fine weapons, as well as a heavy golden chain. The mask is much less heavy than the ones you will see in the first and second ages, but still carries some of the basic visual traits. The second warrior is clad in a less expensive gear consisting in a basic plain vest of dwarven maille (still higher quality than anything available to humans) that is sure always expensive so the vest doesnt even have sleeves and is shorter in length. The other protections are mostly padded and studded leather and also thick boiled leather plates. He of course also invested the better part of his funds in a solid dwarven steel helmet, the best he can buy, because if you are a dwarf you would expect a lot of blows coming from above. The golden crest piece that I portrait in every dwarven helmet is something that I imagine to be like a plate with the clans name and status carved in very artistically written runes that are women into each other much like Arabic artistic calligraphy. This is the reason for even a humble low class warrior to invest in a golden plated one. The gloves and boots are reinforced worker gear, and the axe is a fine but basic dwarven weapon. He also carry a shield to compensate for the lack of a heavier armor.
It was done with my trusted Noodlers fountain pens and watercolors, with some retouches in PS.
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Comments: 33
I like the idea that even the poorest of dwarves can own and field weapons that would makes human nobles green in envy
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Yeah, at least quality-wise, if not so much for decorations. This would be true mostly for city-dwelling dwarves. That would be the equivalent of living inside a castle's walls in medieval times. This is for the richer ones and the noble. The poorer dwarves would live outside of it and would be able to afford only a simplerΒ kitΒ but still of quite high quality.
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How long do you think it takes for them to put on all that amor?
It must take ages what with dwarven perfectionism and all that.
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I dont think it would take any longer than the real world historical counterparts. Which was fast enough.
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All your dwarven designs are so thoughtful, the explanations behind your stylistic decisions are just as interesting as the wonderful artwork itself! I especially like the way you examine differences in class, and how that affects things as simple as their clothing and complexity of embellishment. Wonderful!
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thank you for your perspective and comment. i am currently working on a big project that involves a lot o conceptualization for the dwarves. keep posted.
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What would a dwarven merchant look like, by the way your dwarves are awesome I love how the look like they could be apart of the film .
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Fear not.
Soon you will have more dwarves here than you can handle.
Cheers
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They remind me of GW's movie based versions. Khazad Guard for the first one. Regular warrior for the 2nd.Β
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Alternatively, the helmet crest just reads "This is a helmet."
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GAH! You keep getting better! I love this stuff.Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β
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Thank you my man! i'm glad you like it
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I am uncertain if I would accept these as Dwarves from the Houses residing in the west, based on your equipment ideas. They seem more representative of one of the Houses that settled in the Red Mountains of the East, or the Yellow Mountains of the far South. That aside, both warriors look great, nicely kitted out, with a lot of obvious thought put into details.
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Thanks my friend, I'm glad you appreciate it.
You made me curious. Why do you think those guys are more adequate to be part of the more "exotic" houses? I am very interested in your view here.
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The Central Asian Muslim & Indian influences automatically make things "exotic" from the standard LOTR format, since the artistic and conceptual design is different enough to make it non-European. The emphasis of armors from those regions is also a tendency to balance mobility and protection with an emphasis on mounted mobility...or running very fast. The Dwarves of the Blue and Misty Mountains are the introduction of heavy armor to the (non-Noldor) Elves and Men of Middle-Earth, with the Western motif of protection first, with practical mobility but not much speed. (Just like the Dwarves themselves! 
The noble warrior's axe has a magnificent paen-blade, not just a spike, and it would be lethal against a leather-base breastplate or an upward blow against scale armor.
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Β Well you have to understand the inspiration thing as a broad guide source not a fixed set of rules. I get my inspiration in many different ways. Sometimes it's form, sometimes function, sometimes none of them. To me eastern designs are a really good match for the Dwarves, specially design and decoration wise.
The armor in that piece is not a double layer scale/maille. It is a scale armor with maille sleeves.
The axe blade was inspired by historical Bardiches, and given some dwarven angular design treatment but without being so much different from the reference weapon.
Thank you very much for the in depth comment, I'll think carefully about the points you talk about here.
I'll be working on some more dwarves soon, so it's very nice to receive some feedback like this.
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Applique mail sleeves to another type of armor is OK, I know of brigandines with them.
The idea of eastern influences in armor would definitely work well for Dwarves from the Red Mountains in the far East, since they would have had the same influence on nearby Men as the Dwarves of the Grey and Misty Mountains had on the nearby Men of the region. Dwarves are definitely conservative and distinct in their culture, but they don't have to be monolithic. I could see the Dwarves of the East and South as developing gear different from the familiar ones in the West and North, which would work towards a similar goal but would have a different theme of development. Β
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Nice! You handled an actual Bardiche, that is really cool. It is a surprise to know that they're not as clumsy as it looks!
I got inspired by this concept of dwarves from slightly different cultures and I made a new drawing that depicts an eastern dwarf lord.
Thanks for dropping by again my friend!
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The replica in question was based on an attractive looking specimen from Stone's encyclopedia, which is part of the collection of the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was made by the blacksmith and official Head of Merchants for the Ohio Renaissance Festival, about 13 years ago. It was not as ergonomic with weight distribution as a big huscarl axe, but it was not as heavy and clumsy as some might think.
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Very interesting! I would like to have such oportunity too.
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Alas, the unfortunate gentleman had to retire for health reasons a couple of years later, and his sons did not renew the booth at the Festival. Too bad, I had planned to go back for an Italian Bill the next year.... I was one of the Queen's Guard for a couple of years, and the smith let us play with the weapons some as a good form of advertising and sales promotion. 
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Sounds really nice. I would love to have some good replicas in my hands one day to play with a little.
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i realy love the way you're portraying the dwarfs. it's a pitty there is just so few information about there culture, rituals and even language.. i thank you very much for helping me filling my image of the dwarfs as i find them much more interesting than the noldor or other high elves of whom we now so much more (of course they are interesting too, but kind of over used, if you know what i mean).
your pieces of turin turambar are also fantastic but i think i'm going to leave you a comment on that ones too
you are also an incredibly talented artist! i love your and mohans way of giving such a detailed description of how you came to your designs and what they are based on/whats the idea behind it.
i'm very happy that i happened to stumble over your deviantart page! keep up the good work
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You are right my friend, the dwarves are for sure completely underrated and underappreciated in art even though they are as much (or even more) interesting as any other people in tolkien's works and fantasy in general.
I'm tring to do my part here to right this wrong
And I'm very sick of those fashionable top model elves. Seriously, drop the fetish people.
Yeah Turner is a very talented and learned artist and a very nice dude too. I am very happy to have him with us here.
I'm very happy that you stumbled upon my page and liked what you saw, I hope you come again here often, and leave an opinion or two if you will.
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I like the idea of 13th century pauldrons tied in with the chainmail.Β I have to say i like the nobleman the most, maybe that's only because he is the most flashy i dunno
I see you adapted those half sabaton boots that Thorin wears in the movies, personally i found them very weird looking.
How come Islamic, Indu and Japanese are your biggest influences while drawing dwarves?
Aren't Tolkien's dwarves norse in most ways? How does actually Tolkien describe Dwarven armour?
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Well I did'n actually adapted the half sabatons as you call it from the movies, I was doing something like this a long time before, but the movies designs also have a part on how they turned to be in my latest designs. I like to think of it as being the steel cap of the worker's boots which is something of extreme importance when you're working around boulders and rocks as well as walking on dark rocky tunnels or fighting your casual battle or two. This is just the military version of an everyday dwarven equipment.
About the influences: I share the same vision as Turner Mohan, we think that a wandering, secretive, gold loving, master artisans, bearded, patriarchal people puts them very close to most of the stereotypes you could find related to Semitic peoples. Also as Turner pointed out Tolkien even admitted in a letter that his influences for the Naugrin where the early Jewish cultures. The designers of the LOTR movies may have perceived this too, because their designs are partially influenced by those middle eastern cultures for sure.
The Japanese was thrown into the blender too for flavor and a flair of exoticism after all this is fantasy isn't it? And the ancient Japanese were also some of the finest artisans in this world, which makes them and the equally masterful Arabic and Hindu cultures some of the richest and most relevant sources of inspiration for good dwarven stuff.
Thanks for your comment my friend.
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I see, it's just that it feels like a tank clad guy like a dwarf would arm his feet with sabaton rather than a steal toe, that's just my opinion
Hope you didn't take my questioning as criticism, after all i really like yours and Mohan's dwarfs and i was merely taking interest in your art
All the characteristics you described is very much the same of the dwarves of Norse mythology and myths.
And it's just that all you hear when they talk about Tolkien is how much he was in love and inspired by Norse and Anglo-Saxon myths so all this talk of Indu comes to me like a surprise, if you know what i mean? ^^
I'm no Tolkien historian, far from it, i just find it interesting and like i said i'm not criticising
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Hey my friend I don't take any criticism the bad way, I actually enjoy a lot your comments and opinions, even when I do not agree with them.
Feel free to express what you fell like, this is after all the point of making your art public isn't it?
Well, about the dwarves, as I said, Tolkien himself admitted using the Semitic cultures as a reference source. Anyway, norse cultures where a strong reference too, so serve yourself like you will right?
And the main reason is: Why not? I see a lot of vikingish dwarves and I beg to differ.
And I hope bringing something new and interesting in the process. This is the beauty of fantasy art. You can do pretty much whatever you can imagine.
Thanks for dropping by, I hope you came back soon.
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