This blog contains art by me - Jan Pospíšil and all kinds of other things I find interesting and worth writing about.
Here's my portfolio:
http://janpospisil.daportfolio.com/
and my DeviantArt:
http://merlkir.deviantart.com/
I've been stretching my drawing muscles lately. I seem to have forgotten a lot, it's always a struggle at first. When I get into it though, it's a lot of fun.
Here are 4 illustration I've done for the "Picks and Hoes" book - it's quite rare to see interior illustrations in fantasy books these days:
(there will be two more in the book, still working on those. All "ink pen" over "pencil" in ArtRage)
And this is a drawing I did for a LARP group reenacting the men of Dale from J.R.R.Tolkien's Middle Earth, for a poster I think. It felt like I was drawing this for myself though - very relaxing, no stress over reference, I just drew what I knew well and enjoyed the process very much.
("pencil" in ArtRage)
I'm quite pleased with the result. It weren't necessarily the Osprey illustrations I was thinking about while drawing it, Victor Ambrus fans will no doubt see my attempts to be as loose and effortless as he was in all his wonderful elf drawings.
Focusing on the armies of the north of ME was also interesting. I've done many drawings and paintings of the Gondorians, the Haradrim also - all southern nations. But the elves of Mirkwood, men of Dale, Beornings, the Woodsmen, those were all neglected for some reason. They don't appear in LOTR that much and somehow don't seem to fit - the inspiration, their source and origin is more obscure, yet rooted in history and mythology even more than that of the southern people.
Quite possibly it was a combination of purchasing The One Ring role playing game by Cubicle 7 (illustrated by Jon Hodgson, Tomasz Jedruszek and John Howe), reading The Hobbit again in English and also reading "Road to Middle Earth" by Tom Shippey, that made me want to illustrate these less explored parts of Tolkien's world. Less eplored in the past that is, and in the better known media. I'm sure the MERP games have done all kinds of books on the North, but it seems to me that TOR is the one game that deals with it properly at last.
The North isn't quite as boring as I once thought it was. Hopefully I'll get to draw or paint some more of these mysterious lands.
"Totems of the Dead" GameMaster's Guide seems to be released, so I'm posting these pieces I did for it.
Had a lot of fun doing creatures instead of warriors for a change.
This one will be a (not so) short meditation on the practicalness of ancient and medieval armour.
(there's art at the end too)
Some time ago this Tumblr post was put together as a reaction to the "Women in Reasonable Armour" thing. I don't understand Tumblr, so I have no idea who actually wrote it, sorry.
As the author states, this "counter-point" was meant to show that:
"... practicality
isn’t the end-all and be-all of military costume. In some cases though,
you have to wonder if it was given any thought at all."
Do the sample images support this wild hypothesis? Leeeeeeet's FIND OUT! Raise the gates!
1.) First image are the La Tene Gallic warriors masterfully illustrated by Angus McBride. What is the weird impractical element here?
The eagle helmet? - as much as I respect McBride, he made the helmet look much heavier than the original piece suggests. We have no idea if it was a real helmet meant for battle, or if it was a ceremonial object. If it was used in battle, it probably wasn't as obstructive as we may think.
The naked guy? - a more likely complaint. Did celts fight naked? Period sources suggest some of them might have. Why on Earth would anyone do that? There are many theories. It might've been a religious thing, for morale improvement, or it simply felt better for the warriors to fight without clothing constraining their manly bodies. There is a relevant anecdote by a Roman writer (whose name escapes me now) describing how units of naked warriors suffered considerably larger casualties in a missile skirmish than their clothed allies. A simple cloak apparently makes a difference. So why didn't they wear more armour? Mail was incredibly rare and expensive in this period, leather armour would've been much more common. It's not exactly clear how widespread and how commonly used armour was. Organic armour has the unfortunate tendency of disappearing completely without a trace. How common were these naked "barbarians"? We don't know.
2.) Celtiberians! So what's so wacky about these guys?
The helmet crests? Helmet crests seem to have been rather popular through human history. The exact purpose we can't be sure of, but it's probably something to do with recognizing your allies by the colours and shapes of their silhouette. That's very importand on the battlefield. Sure, the impractical reason would be to show off how much of a cock you are. (you know, how birds have these colourful crests) Were they so obstructive that it became impractical? Maybe. Would they have been used if they were that impractical? No. Ancient people weren't stupid.
The lack of metal armour? See answer above. Armour was rare, difficult to make. Hence the large shields. This type of attire also allowed for unrestricted mobility and no doubt allowed them to fight easier in warm climate. We also have to keep in mind that these are reconstructions mainly done from vase paintings. It's the artists job to make them look interesting, it's an illustration. A thing odd to our eye and sense of "normality" is not necessarily impractical.
3.) A Libyan. He DOES look weird, right? RIGHT?
Does he though? If you go through historical and archaeological sources, armour in general wasn't a big thing in 13th century BC. Just like any other human invention armour underwent an evolutionary process. We can't point fingers at Libyans who lived 3300 years ago and laugh at them for not wearing something more reasonable. Hey Libyans, why don't you just use machine guns?! I'm sure a cloak of thick hide was quite the shit 1300 BC.
4.) and 5.) Spartans.
Not much to be added here. Crests - check. Half-naked with large shields - check. Metal breastplates and greaves though! Really, no impracticalness here. And they're not wearing pants? So what? Trousers were considered weak and womanly by the Greeks. Take that, feminism!
6.) The Maya. Oh yes, we're definitely getting into the wacky territory.
I think the correctness of the reconstruction is the most crucial issue here. We're using rock carvings of mythical heroes and gods to reconstruct what real warriors used. Is it a wrong approach? Not necessarily. We can be quite sure that many things in these reconstructions are wrong though.
I think the Maya and other American cultures' battle gear like them are a product of isolation and lack of metals. A ritual nature of battles probably also played a role. These Mayans aren't all that different to the half naked Libyan archer up there, except for all the jewelry and feather plumes. Were those really used in battle? I don't think we can say either way for sure.
7.) IIRC this is an Aztec warrior.
All of the above written about the Maya applies here as well.
We can't underestimate the effect such gear had on the opponents visually. Similarly to the winged Polish hussars, it may have been quite intimidating for the people at that time. (which is certainly practical)
8.) Persian soldiers.
I don't see anything impractical here. Yes, they're colourful, but they're not guerilla warriors who need to hide. They're soldiers of the largest empire of its time, they're displaying the wealth and power of their faction. And they wear pants.
9.) Egyptians
See the Libyan above, all that applies here as well.
10.) Thracian peltast.
I have no idea what the impractical parts of his gear were supposed to be. He's lightly armed and armoured, because he's supposed to be a light infantryman, a mobile skirmisher.
Conclusion:
I'm not a fan of generalizations. Quite obviously, saying that all battle gear was always practical is wrong. I don't think the Tumblr post tried to be controversial, but something about that "In some cases though,
you have to wonder if it was given any thought at all." sentence rubbed me the wrong way.
Of course it was given thought. A lot of thought, no doubt. Ancient people weren't stupid. They didn't want to die. They protected themselves as well as they could.
What sorcery is this?! A post with art? In colour? Your eyes do not decieve you. I have indeed picked up the virtual brush and put more than just black and white on my virtual palette.
This painting is a cover for a book called "The Singing Sword - Tea Dragon and Cat Demon". (written by Zbyněk Holub)
It's
a fantasy novel about tea faeries. I don't know much more than that.
Tea is important and so are the dragon and the panther - they're
characters in the book and good friends.
(ArtRage as always)
(only now I realized I painted the foliage a bit like the leaves of green tea I've been drinking lately. Well, it fits. :))
Which singing sword do you like better? The one in the knightly Bugs Bunny episode? Or maybe Lilarcor in Baldur's Gate? :)
(this one will be long, I apologize for that. It's been long coming.)
This post was originally supposed to be about proper ways to sit in front of a computer, about specific exercises you can do to stretch and strenghten your back. That was when I thought I had simple back problems. (most likely I will do such a post in the future)
Last spring I started noticing small health problems. My hearing and sight were getting worse, my skin would tingle and itch or burn in places, sometimes my fingers went numb. Small muscle spasms were getting quite frequent.
And my back would hurt in one spot, not a huge annoyance, but sitting was getting a bit difficult.
So I went to see the doctor - an orthopedist, because I thought I might have had a herniated spine disc.
He didn't think so, because I could bend over easily and except for those neurological symptoms, I felt quite alright.
He did suggest I had blood drawn and tested for Lyme disease.
Knowing only very vaguely what Lyme disease was I agreed and had my blood tested in a couple of weeks, since I had a lot of work and exams to study for.
Somehow, studying was quite difficult this time. I could not concentrate, I'd have to read a slide three times and I'd still forget the contents a few seconds after. I felt like my days went by in a haze, I was constantly tired, I was waking up tired already. I couldn't understand what people say, what the words mean. Reading was difficult and annoying, even seeing, recognizing faces I had to focus on fully.
I attributed this to fatigue, exam stress.
Then, suddenly, I got the test results on the phone - the Lyme test was positive.
I've read up on Lyme a bit. It's a disease caused by bacteriae with a rather extensive list of possible symptoms.
I remembered that I may have had a red patch like the erythrema migrans, which I thought was a large mosquito bite. I wasn't sure when/if I had that though. I also remembered a strange flu-like thing I had last winter, with cold/hot shivers, but which only lasted three days and from which I recovered surprisingly quickly.
The doctor assured me this was treatable with antibiotics, that'd I'd be just fine in three weeks.
Then doubt kicked in.
1) My normal doctor continued sending me to specialists for all kinds of checks and tests, but he wouldn't treat me despite having two positive Borelia tests. (his reason - it's summer and you'd get sunburns from the antibiotics)
2) I read on Lyme some more.
Turns out that most doctors in most countries will tell you this:
"Lyme is easy to treat, especially if we catch it early. 3 weeks of antibiotics and you'll be fine."
Except there are people who don't get fine. And they're hardly a minority. In the few months I've known about being sick, I ran into quite a few people who either had the disease in the past and problems persisted, or contracted it recently and recieved the same 3 week treatment.
I trust doctors. They're trained to do their job. There's science behind what they do.
But.
For strange reasons I can't quite understand, this whole Lyme disease issue is hugely politicized. I won't try to convince you of a global conspiracy against Lyme patients.
One does really sound like a nutter talking about this weird disease he has. He seems fine on the outside, he must be crazy. Even my friends think so, a bit. Maybe my family too.
A very common treatment of chronic Lyme are antidepressives and psychiatric therapy. Does it work? (you can guess)
Why am I writing this? What do I want from you?
Because it took one tiny tick and my life changed considerably. If I didn't research myself, if I didn't trust my logic more than my doctor's training, I might've ended up considerably worse. Because I don't want you to end up like me.
Please, read up on the symptoms. Remember them. Also remember these important things about Lyme:
1.) It's treatable the best in the early stage. If you find a suspicious bullseye after being bitten by a tick, go to your doctor. Show him the ILADS guidelines, get tested AND treated with high doses of antibiotics immediately after having blood drawn, for at least 4 weeks. Insist on getting treated!
2.) The current tests for Lyme are RUBBISH! The probability of a false positive/negative is incredibly high, but the doctors WON'T TELL YOU. You can easily read up on this, all the info on these ELISA/WB tests is on the internet. Still get tested, but learn what the results mean, don't let the doctor tell you simply "it's positive/negative". Many doctors can't read these tests properly!
3.) Even in the later stage it's possibly treatable, but it's unclear if it's curable completely. You can get better though. The best chance is a combination of antibiotics/antimicrobics. It takes a LONG time.
4.) Testing negative for Lyme does not mean you don't have it. Doctors will tell you it does, but it's simple logic. What the test does - it looks for specific antibodies, which the body's immune system makes to battle the disease. Their logic is - if you don't have antibodies, there are no bacteria. Except Lyme attacks the immune system and often tests are done while you're on antibiotics, which also messes with the IS. There are people who have a proven Lyme infection, with living bacteria found in their bodies, who do not produce the antibodies and test negative. Lyme experts advise to diagnose Lyme from symptoms, not simply base the diagnosis on unreliable tests. Remember that. If you feel like shit, if you joints hurt and swell, if your head hurts constantly, if your heart beats really fast, if your vision is bad, if your skin crawls and tingles all over, if you start losing feeling in your fingers or toes...etc. etc. You still may have Lyme, even if you test negative.
5.) Antibiotics are your best bet. Read up on herbal treatment, read up on zapper machines. I think herbs may help, but I'd still take them together with antibiotics. Zappers I think are bullshit.
6.) Most importantly - DON'T TAKE LYME LIGHTLY! It's not quite the minor three week annoyance it's made out to be.
Also, watch this documentary. It's very emotional, it's quite subjective. But it should be. It's heartbreaking, but watch it still.
I've been tested positive for Lyme right before last summer. Since then I took the standard three week antibiotic treatment. And while that helped a bit, I still felt almost the same after. I didn't give up and found support in my family. I've been on a combination ATB treatment since then.
Yes, I've been taking antibiotics for more than two months.
And I feel SO MUCH BETTER!
Recently I've been really getting back to normal. Some problems still persist, I discovered a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome in both my hands, but overall I got much much better.
I still have some time to go on the treatment we planned. We'll see if it returns after I go off the meds. Maybe I'll continue with something else.
Please, don't think me crazy. I simply did what I thought was logical, what made sense. Not what I was told to do.
If you've read past here, I can't believe you did, wow. :D Thank you so much.
If I got the warning across, that's awesome.
Next time it'll be either swords, armour, or some art, I promise. :)
Dračí Doupě Lite will be released soon and we're calling it "the Pirate version". Therefore I had to paint a few pirate/ship/river related illustrations. All rather quickly. It was fun though!
