dlambeaut's avatar

dlambeaut

153 Watchers229 Deviations
37.8K
Pageviews
I have just submitted The Island of the Lizard King's map to my gallery.

The Island of The Lizard King by dlambeaut

It has been a nice small proyect: It has recalled nice memories for my late childhood, challenged some of my abilities, and entertained me in this days of isolation because of the COVID-19 (Damn it!).
Also, as geologist, I couldn't help trying to find geological sense to the main island's features, something quite risky and difficult in most of the fantasy maps, that are usually designed just for aesthetic purposes, forgetting all logic and laws of physics (A wizard, or a god, did it, didn't he?)
I was going to expose my conclusions in the pictures description, but that would have made it too long, so, for all those interested in expeculative geology, here they are:

Fire Island is placed over a hot spot, on a tectonic plate that moves roughly from east to west, on a tropical latitude, very similarly to the Canary Islands. So, the eastern parts of the island are the oldest, and the active volcano is placed on its weternmost end.
The island has suffered different important volcanic episodes in the past, resulting in several calderas: I can see three to four of them.
The oldest caldera remains are the northeastern bay, sunked down and flooded by sea water; on its volcano's south slope grows the oldest and most extensive patch of jungle, where a tribe of headhunter pygmies live.
The swamp reveals the second caldera's placement: It has started to sink and, though still surrounded by the remains of the volcanic cone, water has started to filter from underground, creating a round shaped brackish marsh.
The central jungle patch could be a third eroded volcano that, accumulating moisture inside, has allowed the tree vegetation to grow. The mine in its proximities makes perfect sense, as many metallic ores are related to volcanic activity.
Actual volcano is over the youngest and active caldera, surrounded by wide, growing, extensions of low rounded hills, composed of volcanic ashes and old lava flows.  The prison and fortress is placed near the volcano posibly due to another metalliferous deposit related to it (another mine).

From a biological point of view, Fire Island is a young (considering geological timing) uneven isle, still evolving, and beginnig to be colonized by vegetal and animal lifeforms. Jungle is starting to colonize the most favorable areas, at the foot of sparsely vegetated hill ranges and lava fields. At this stage, most of its fauna should be composed by flying creatures, so it's difficult to know how most of the big terrestrial ones have arrived so soon (there's a bear in the text!), unless they had been brought by human settlers. The presence of other exotic creatures, like hill giants or ogres, are more difficult to explain: Can a hill giant swim?

In another vein, the port doesn't appear in the book: I understand that, because of gaming and tale telling purposes, the fortress is inland, but it's absurd not to place such an important thing closer to the coast. So, as I wrote before, I suppose that it is there for an important purpose, probably another mine, and consider inevitable the existence of the harbor. Placed at the mouth of two rivers on the south coast, protected this way from the prevailing northwest winds and waves, it can comunicate efficiently the fortress with the southern mine and the mainland.

That's, more or less, what can be inferred from the available cartography. To get more accurate conclusions, a scientific expedition would be necessary. But only after the Lizard King's reign of terror is definitely overdue...

For the rest... well, a wizard did it!
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
I wrote about expectations before, and how they tend to twist and surprise the artist. This happened with my first (and only! :crying:) Daily Deviation: A photo I judged not good enough by itself, and submitted to the stock folder.
In some way, something very similar happened to a couple of images of an angel statue (that I, prosaically, titled "Cemetery angel 1" and "Cemetery angel 2") I took some years ago: They are not DD's, but, even though I sentenced them to the stock folder too, little by little, they are among the most faved and praised of my gallery.

Cemetery angel 1 by dlambeaut   Cemetery angel 2 by dlambeaut

I now all the merit is hers (well, the sculptor's...): I just framed without much personality and shooted... And I'm completely happy of they to be used to bring forth beautiful photomanipulations from other deviants (take a look to the links in the original photos' comments, if you want).
But I felt I hadn't been fair enough to her, that she deserved more from me, in the way other fellow artists had been.

And I came back to her...

I live long away from Oviedo; I travel there once or twice a year to see my wife's family, and last year I had no vacations to do it. But this past Christmas I managed to have a nice photoshoot with my new muse, just like I did back in 2014 with another old acquaintance of mine: The Exterminating Angel from Comillas cemetery.

The melancholy of the destroyer by dlambeaut

I had to go to her twice, because the first time she was strongly backlit, and took about thirty photos, posing them not as stock or statue photos, but as portraits of a woman, getting closer, whispering
gently to her, admiring her well balanced stance.

It's curious how most of deviants comentators, and now even me, refer to it as "her": Angels are supposed to be and be represented genderless, but, taking a closer look, we'll notice, under the folds of her tunic, a young, slender, woman's hips and a small breast, the other  hidden under some roses held against the chest by her right hand. Even her left foot, uncovered by now dead winds far beyond our perception, looks small and feminine. Compare her, if you please, with the sinewy, sword wielding angel shown above this paragraph.
Only the expression of her fine face is not of this world: Cold, empty, totally devoid of human emotions. Just as a true angel's visage should be!

After a painful but fast selection process, a new couple of photos were chosen to be my small homage to her
stony cold classical beauty.

Take my hand by dlambeaut   Sic itur ad Caelum by dlambeaut

I've promised myself to never come back to San Salvador cemetery with my camera.

...but I know I'm fooling myself.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
During the last months, taking advantage of the little spare time I had, I've been doing the Nikon School Online Grade. Now it's time to finish it, and for that I gotta do a final proyect, consisting of eight photographs on a common theme.
I've chosen Urban Landscapes: Probably it's the one I'm more confortable with, and, back home after holidays, it's the nearest field, apart of the portrait (but my models are mainly my daughter and family, and I'd never upload photos of them).
I want to focus it like a working project, so, early this morning I took the camera and spent several hours roaming the city... and think I gotta change the method. I've learned several facts to improve, apart photography techniques, in orden to get a smoother workflow and better results:

    1.- Using the car to commute is counterproductive; I've spent too many time looking for parking, and missed many views because I couldn't stop, because of the traffic. I'd better use the bus, tramcar and, above all, my own feet. The better way to do photos is walking.

    2.-
Connected with the above, trying to cover an area too large is counterproductive too, and the way to produce fewer and worse photos. I'm gonna get a city map and mark several small areas to cover daily, and concentrate in them one by one.

    3.-
I got up early, but not enough. Gotta wake up earlier, for better light, and more hours availables.

    4.- I need a backpack. My old camera bag is cumbersome and not very flexible.

    5.- I have to bring some snacks with me: I'm really hungry by midmorning!

    6.-
Women are more beautiful out of my neighborhood. This does not affect the project itself, and should not influence me, but it's curious and fun! ;)

Most of these, if not all, are quite ovbious, but I wanted to write them all together, to resume the job as soon as possible in the best way.

Maybe tomorrow.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
So, 'ere we are again, after a (too) long hiatus.
Job issues took me away from nearly any artistic activity almost since last spring. We have not finished the project that has occupied me more than ten hours a day for the past nine months, but we begin to see the end of it, so I have the luxury of entering into this new equinox with a new Invisible Man misadventures' strip:

the Loneliness of an Invisible Man: Act XII by dlambeaut

This time, idea came to my mind while listening Queen's greatest hits with my daughter some weeks ago. After that, it all started to roll again...
I know it
was not very successful before, but I had to do it: I needed to think in something more than concrete, quality and security control during all this time, just for the sake of my mind! For the moment I have scripted a couple of strips more, and got ideas for a couple more.
I've been involved all the time, in watching, faving and commenting for the community, like some kind of Invisible Deviant, but now I hope to be able to recover some time for the humble art of my own.
See you soon. Or maybe not... if you are an Invisible Man... ;P
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Last Easter, because job duties, I spent a whole week away from my daughter.
She was on spring hollidays with her grandparents. I hadn't spent such a long time away from her since she was a baby, and we both didn't liked it at all.
Everyday I shooted a short film with my cell phone and a toy of hers, wich I called "the Zombie Chickling", showing off its misadventures, and sent it to her via my wife's whatssap. And she loved them...
Finally, past weekend I picked her back home. When we first met, we spent a whole half an hour just laughing, simply because of joy. After that, I doodled this particular rendition of the Zombie Chickling for her:

Zombie Chickling Doodle by dlambeaut

So this is dedicated to Nora. I know it's far from perfect, like my parenting, but I did it with all my heart.
I love you dear. Ever.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

Fire Island geomorphology by dlambeaut, journal

And I came back to her by dlambeaut, journal

Urban Landscapes Proyect Method Improvement by dlambeaut, journal

Invisible Man is back! by dlambeaut, journal

The Zombie Chickling by dlambeaut, journal