This was a two month project I undertook during a self-study period at my school. I intended to build a fantasy universe based on African culture, mythology and folklore as an attempt to test my world-building and concept art skills. I spent two weeks on research and thumbnailing, and the rest on painting and drawing. The end result is a mixed bag of environment pieces, creature and character designs and a lot of written lore.
I feel I should note that all names have been taken from real African sources and reworked for my own means. I was not inventive enough to come up with hundreds of fake African names, but I tried to use them appropriately.
I feel I should note that all names have been taken from real African sources and reworked for my own means. I was not inventive enough to come up with hundreds of fake African names, but I tried to use them appropriately.
I started with several environment paintings intended to show the various environments of the continent of Jahai.
This depicts a Zulu rider upon a mount.
Here is a Xhosa village. Xhosa are expert craftsmen who have taken to a life of living on the water.
Here we see some Masaai travellers heading through the desert to a nearby city.
Here a Zulu warrior overlooks a massive crater teeming with life, similar to the Ngorongoro crater.
Eventually I felt it was necessary to create a map to orient myself when painting pieces and to give some sense to the lore I was writing. There are two maps, the second showing the influence of the four major human factions I had created.
I then moved on to creature designs. African folklore is full of imaginative examples of creatures, and many I simply expanded upon. I also threw in some dinosaurs for good measure.
In the future I will be adding character and prop designs, as well as finishing some environment paintings. In the end I hope to have a solid base of material which could be handed over to someone else in a fashion similar to a Dungeons and Dragons rulebook - the entire world prepared for future storytelling.
