John Bowden

Ank Morpork Town

This is an illustration of the town of Ank Morpork, including the Broken Drum the temple of the seven handed sek, the alchemist shop, and a few other small houses and a chapel.

The piece was drawn with Indian ink on A4 mixed media paper

Rincewind in the forest

This is an illustration of the scene when Rincewind is hanging from a tree trying to escape a pack of wolves below. He is speaking with the character Death who has once again caught up to him as he is about to fall from the tree and be eaten. Rincewind is grabbed from behind and taken into the tree trunk by a pair of mysterious hands.

The drawing was done in Indian Ink on A4 mixed media paper

The Iconograph

This is an illustration of the Imp Camera or Iconograph, that Twoflower carries around on his travels. The Imp is a grumpy artist that lives within the camera, painting the photographs that are then printed from it. In this scene the imp is complaining to Rincewind about there not being enough pink paint left, since they had been, commissioning paintings of women in the Ank Morpork Brothel earlier. The illustration of the camera where the imp lives was inspired by the old camera obscurant of the mid 1600’s.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in Pencil.

The Wyrmberg

This is an illustration of Rincewind, Twoflower and the legendary Barbarian Hrun, escaping the Wrymberg and the Dragon Lady and her dragon riders, atop the great dragon Ninereeds. They fly high above the Wrymberg into the clouds touching the swirling colours of magic. To create the dragons I did a lot of research into the anatomy of different dinosaur species, of carnivore and herbivore such as T-rex, Triceratops and Notocolussus. I also did research into a few other animals, such as the vampire bat with it’s curved pointed wings, and different types of lizard for the eyes and dragon mane, the bearded dragon was one such influence among these.

This piece was created on A3 mixed media paper and painted in Acrylic and drawn in Indian Ink.

Draids height comparison

These are illustrations of Draids along side Rincewind. Showing the height comparison of the characters, the male Draids are tall and powerful men compared to Rincewind and the females Draids.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in pencil

The Sending of Eight

This is an illustration of the god character fate. He is among the other gods of the discworld playing a dungeons and dragons like boardgame. Rincewind and Twoflower being the characters they are controlling. The character design of fate was inspired by a lot of different things. Such as creatures from doctor who and monsters ink, but also the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh ruffs , and the neck ruffs seen in certain higher class Elizabethan characters of the 1600’s.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in Indian Ink

Death Pointing

This is an illustration of the character Death. He is inspired by the Grim Reaper, and has an emblem of two keys on his chest which was a deviation from skull and cross bones, to perhaps mean the keys to death and the afterlife. I don’t know if there is, or if a realm for death and the afterlife was intended for the discworld, or if it was left to the reader to decide, but I wanted to add my own style and spin on it, and create an icon for this character to distinguish him from the other Grim Reaper characters, seen in other fantasy/fiction illustrations. For I found Death’s character in this series to be very unique, and even funny at times. He is not a morally good or evil character but rather a character with a necessary and important job to do, of which he does in a non bias and accepting way. He is a very interesting character, which I am still learning about in the books.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in Pencil

Rincewind

I imagined the characters in general to be short and disproportioned with large heads and small bodies, often seen in the designs of early video game characters because they lacked the pixels to show the full proportioned body in enough detail, wanting to emphasise the face which is our connection to the character.

I wanted to give them a comical cuteness, small not very intimidating or powerful people in a large unpredictable magical world. I gave the wizard Rincewind a long slightly pointy nose because I interpreted him to be in a way cynical and distrustful, but also quite intentionally nosey. He has a long beard and hair showing that he could be quite clumsy, possibly tripping over his beard. Also again he is very small showing his cowardly nature.

I imagined Twoflower, to be round and have the attire that had a similarly lined pattern of a beach ball. In the book his clothes are described to have the colours of a beach ball and I took this idea to represent his round physique as well. He could trip and fall over and roll around quite comically. He has patterns on his shirt of flowers like daisy's, showing visually his name Twoflower. He has a straw hat, and a red nose for added comedic effect, and a face shaped so that it has two overly round golf ball cheeks, with a constant smile on his face. He is often cheerful and a naively optimistic character; clearly the worlds first tourist.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in Coloured Pencil and Indian Ink

Temple of Bel Shamharoth

This is an illustration of when Hrun the Barbarian takes Rincewind and Twoflower upon horseback, as they flee from the crumbling temple of Bel Shamharoth. The character Death is following them from behind, as the powerful rush of wind blows the trees and the pillars around the temple start to crumble.

This piece was created on A3 mixed media paper and painted in Acrylic paint and drawn in Indian Ink

Inside the Wrymberg

This is an illustration of Rincewind battling the Dragon Lord Liartes inside the Wrymberg. The Dragons are gathered around wondering who will be their next meal.

This piece was created on A3 mixed media paper and painted in Acrylic paint and drawn in Indian Ink

Riding atop Ninereeds

This is an illustration of Rincewind and Twoflower escaping the Wrymberg atop the dragon Ninereeds.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in Indian Ink

Druella the Draid Queen

This is an illustration of the Draid Queen Druella. She has green skin, roots and flowers growing around her body, as well as a few different types of ornamental jewellery around her body. Roots and leaves also twist around her throne within the Draid tree.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in Indian Ink

Sea troll in cabin at night

The two day time and night time forms of the sea troll were an illustrated creation made up of different types of seaweed, coral, jellyfish and sea shells, that I gathered on the beaches of Aberytwyth and copied, coming together to create the two different creatures. The day time sea troll is small and friendly, being the same height as Rincewind and Twoflower. Whilst the evening troll towers over them in his large hut interior, being an intimidating powerful creature of the sea from another world. Both of the creatures were designed to appear alien looking in contrast to the other characters, hence the jellyfish resting on top of the evening sea trolls head.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in pencil

Sea Troll Daytime

This is an illustration of the sea troll in daytime. Like the Sea troll at night is was inspired by the sea debris found on the beach, such as seaweed, coral, sea shells and jellyfish.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in pencil and ink

Height scaling 2

This is an illustration comparing the heights of the different creatures and characters in meters.

This piece was created on A4 mixed media paper and drawn in pencil