Matt Manley's introspective conceptual work

Click on each thumbnail to view the images in their original galleries on artist's site:



To learn more about Manley's work, see interview "Introspection" on Poetic Mind.

Suggested by Queena Deboever.

Leo and Diane Dillon's African American mermaid illustrations

Two mermaid illustrations from Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales, a beautifully illustrated collection of stories:

Illustration from the story 'Mary Belle and the Mermaid'.

Click on thumbnail to visit "The Art of Leo and Diane Dillon" blog for a larger view of this illustration and other fantastical illustrations from the same book.

Illustration from the story 'The Mer-Woman Out of the Sea'.

Click on thumbnail to visit "The Art of Leo and Diane Dillon" blog for a larger view of this illustration and other fantastical illustrations from the same book.

Giovanni Manna's illustrations for "The Barefoot Book of Giants, Ghosts and Goblins"

The Barefoot Book of Giants, Ghosts and Goblins is John Matthew's retelling of nine traditional supernatural tales from around the world. 5 stories out of the 9 stories are from non-European cultures, specifically Cheyenne, Hausa, Chinese, Evenk and aboriginal Australian. The illustrator is Giovanni Manna.

In 'The Bunyip', a group of Australian youths capture a young aquatic monster...

In 'Little Ooyani', the Evenk hero makes himself iron wings to confront the cloud-dwelling demon who devoured his people.

In 'A-Man-Among-Men', a Hausa tale about the origin of thunder and lightning, two giants battle in the sky.

Nilesh Mistry's "Duel in the Sky" and "Hanuman"

A couple of Ramayana illustrations from illustrator Nilesh Mistry:

Illustration from 'Traditional Tales From India', published by Belitha Press.

An illustration from The Story of Divaali, published by Barefoot Books.

Merfolk in Southeast Asian Ramayana paintings

The following Southeast Asian Ramayana paintings were photographed by Margery H. Freeman and displayed on the learnnc.org site (no affiliation with this blog). Click thumbnails to view images on Learn NC.

Modern Balinese painting of Ravana's mermaid daughter with dark skin.

Thai mural depiction of the same mermaid character in an earlier scene in the epic.

Another Thai Ramayana mural painting featuring a merman, a mermaid and what appears to be a nagini. (female naga)

Marrwho Hasati's 'Growth', 'The Journey' and 'Meditation'

Click thumbnails to view larger images on other sites(no affiliation with this blog):

Suggested by Queena Deboever

The Songkhla Mermaid

Created in 1966 by Jitr Buabus, this bronze sculpture is located at Laem Samila Beach in Songkhla Province, Thailand.¹ The mermaid character comes from Phra Aphai Mani,² a fantastical epic poem written by 19th century royal poet Sunthorn Phu.³

Notes:

1. Songkhla Mermaid on wikipedia
2. Thai Blogs: Mermaid in Songkhla
3. Sunthorn Pu on wikipedia

Jeremy Love's Bayou

A graphic novel set in 1930s Mississippi, Bayou is an American fairytale that is equal parts history and fantasy. The child heroine Lee watches in horror as a monster rising from the swamp kidnaps her white friend. Lee's innocent father is then accused of murdering the missing white girl.

To clear her father's name and save his life, Lee sets out on a fantastical journey to rescue her friend, journeying through a landscape populated by supernatural creatures based on Southern cultural archetypes - Br'er Rabbit,  lynching victims metamorphosed into winged fairies, and Bayou, the mighty green swamp dwelling creature who becomes Lee's guide. [Image on left is from Bayou Volume 1]

Teshkeel Media Group's "The 99"

Created by Kuwaiti psychologist Dr Naif Al-Mutawa, and executed by the artists at Teshkeel Comics, The 99 is a comic book series about 99 superheroes from around the globe. Each superhero is the personification of one of the 99 virtues of Islam, but individual characters are not necessarily Muslim.

According to the official site, The 99 was born out of "a need for new role models that children from China to Chad to Canada could relate to as their own without the parochial influence of any nation, religion or individual."

Here is a sample of characters hailing from non-European countries:

From left-to-right:

1. Abena "Liza" Dagate, aka MUSAWWIRA - THE ORGANIZER, from Ghana/USA
2. Nizar Babikr, aka SAMI - THE LISTENER, from Sudan/France
3. Hope Mendoza, aka WIDAD - THE LOVING, from the Philippines
4. Toro Ridwan aka FATTAH - THE OPENER, from Indonesia
5. Haroun Ahrens, aka BARI - THE HEALER, from South Africa
6. Dana Ibrahim, aka NOORA - THE LIGHT, from UAE
7. Nawaf Al Bilali, aka JABBAR - THE POWERFUL, from Saudi Arabia

John Jude Palencar's cover art for Octavia Butler's Earthseed series

The 1995 February mass-market cover for Parable of the Sower.

For cover image and more information on this edition, click thumbnail to go to publication listing on Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

The 2001 November mass-market cover for Parable of the Talents.

For cover image and more information on this edition, click thumbnail to go to publication listing on Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

Suggested by Queena Deboever.

James Ng's Chinese steampunk

The award-winning 'Night Patrol'.

Click thumbnail to go to image on artist's site.

The award-winning 'Imperial Airship'.

Click thumbnail to go to image on artist's site.

Check out more of the series on James Ng's web site.

One reason that this blog hasn't featured many East Asian characters yet is because East Asians aren't exactly under-represented in fantasy art, IMHO.

WotC art from Todd Lockwood

Lava Mage

Hellfire Dragon

Challenges

Daughter of the Drow

Heather Hudson's Darba

'Darba' refers to the bird, not the human character, in the illustration. (In the world of "Magic the Gathering", there is an Africa-like supercontinent named Jamuraa.)

Donato Giancola's Agrus Kos wallpaper

Agrus Kos is an investigator from Ravnica: City of Guilds

Click thumbnail to go to Agrus Kos wallpaper wizards.com.

Click here to see Giancola's sketch and final art on wizards.com.

Jason Chan's Koth of the Hammer

Koth wallpaper on wizards.com. (Koth is a MTG character)

Hala Wittwer's "The Winged Cat"

Cover illustration for The Winged Cat: And Other Tales of Ancient Civilizations:

Click thumbnail to view larger image on artist's site. This illustration appeared in Spectrum 10: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art.

Carl Angel's "Children of Bathala"

Children of Bathala is a series of paintings by illustrator Carl Angel, depicting the mythology of the Philippines.

Sachin Nagar's illustrations for "Ravana"

Artwork from graphic novel Ravana: Roar of the Demon King.

The titular character, Ravan, is a demon king from Hindu mythology. Click on thumbnails to visit the illustrator's image post on CGTantra.

Thomas Blackshear's "The Watcher" and Ebony Visions angel figurines

Click on thumbnails to visit artist's site.

View more angel figurines in Blackshear's Ebony Visions.

Pierangelo Boog's Maori Warrior

Click thumbnail to visit artist's blog.

John Jude Palencar's "Wings of Wrath" cover art

The cover character is Siderea, the copper-skinned, black-eyed Witch Queen who plays a major role in the Wings of Wrath: Book Two of C.S. Friedman's Magister Trilogy. Click thumbnail image to go to book review on the Fantasy Book critic blog. (No affiliation with this blog)