East of Elvendom: April 2015

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

David Bergen's cover illustrations for The Earthsea Quartet

One of the few Earthsea book cover artists who actually depict Ged and Tehanu as people of color. The author Ursula Le Guin describes Ged as "reddish dark", and the Gontish people in general as red-skinned.


Click thumbnail to view larger image on katongboy.worpress.com	Detail of Ged	Detail of Tehanu

About this listing

This blog is dedicated to under-represented ethnic groups in fantasy/sci-fi art. The focus is on fantasy art featuring non-European characters and darker-skinned characters in general. Art inspired by the legends, folktales and mythology of non-European peoples is also included, since contemporary fantasy often takes inspiration from folklore and spiritual traditions.

The main criterion for image selection is quality. The works listed here are mostly illustrations/3D art by commercial artists, many of them well-known in their field. Although I may occasionally post links to drow illustrations, dark elves will probably not be the main focus of this blog.

Note: This blog does not necessarily endorse the work or message of any artist featured here. Nor does it guarantee the political correctness of images posted. This collection of images is only intended as a survey of what's out there.

The name of this blog was in part inspired by deepad's thought-provoking essay I Didn't Dream of Dragons:

"...I have had to learn how to love Tolkein while trying to find myself in the unmapped lands in the East where the Green and Blue wizards disappeared to."