If you draw Fantasy Art for a living, (or even for leisure actually), there are few places more inspiring than the Royal Armouries in the Tower of London.
One of the reasons why Jagex is a cool place to work in, is that it’s always happy to invest in training and improvement, which is why last week my fellow Concept Artists and I were sent to London for a Life Drawing session.

The plan was to spend a day at the armouries copying weapons and armours from life.
What we didn’t take into account was the throng of tourists competing with us for a spot in front of the coolest pieces, so we ended up just taking reference pictures and talking about how every specific detail could have fit into Runescape.

What never fails to amaze me is that no matter how crazy the designs you come up with for a game are, you always find that something crazier has already been done. Like, five centuries before.
For example, I’d never draw a blade as twisted as the one below because, well, how the hell is it supposed to work? Or be sheathed?
Yet, this was actually used.

The decoration on this elm is so tacky it would be perfect for the ego of a final Boss.

The size of the following armour is not a camera trick. This is the tallest armour ever built. The guy who used to wear it was 2.10 metres tall. His sword was WAY taller than me.

One other piece I loved is this dagger. Simple and elegant. Its design would also be perfect for a space ship now that I think of it.

And then the Middle Ages equivalent of today’s average Hummer drivers. This is what knights with small egos used to equip their armours with in order to counterbalance their – umm – deficiencies.

The other unmissable exhibit at the Tower of London is of course that of the Crown Jewels.
Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, pictures weren’t allowed inside. So you just have to believe my description of a diamond twice as big as an egg, or the solid gold wine tankard as big as a small bath tub.

All in all it was a nice and fruitful expedition, too bad we couldn’t manage to draw a single line.
The next training day it will be out in the Cambridge countryside, drawing landscapes from life.

And possibly cows.

by Paolo Puggioni

2 Responses

1. Sam says:

   May 1, 2012 at 20:24

   Ooh.. nice! Wish there were something like this we could do for transformers (short of sitting in the local car dealers). The dagger you like is a katar (had to draw one for a commission that had a scissor ability, once it had been inserted in the victim, ouch!)

   Reply
   • Paolo Puggioni says:

     May 3, 2012 at 17:56

     Umm I’m sure you could find something suitable if you look into it.
     Technology museums, things like that.
     Plus, the company seems quite keen on it:)
     Nice idea the scissors-katar, although the further cutting procedure might be a bit redundant once you’ve already be stabbed lol.

     Reply