Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Wi+ches & Wiz_rds 3: The Unsettling Art of Buburuz

These pieces by Cathy Buburuz remind me a bit of Erol Otus, in that stylization trumps realism, allowing for eerie effects that maybe wouldn't translate well had the pieces been done in the Renfaire Fantasy tradition of Easley and such. Also, holy crap Yog-Sothoth is wrapping a tentacle around Saturn!

Double dog dare to all the DMs out there: Next time you use nagas in your game, show the players the picture above or below this text.



Buburuz's spiders creep me the hell out.


A spaceship flying through space? Best post-Kirby use of inexplicable space-dots I've ever seen.

This tower or one like appears in several images. I am totally writing an adventure around it.



Apart from the facial hair this 4-armed person looks feminine to me. A four-armed mutant hermaphrodite wizard, perhaps? The king/queen of the strange tower? Are those eyes closed or are they angry pupiless orbs?

So this Catherine Buburuz artist seems totally rad to the max to me. Judging by the few pieces I have it seems to me that she's got something unique to share and the means to articulate it to the audience. That's a lot more interesting to me than one more pic of a dude with a sword throwing down with a dragon. Not that I'm against that sort of thing.
Print
Posted by Jeff Rients at 9:57 AM

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:41 AM

    I think that tower and the wizard have encounter critical written all over them. Speaking of which, over on the EC yahoo group, a lot of the links to download files are dead. I submitted a message about this to the group last week, but my message seems to have fallen into a horrible black void.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stuart11:00 AM

    http://www.cafepress.com/cathybuburuz.36996295

    Merry Christmas?

    ReplyDelete
  3. S. John Ross11:03 AM

    I've always considered Easley a "medievalist fantasy" illustrator rather than a "renfaire fantasy" one ... but I haven't kept up with his recent stuff (if there is any).

    I always thought TSR was pretty good about avoiding the Renfaire look until the AD&D2nd days, when they started leaning that way pretty hard, with lots more poofy shoulders, floppy hats, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous11:13 AM

    I've only ever read reviews and real play reports, but this pics make me think of Polaris. http://www.tao-games.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. S. John Ross11:50 AM

    Okay, nevermind. I went to his Wikipedia entry, and Easley deserves to be called "renfaire" just for that outfit he's wearing. Oy :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. skeleri1:41 PM

    I wanna lock Easley up in that creepy eyeball tower.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Alex7:06 PM

    Apparently, Buburuz considers herself a "horror entertainment" artist.

    http://catherine_buburuz.tripod.com/

    More spiders et al there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Intruder_W12:53 AM

    I've got Virgil Finley flashbacks from those eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous7:27 AM

    By the way, I finally got the files on the EC yahoo group to download for me. Robodroid Island is sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jeff Rients9:42 AM

    Thanks for the links, stuart and alexander! And I'm glad things are working for you Wulfgar.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Blair7:51 PM

    Wait, this is clip art?!?! With all republishing arts, etc?

    I have to get ahold of a copy solely for the Buburus art!

    Stuff make me think of Tekumel for some reason

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)