First of all I want to share with you my new illustration for card game Berserk
At this time, I’ve had an unusual idea concerning color and composition. I wanted to use only two basic colors that are not associated with the forest, elves, and warriors; I aimed for something extremely unusual.
Secondly, I’d like to share some links that I use as references.
Recently, I found a very interesting collection of art in the New York Public Library. The most fabulous feature on this website is the ‘BROWSE‘ page. Here, you can choose one of the themes or tags of uploaded illustrations that match your target search. If you look at this list, you can find some very unusual themes, like ‘Animals–dead’ or ‘Exploration — 1499 & Earlier’ or ‘Costume — Underwear — 1800s.’ On each page, you’ll see a few dozen black and white or colored prints (engravings). Here, you can find thousands of illustrations of costumes from around the world. This is the best reference if you need to know how English gentlemen looked in the 1900s or other not-so-popular periods of time.
The second interesting website is The History of Costume By Braun & Schneider – c.1861-1880. Don’t use it if you want to draw very authentic illustration. Despite the fact that all these illustrations was made in the meddle of the XIX c. when there wasn’t even any Hollywood with dwarfs and elves many of these plates looks very unreal and fantastic! But this collection will be good as inspiration for your own costume design.
The Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection features color photographic surveys of the vast Russian Empire made between ca. 1905 and 1915. Just in case 😉
If you want to know how did the solder’s uniform look like at the World War I you will need colored photos collection at World War One Color Photos. In addition, here you can find some of the earliest version of vehicle etc.
If you need something very very specific like top view photo of the Dress Kapi model 1920 for the rank of General de Division you will need The Militaria Museum. Why not? It’s happens 😉
