I hold a special place in my heart for the Zungars of Dreamblade. They were a new race of recurring creatures designed for Dreamblade as a type of alien that lives or manifests in the dreamscape and I got to be the lucky guy to design them. They were described as being put together with the wrong size pieces but yet functioned as a normal living creature, they had the big hair tendrils, eyes on the side of the head and a unique skin texture. With all that in mind I got to work and came up with this:
Ardent Zungar - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
The Ardent Zungar was the first pass at the Zungars and was approved straight out. I did have to go back and make the pose a little more dynamic but I always liked this first drawing the most and that is why I am not including the turnaround for the Ardent Z. A side not about the weapon, it was described as having this big crude mace. I was still getting my head around the culture and style of the Zungar since I was creating it on the fly with each new miniature I realize after finishing the Zungar Blademaster for Baxar's War that the Ardent's mace was all wrong for what the Zungars were becoming. I submitted a drawing of a replacement mace but production had moved along to far to do anything about it.
Zungar Bodyguard - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
The Zungar Bodyguard is still one of my favorite miniatures from Dreamblade. The detail is all there, it is big and the paint job is great. I really began fleshing out the culture of the Zungar with this guy. You will notice the "face" on the shield, it will become a recurring theme. I thought of it as a holy symbol or graven image. I imagined the face being a stylized representation of a huge creature that the Zungars worshiped as a god. I even did some drawings of what that creature looked like in hopes of maybe submitting it as a miniature idea, but time was against me and it never happened.
Zungar Blademaster - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
The smallest of the Zungar miniatures and a useful piece in play in my opinion. You can see some of the shapes and images I established with the bodyguard reappearing.
Zungar Standardbearer - © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
These guys had quite the wingspan. Again, repeating the imagery and forms on the armor and items. Wonder if I should have put something on the back of the banner...
Zungar Shieldsworn - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC
I really like the drawings of the two Zungars I did for Anvilborn. I tried to branch out a little more with the style and feel of the Zungar with this set, didn't want to just keep repeating. Though you will see similar equipment, like the helmet of the Bodyguard, just less fancy since it is a lower ranking Zungar. Also trying to make them a little more Dynamic.
Zungar Envoy - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC
Like the Shieldsworn I was really happy with how this drawing turned out. I felt like I did some fun stuff with it's robes and items.
I did not work on any of the Zungars for sets 5 and 6, Night Fusion and Serrated Dawn. Other artists got to add their voices to the look and feel of the Zungar to make them more diverse and varied. But I did get to work on one last Zungar for the unreleased set 7.
Unreleased Zungar Priest - © 2006 Wizards of the Coast LLC
I was really itching to work on another Zungar and when I was assigned this one I went all out. Since it was a priest I really played up the "god face" as well as tie in some elements from the Envoy. I think this is my favorite of my Zungar drawings. I wonder how the mini would have turned out...
That's it for now, I have been itching to share my Zungars for awhile but I was waiting for the right time. You can look forward to more of my set 7 designs to start showing up as well.
The very cool Geek Night 4.0 poster designed by Heidi Zito
