Art of a fantasy giant chasing small characters away from his lair, a temple. I’m naming this painting Cave Leo.
Titan is a gentle archetype demon or demigod who wears a strange set of golden armor. I created this character in 2011 and often return to the drawing board for more versions of him, his outfits, story, and peers.
I’m tagging posts from his story as Titan and Eden, and they’re part of my worldbuilding rambles. ♥
Software: Photoshop
The giant’s lair — Temple of the Two Gates
This is a location I named Temple of the Two Gates.
There’s a story inside their fictional world in which the innermost part of the temple has two locked gates. This is inspired by the real-world ancient Rome villas and the Temple of Janus.
“Cave Leo” and cave canen art
Looters invading a ruined temple came upon a faded sign:
“CAVE LEO”
“heck no lion nor cave lets go in”
Sign is latin for “beware of Lion”
“Cave Canen” mosaics were the ancient Rome’s “beware of the dog” signs.
I adore those mosaics and would love to have a reproduction at home one day.
Also note that these were meant more as a “there is a dog here” than a “the dog is violent”. So these signs could also protect small dogs from being stepped on.
With this in mind I painted a mosaic sign for my illustration.
A lot of Titan’s features (physical, the armor, and his character) evoke lions, so my solution was a “cave leo” floor tile placed under his foot, near the POV.
The chains are like a leach and tell the story of how Titan is also bound to his lair and powers.
Close-ups
Development — floor plans and sketches
The first floor of the lair is meant for socialization ad the living quarters. I drew its floor plans using ancient Rome houses, the domus, as references.
Real domuses (is this a word?) were meant for family living, servants and business, with the Tablinum being the office of the head-of-household, the paterfamilias.
I thought it was interesting that this open chamber had a privileged view of domus’ other chambers, and wanted something similar for Titan. It raises concepts of a guardian watching their protegees and propriety, but also of hypervigilance, suffocation, and the burden of responsibility.
Please note that this is a romanticized, fantasy view and interpretation of the real-world reference.
Back to the painting, I planned for this scene with the fleeing invaders to be happening in the exterior corridors. They serve as a layer between the first floor and the outside patios and jungle.
A size-shifting giant
Titan is able to change his size, which is useful when fighting large monsters or mobs. I came up with the idea that his depiction in the painting above is the maximum height limit that he can hit comfortably.
Nothing is set on stone, but it was nice to create these concepts and come up with their lore.
Long Description of the full illustration
A daylight painting inside a temple’s corridor which has richly decorated tile and plaster walls. The main structures are a creamy, pale stone tiles and columns with carvings and painted geometric patterns (in red, black and blue.) The right side of the image has an open wall with columns leading to an exterior view of a golden hour sky, painted with purples and oranges.
There is a giant man wearing gold armor, brown leather sandals, a gold helmet with a long red plume, and a white long tunic seen under a red skirt. He is fair-skinned and points a sword at two small fleeing characters, as he drags a third person through the corridor’s tiled floor. The tiny characters are almost as tall as his shins, and one of them carries a rifle.
Painting video
I live streamed part of this painting @ Twitch. There’s a backup on YouTube:
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