Whew! - Ottoman Steampunk
Apr. 7th, 2010 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gracedpalmerThere ought to be more of it, don't you think? What with the Ottoman Turks inventing the steam engine in the 16th century and all.
This was inspired by old sci-fi stories where the human race builds a computer to make all their decisions for them, and David Bowie's Saviour Machines. I actually vaguely timed this one - there's about 28 hours of work in it. 12 of them are on the linework itself; the other 16 are on the colors. The original was 16x20. Digital as usual, lots of reference to sculpture and Ottoman artwork.
Authenticity note: I could not find much information on Ottoman Turkish clothing past the SCA period, on the clothing and accoutrements of sultans, or on wrapping this style of turban. So, a lot of this is invented and mixed and matched from many sources. I've almost certainly gotten it wrong, but I did the best I could as a non-Turkish speaker. The same goes for the calligraphy on the bannisters - I got it from a reasonably good source, but I don't read Arabic lettering. Correct me if I'm wrong, please!
Additional note: While Islamic law traditionally forbids the making of human images, this has varied a lot over the course of history, and the 19th century was a pretty secular period.
Nghi has written a wonderful story snippet for this, but I am trying to get her to send it to magazines, so I can't link you to it.
This was inspired by old sci-fi stories where the human race builds a computer to make all their decisions for them, and David Bowie's Saviour Machines. I actually vaguely timed this one - there's about 28 hours of work in it. 12 of them are on the linework itself; the other 16 are on the colors. The original was 16x20. Digital as usual, lots of reference to sculpture and Ottoman artwork.
Authenticity note: I could not find much information on Ottoman Turkish clothing past the SCA period, on the clothing and accoutrements of sultans, or on wrapping this style of turban. So, a lot of this is invented and mixed and matched from many sources. I've almost certainly gotten it wrong, but I did the best I could as a non-Turkish speaker. The same goes for the calligraphy on the bannisters - I got it from a reasonably good source, but I don't read Arabic lettering. Correct me if I'm wrong, please!
Additional note: While Islamic law traditionally forbids the making of human images, this has varied a lot over the course of history, and the 19th century was a pretty secular period.
Nghi has written a wonderful story snippet for this, but I am trying to get her to send it to magazines, so I can't link you to it.