HOME | DD
jmsnooks — Legacy of Kain
Published: 2009-07-17 03:43:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 7100; Favourites: 49; Downloads: 491
Redirect to original
Description
My birthday present for *kainthevampirelord , which will hopefully somewhat lighten the abject misery of getting a year older. Done with colored pencil, reduced in quality somewhat by my scanner, which always fowls up my colored pencil work. Wish you all could see the original.At any rate, I wanted to apply my skills at costume design to Mr. Kain. As always, I keep the character and his or her personality in mind at different stages. When my sister ~321kimbery123 saw the rough sketches she called the first one Casual-Formal wear Kain, and the 2nd Intense Battle ready Kain. The first one is actually Kain when he was human. Showing obvious signs of wealth, but not too gaudi or overstated. Loose fitting sleeves and wide legged pants. The next one is Kain as a Vampire. I wanted to have him to show intensity because this deals with the time period when he was taking over Nosgoth. I also included some Nosgoth tech in his costume. The last one is old mutated Kain from the SR period. A bit more armored with hints of technology but nothing obvious. He's already been to the time streaming chamber at this point. Once more his chest is bare, mainly because I think it suits him. He seems to have a penchant for running around without a shirt on (as do I), and eventually he pays for it.
In the background I decided to depict the timestream. If I had to do it over again I might have made it monochromatic so that the Kains would stand out more, but it's hard for me not to color things thoroughly being the color fanatic that I am. I also messed up on coloring one of his women in the top panel.
At any rate, all the events depicted in the timestream come from the first two games, Blood Omen and Soul Reaver. I elected not to show any of the events from BO2, SR2, or Defiance as those created and belong to an alternative timeline because of Raziel and Kain rewriting history. As a result those events do not cohere with the story of Kain as presented in the first two games. Other fans try to fit in the events of BO2 between BO1 and SR1 but the fact that Vorador and Janos are alive during that period precludes the possibility of those events having been a part of the original timeline. If Kain were to return to the chronological period of SR1 after the events of Defiance it would be completely different.
Related content
Comments: 79
G’day,
your artwork has been suggested for a feature by a member of #Realm-of-Fantasy 
Keep up the excellent work!
~Kaana
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Awesome, by all means go ahead and feature me. Anything that helps grab attention for me.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh My Freaking Gosh!!! this iz AMAZING!!!!! How did you get the colors so awesome?! I can't seem to do anything this elaborate with colored pencils!!! You're awesome!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
If you're interested I actually have some coloring tutorials on my youtube page. You can find the links in my journal: [link]
Also you can see a slideshow of the art I produced when I was your age for comparison.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thats awesome! thanks, i bet the tutorials will help. i suck at shading and anything that really has to do with coloring pencils...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I hope so, let me know whether or not you find it useful, and if you have any specific requests for something you want to see let me know what it is. I can always do more.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is very nice work. Are these characters of your own? im sure that answer is somewhere in these piles of comments, but Ill just ask and wait.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It's actually Kain from the Legacy of Kain series [link] but I redesigned his costumes. It's the same guy at three different stages of his life. Kind of a hardcore and villainous character. I drew it as a birthday present for *kainthevampirelord to soften the blow of getting a year older. We both turned 28 around the same time and it was awful.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
A good question...
Quite some time, a few days actually. Probably about 20 hours total.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow you've put so much into this picture, (I love the abyss scene) and it makes me pleased to see great LoK art drawn in traditional methods. I can symapthise with you how it is a complete pain to get coloured pencils to show up well with a scanner, I always have difficulty with that, but this still looks amazing. Have you tried taking a digital photo of your work? Sometimes that retains the original quality and colours a bit better.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks. Well I could also use a better scanner. Whenever I get a job the first thing I am going to do is replace my scanner. Then later on I will get an Ipod. I wanted to redesign Kain since costume design is a hobby of mine. At least in terms of concept art. I talked about doing a Kain fashion show with KTVL and she thought it was a good idea, so here it is.
You know I have seen other artists do that. Maybe I should give that a try.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You are epic with colors and costumes 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks, it's just too bad you can't see the originals. The scanner has an annoying tendency to take artistic liberties with my work. Tends to fade out the colors and add pixilation. I actually don't like this guy too much, but I drew him because I like to try my hand at different things, and, he's a popular topic for searches so I figured it would get me some attention. The LOK series has one of the most complex and interesting storylines I have ever seen in videogames. It is a bit dark though because it involves vampires, but I think I can give it to you in a nutshell what's going on here, as briefly as possible:
You have these pillars that protect the land and keep it healthy, and each pillar has a guardian who helps regulate the environment or something like that. Anyways, the lifespan of the guardians is prolonged, and if one dies then a new one is usually born. One day someone kills one of the guardians, and when her boyfriend (another guardian) finds her he goes completely mad and broadcasts his madness and corruption to all the other guardians, including the new baby Kain who is supposed to replace his girlfriend.
Kain is a spoiled nobleman who just messes around and has fun, until he gets killed for no reason when he tried to stay at some hotel. He goes to Hell for a while and one of the guardians offers to raise him back to life. He ends up being raised as a vampire (bottom panel). Then he goes around killing the other guardians. At some point he is goes back in time to kill this Hilteresque tyrant when he is still young before he becomes a tyrant. When he comes back the guy he killed was trumped up as a saint and all the vampires are killed off except for him. But in order for everything to be fixed he also has to die. For obvious reasons he decides not to kill himself and the land decays and no new guardians are born. He creates some more vampires to be his lieutenants and they each create an army. They take over and eventually one of the lieutenants sprout wings. Kain gets jealous and has him executed. After that all the vampires turn into dumb ugly monsters and end up being little smarter than animals which is what I showed down there near the end. There is more to it then that but that's the basics of what I have in my pic. I don't really care for Kain that much, I just thought it would be fun to redesign him and get some attention at the same time.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That does sound dark, but interesting. Lot of Caesar-esque backstabbing. I'm not much for vampires, but I do make exceptions.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
He does get manipulated and double crossed in some hardcore ways, and then he ends up betraying his number 1 lieutenant in the 2nd game. They really put some serious effort into the storyline. And as you play the games it unfolds for you more, and as you solve mysteries you also have to solve puzzles, which can be pretty annoying sometimes because they're so complex. I'm ashamed to say I consulted a walkthrough on some parts. The series has a huge fan following but I haven't seen any of those games in stores for years. The first two were for PSX and the last three were for PS2. Normally I don't like vampire stuff either unless it is VERY well done, like Vampire Hunter D (2nd anime), the Castlevania Series, and LOK. The only movie I thought was particularly great were the Underworld movies. I hated the "INterview with the Vampire" which I felt was too dark and depressing, and at least more than a little deranged with that kid and all. Twilight I only saw about 10 minutes of and it was so girly and teenage that those 10 minutes were painful. I didn't even want to see that much of it but I was at a friends house and they put it on against my objections.
A lot of people think the intro for the 2nd game in the series was pretty epic: [link] 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Grate work with colours I love idea and such a flashes of events you put there XD I don't know who are those black haired twins Kain is playing with ... but he looks happy ...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Haha, those women are pretty much just geishas.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Beautiful, good work with the colors! 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks man.
Thanks again, yea it really sucks.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thanks so much for the giftie
True, getting older is not the thing that makes me happy.
I like the concept for his clothes. Same about human Kain, he surely had a wealthy family (according to their huge mausoleum ) I imagine him as a bored and spoiled princeling who spent his time with wandering around Nosgoth, seeking for adventures. According the way he was speaking to the bar keeper, he was not that arrogant warrior he later became. I like him wearing red as human too.
I like his BO2 outfit the most, and even his ugly-self looks cool in that red and golden armour.
Great idea to put scenes of his life into the background (hehe Kain with two females...mind-reading? )
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You're welcome. Getting older is only cool when you're a kid, or maybe when you're really old and you're just surprised that you lived another year.
Yea, Kain was a spoiled nobleman, and I wanted to show that.
He's actually not the BO2 Kain, just Kain during the time between Blood Omen and Soul Reaver. I tried to also make him a little less ugly. The mutated Kain would not be so bad if he didn't have the lines all over his body and the nasty ragged sunken in cheeks which make him look rotten.
Well, there are two females because space was limited, but you know I had to put it in someplace. If I was doing Raziel he would probably be with bald women.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You succeeded with that. His human costume shows wealth, and does not says it's owner is anything more, but a spoiled aristocrat. Even if he worn an armour when he was wandering around Nosgoth, trying to get a room for the night by offering more money is so far away from his later nature.
Your drawing of green Kain looks much better than he looked in the game, it was not only his skin I disliked, but his whole figure. His skin really looks like rotting, his proportions are all wrong, especially in Defiance (too big shoulders and chest, short and thick waist, too thin arms to this body, too small head etc) and his facial features were ugly too. I didn't liked he has no eyebrows, and his hairline starts right above his nose (where's his forehead?) and those horns or what *ugh* and he was grinning all time like a stupid orc. I don't think he has to appear awful to look superior to human. I like how his face looks intelligent in BO2, but it's missing from the SR-series. He was supposed to be nothing more, but a jealous, stupid tard in the first SR in the first version, and maybe this goes with the stereotype of an awful appearance.
Forgot to add this in the first comment: I'm at the same opinion, BO2 does not fit between BO1-SR1 even if most fans think it this way. The BO2 prologue says it's events happened a few centuries after BO1...but there are the events of the other games in between, and some manipulation with the time. BO2 goes after Defiance. the events of SR1-SR2-Defiance is the altered timeline (since murdering William the Just) and BO2 is the fixed timeline, as it was supposed to follow the events of BO1 (perhaps you have seen this [link] )
Hahha Raziel has such a bad taste. But I don't think he'd even looked at other women than the bals sarafan priestesses who were the same fanatical as he.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
If I had put him in armor, I would have made it really detailed and decorative. More decorative than functional. He would probably have ended up looking more like a character from Dynasty Warriors. It is, now he would probably just say, "I will stay here, and I must not be disturbed."
He is a nasty yellowish snot colored green. I have pulled things out of my nose that look like him. In SR1 he looked the worst, in SR2 it seemed that they made him look more yellow, in Defiance he's back to his snot color again. I actually think he looks worse than an orc. I made him look better on purpose. I don't like the hero to be ugly. And you are right about the hairline too. I don't believe in evolution in real life or anything, but to me a really low forehead looks a bit bestial. Maybe for the female Kain I should change that a bit, make her look better.
Most fans don't watch enough Star Trek or Terminator to understand how the timeline works. You know there is a guy making a game (a fan game, not official) called "Prodigal Sons" where he tries to tie BO2 in with SR. He has it so that you play as Raziel or something as a Vampire and hunt down and kill Vorador and his people, then take over Nosgoth. Sounds like it could be a fun game, but I think the premise is a bit stupid. The official people who worked on those games said that the events in BO2 happen because of SR2 and Defiance. Maybe there are still some horrible things in the future, but I don't understand everything anyways. I know at the end of SR2 when Kain pulled the Reaver out of Raziel he had a flood of new memories because of the alteration. I saw your timeline a long time ago. I think you have the right idea but I don't think they could ever restore it to exactly what it was before Kain killed William. What is lost is lost.
Yes he does, or did. If he tried to go out with anyone else all his talk would come back to killing vampires.
Girl: So what do you think of this weather?
Razliel: It's great, the brightness will make it easier to see the vampires.
--or if it's cloudy--
Raziel: The rain is wonderful, it's acidic touch will be like fire on their pestilent skins.
Girl: So what do you do for fun?
Raziel: Kill vampires.
Girl: What about when you're not killing vampires?
Raziel: Work out, practice my form, and sharpen the weapons... so that I can kill vampires.
Raziel: Say... how would you like to watch me kill some vampires. Or maybe you want to go for a walk? I need to see how they are all coming along and make sure none of them can get down. I think that last one is still wiggling.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thanks man. Soon I'll be drawing Razalene and Kaina.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha, watch more Star Trek and it should help with that.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I saw that one episode from the Next Generation where Data visits the 1800s. It was good.
Also, Kain is supposed to be olive green (or close to it) in the last stage.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
"Times Arrow" I think is what that was called, and it was a 2 part one. They made it a season cliffhanger at the end of season 5 and concluded it at the beginning of season 6. Yes that was a good one. Although in that one they were more fulfilling the timeline than changing it.
Sometimes he's the nasty greenish color and sometimes he's yellow, I think it's more the lighting than anything else. Anyways, I hated the nasty greenish color, it made him look even more like a rotten corpse.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Who cares, it was still awesome 'cause it had Data in the 1800s. Also, I remember from AVGNs video game review that the Star Trek OS had Kirk and others wind up in the 1930s. Or somewhere around that time period.
Which is more or less the point considering that his liutenants got progressively worse in a physical term. The only reason the same transformation didn't happen to Kain is because of the Heart.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yea, Kirk traveled back to the Depression era because McCoy had gone ahead and changed history in such a way that the Federation had never existed. And what they had to do to fix it was make sure someone died. Then they also time traveled back to the 60's, twice. It was pretty cool.
Yes, they all degenerated into hideous beasts and so did their clans. It may be that the heart protected Kain, or it may be that Kain was responsible for their degeneration. After all, Kain was made by Mortanius and all those hideous mutated vampires were made by Kain. His stuff was of a definite lower quality than those made by others.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I can imagine it was hard for some of them not to get stoned while around the hippies.
Not to mention that the liutenants had fragments of Kain's soul, so that could've also made them degenerate.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
If that did happen then Spock would be the first one to get stoned. There was an episode where they actually took on a troop of space hippies who were looking for Eden, and Spock surprised everyone because he turned out to be the expert on that cult and he shared their beliefs. He even knew their jargon and sat in with them for a music session. It was so cool.
Probably so. His essence was corrupted and it was corrupting them. If they had killed him then they probably would not have turned into monsters.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Whoa, trippy. I can imagine Spock with a guitar singing about peace and love. But his voice isn't that great.
Too bad they retained no memory of their previous lives.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ah, well he doesn't really sing at all, but if you want to see his totally awesome jam session: [link] If you want to see more of Spock interacting with the hippies [link]
If that were the case then Kain would have died very quickly. It would have been like if you turned the Grand Wizard of the KKK into a black person and he knew you did it. Some might have killed themselves right away but then others might decide to use their powers to hunt down other vampires.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I have just crossed into... The Twilight Zone.
Hm, in a Spawn issue, the eponymous character DOES turn the leader of the KKK into a black guy. Hilarity and murder insues.
Yeah, it would be irony.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Great isn't it?
Wow. Yea I can see how that might piss him off.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh yeah.
Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo, do not mess with them. They'll change your skin colour.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
hm, well wasn't Spawn a black guy anyways before he got turned into a freaking monster?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah. And when Spawn tried to give himself a human fave he turned himself into a white skinned, blonde haired dude who looked straight out of California.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
| Next =>