Ogion the Silent

Detail of character from Ogion in the Valley of Yaved.

Fanart for Ogion from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series. This is a depiction of a younger Ogion in "The Bones of the Earth", which takes place before the timeline of the Earthsea novels.

Real world cultural inspirations I used for envisioning Gontish clothing styles: Navajo, Tibetan, Uzbek, Kazakh. See Ged the Goatherd for the reasons behind this selection.

Ogion in the Valley of Yaved

Fanart for Usrula Le Guin's short story "The Bones of the Earth", collected in Tales From Earthsea.

The story takes place before the time of A Wizard of Earthsea. Ogion was in his 40s then.

Cultural inspirations used for envisioning Gontish clothing styles: Navajo, Tibetan, Uzbek, Kazakh. See earlier post for why these inspirations were chosen.

Tehanu

Detail from "Therru's Star", Fanart for Ursula Le Guin's "Tehanu". The titular character Tehanu (aka Therru), is a survivor of horrific childhood abuse.

I wouldn't say I enjoyed reading "Tehanu". The pages provide continual reminders of the ever-present threat of rape and torture directed towards women of all ages and social circumstances: innocent children born into abusive families; young women who run away from home, only to run into abuse and exploitation; and middle aged widows whose only crime was to be female.

You don't have to read a fantasy novel to see stories like these. Just read the news from around the world.

On a more positive note, you don't have to read a fantasy novel to find people who triumphed over their experiences of childhood abuse. Here are some real life Tehanus. Some transcended their trauma and went on to impact the lives of many other people in a positive way. Some may be more controversial figures. But none of them allowed the rest of their lives to be defined by past victimhood. Like Tehanu, they became dragons, each in their own way :

Therru's Star

Fanart for Ursula Le Guin's "Tehanu". The titular character Tehanu (aka Therru) lived on the island of Gont.

Available as prints, iPhone/iPad cases and other products on RedBubble.com.

For painting the "shelf of reddish sandstone" north of the village of Re Albi, I looked at numerous references of sandstone formations in the United States. Some of these sandstone cliffs were from Navajo Land. Coincidentally or not, the Navajo were one of my inspirations for envisioning Gontish clothing styles.

Other real world cultural influences on my design of Gontish attire: Tibetan, Uzbek, Kazakh.

Reasons for looking to these particular cultures:

• Presence of a sheep herding/goat-herding economy, which is practiced on Gont.
• Use of clothing elements mentioned in the Earthsea Cycle's description of Gontish people, such as jerkins, aprons and ruffles. (Not necessarily common or native to each of the societies mentioned, but between all of them, there is the use of such items, or something pretty close, in traditional clothing.)

Ged the Goatherd

Fanart for Ursula Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea". The protagonist Sparrowhawk (aka Ged) spent his childhood on the island of Gont.

Real world cultural inspirations I used for envisioning Gontish clothing styles: Navajo, Tibetan, Uzbek, Kazakh.

Reasons for looking to these particular cultures:

• Presence of a sheep herding/goat herding economy, which is practiced on Gont.
• Use of clothing elements mentioned in the Earthsea Cycle's description of Gontish people, such as jerkins, aprons and ruffles. (Not necessarily common or native to each of the societies mentioned, but between all of them, there is the use of such items, or something pretty close, in traditional clothing.)