orcs

[John Doe Humpface]

want some feedback on why orcs are so popular on this site

[Coma]

Some sort of fad, I would guess was started by the new interest in LOTR that the movies seem to have stirred.

Why does it matter?

[Fipse]

Hi John,

I suppose that there is a lot of "fan-art" and inspiration of stuff like Warcraft and LOTR around that is especially effecting people who have more to think about technique than about ideas. Beside orcs there are lots of cliché pictures around (my own included).

I myself had to draw Orks for a table-top-game and will have to draw them for an illustration-project for a "classic" RPG. I´m not very inclined to draw them (besides about 400 painstakingly painted Warhammer-miniatures ;)) but sometimes you need to be generic.

I personally will support Roundeye in drawing many women - if it´s needed to I will do them halfnaked and with Machine-guns! :D

Fipse

[Lono]

roundeye: hah,,, is that why you guys are over at eatpoo paintin panites and sniffin your monitors?

you must be like, the Don Juan of cyberspace.

-Lono

[Lono]

John Doe Humpface: John Mueller started a thread where he was redesigning the ork the way HE thought it should look,, and i guess a lot of people liked the idea of the challenge.. i guess thats it. its kinda the same sort of thing as the new thunderdome, but a biger pool of characters to draw from..

-Lono

[Halis_Aetrous]

Orcs are very cool and fun to draw, nuff said.

I started drawing as a hobby at about age seven, and through my freshman year of high school I either drew orcs, magic-related stuff, armor, or buildings.

[mcotie]

somebody paint a female orc for browneye and humpface so they'll leave us alone!

[John Doe Humpface]

who says i wanted to see another orc, i simply asked a question without negative intentions. funny that you all took it that way. weak, pretty fuckin weak. for those who didn't take it the wrong way, thanks

[JoshuaTheJames]

lol

Because dark stuff(art) and D&D cliches rule da earf!

oops don't forget MadMax ....


:D

-Joshua

(that ones for you sean ;)

[KayCustomz]

orcs are played out to me, somebody come up with something better

[Lono]

Naw Kay,,, your mom's booty is, "played out"..

oooooooooh,, disss!

;)
-Lono

[gekitsu]

orcs are evil. evil characters are often the way cooler ones.

nobody knows what orcs derived from, what orcs are, where they are placed in the fantasy world of your choice's evolution, so lots of free room for you to fill.

orcs are often described as war-loving and organized in kind of tribes - break from your default elven or human society, lots of body modifications and stuff.

nerds prefer orcs ;)

[davi]

Orcs are a species that was adapted by tolkien and d&d which of course made it completely ripped by every other fantasy book/game. The same with elfs, if there were more girls on this site there would be more elfs i'm sure..

They are an easy race to do conceptual work for since they are just barbaric, "stupid", neanderthals.

When trying to make a story with no real plot usually orcs and be stuck in for no reason. People don't ask, so uh...why are the orcs attacking my home again? It's just accepted...

[oglzogl]

Heh.. saw in an interview that Tolkien got the name "Orc" from the Oxford Rugby Club when he was at school.. abreviated it to Orc.

As far as I know it is a race that originated with Tolkien.. although the race is based on other legends and stories.. the name just originated with Tolkien.

Usless info, but I like Orcs (eh roundeye ;) Oh Yeah!)

[wassermelone]

Orcs were originated by Tolkien...
However, Elves and Dwarves were NOT.
They belong to Norse Myth.

[KayCustomz]

why you tryin to start something :ranting: lono don't make me go :zzz:

[Nimrod]

God help me for giving this thread a bump but...

William Blake wrote in his Books of Urizen (retellings of the Christian myth of creation) about various embodiments of aspects of human intellect, and Orc was the spirit of energy and rebelliousness, the antithesis of Urizen who was Reason. Describes orcs pretty well, yea? This was in like the late 1700s, well before Tolkien. I am willing to bet Tolkien, being an astute scholar of the classic works, was no doubt inspired at least in some way by this.

[Erik]

http://facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/contents.htm

Thank you Nimrod! This is a complete new world... strange material!

google search

[Vaarok]

Actually, just to chip in, Imps, Goblins, and "Irruk" or "orruc" were all Dark Ages monsters, typically small demihuman servants of the devil who stalked the night. The Mallus Maleficarnum of Kramer and Sprenger mentions them as early as the 1400s, and there're sources from as early as the 1100s, IIRC.

As for why Orcs are popular, they embody the Conan mythos and (according to convention) the Cool Bad Guy mythos, simultaneously.

Though, strangely enough, when you separate them from the slanderous ludditism of Tolkien, Orcs get phenomenally fun to play around with.

I did a short fantasy rip where I basically made the Orcs fulfill the classical role of dwarves and made the elves evil sorcerous arrogant bastards, and the Orcs worked so well I almost couldn't work out why the elves were winning. They weren't just tusked dwarves, or green Klingons, or even Legionaires like in Daggerfall/Morrowind. They just were a neat culture. It's just a sort of primal cro-magnion thing, I guess.

[JoshuaTheJames]

LOL

[JoshuaTheJames]

I think it's HILARIOUS that this was posted wwwway before I even made the "Round 2 Orc thread"...lol

And here is something even more funny...I really don't even care much for Orcs...I just thought they were portrayed well in the Two Towers...

-Joshua



:beam:

[AnarchyAo2]

Tolken was a professor at some college and was a professor of language or something (hence the elvish in the books). So, he probably did know about what Nimrod was talking about.

[egerie]

^ LOL ! well at least HE was.

[ChadTHX1138]

JOSHUA you also forgot to mention the Post ApocaLIPSTICKs stuff...:D oops you did.