If he wins, does he get to play with the lion? ;)

Opps! My reply is beneath Toro's comment.

*giggles* oh yes, does he, i wanna see two warriors have some relaxing time, and enjoy there victory!

My monitor here is terrible so I have a really hard time making out details, but is it me or is his opponent a LOT taller than him?

No, this pic was not "shot" from the tigermorph's opponent's POV, just a little futher back from the entrance. And no, the tigermorph is not going to fight the lionmorph from my "Next Up 01". His match is over.

Oh no, I was actually looking at the tiger's eyes, he appears to be looking up at his opponent. But then again, I do guess he could be looking up at the crowd, which would make more sense even.

Sorry about the confusion. :)

No need to apologize. I very much appreciate your taking the time to examine the pictures details. :)

Hmmm... and on the other side... the gate opens to reveal a rare Minotaurian... a massive, hulking bull... and the upper torso of a herculean male... topped of with a head of a bull... with sharp 12 inch horns! HEY! Get me some pop-corn!~

If school owner doesn't want to farm him out for the night to some rich patrician, he might just let the two of them out for a night on the town. I understand that the lionmorph knows about this tavern where you wouldn't believe what they have for "entertainment". Or maybe the tigermorph and lionmorph might just come up with entertainment on their own -- together. ;)

Aha! My question to you was going to be if the lion won but I think you answered that me for _hopefully_ he did in fact win.

Though I guess I shouldn't really hope for that. Rome was oppulent (sp?). Rome was beautiful. Rome was POWERFUL. But it was also a violent empire. But like I believe you and Kuma Chan once mentioned. Those were the times. Violence like that was everyday and people were used to it.

Very nice piece. :)

Today we sometimes think of our world with its terrorist attacks as being uniquely violent. But during the time of the Roman Empire, barbarian attacks along the borders were a common everyday occurance. Even within Rome herself one risked one's life to be out of doors without travelling in a group after nightfall.

So courage & bravery in the face of death were highly admired and respected traits by the Romans. The gladiatorial combats played into that honest admiration.

Like rooting for a winning football or soccor team, identifying with a winning gladiator made the spectators as individuals a little less fearful of the day-to-day little fears that surrounded them.

Thank you for the compliment. :)

Nice accuracy in depicting the Galerus on the guy. The only two comments i could give you would be that if that's a gladus, it's a bit too long. The gladius is about short sword length, 2.5 feet tops. And the Parma (the shiled) is also a bit too big.

Other then that though, its a pretty sweet picture.

IceWolf

Thanks for the feedback IceWolf. You are 100% correct about his sword and shield sizes. But as the Romans were fond of matching all sorts of flighters from farflung corners of the Empire against one another I indulged in a little artistic license.

The tigermorph was a former pirate who in that profession aquired quite a bit of miscellaneous hardware and skill in using it.

So when he was captured and condemned to the gladitorial school the owner thought it cheaper to skip training him to weapons that he was not familiar with. That and the tigermorph would prove to be a much more of an attraction with his outlandish weaponry which meant that the owner could charge the Master of the Games more to enter him into the show.

Ah that's awesome. I love it when folks actually have a background to their works.

I really do think this is a nice piece, the eyes tell a story all on their own.

I only hope this picture gets more recognition , despite the lack of porn, its a great picture and should be recognised.

Usually I have to "know" about a character to succeed in I putting him down on paper (or in this case in pixels :D ). His story comes to me as I do the artwork sort of like an answer to the unasked question of "How did you get here in this situation?"

*appreciative bow to the kind wolf* Thank you.

Ah yes, the tiger in the background from the previous pic. Nice followup. Now if only we could see the lion and the tiger 'celebrating" after their victories. ;)

Without revealing any secrets, I DO plan on continuing this series for a number of pictures more. Pictures that will go beyond the arena.

Wait and watch. ;)

the "mask" on his face makes him look scary. I think that's awesome! like a ninja guy or somethin`^_^

Well in a way gladiators WERE trained killers. The difference between them and Ninjas was that gladiators did their work out in the open and they could just as well become a victim as their opponent.

But personally I have aways felt that tigers, in this case a tigermorph, are natural killers. So I would guess that the chances of this gladiator winning are very good.

Wow! I love the detail you put into this. The blood smear on the wall adds so much to the emotions the tigermorph must be feeling at that time. Its like you can feel the anxiety he must be feeling before the fight. Again, great job!

Thank you VERY MUCH for giving me your comment. What you describe is EXACTLY the feeling that I wanted the viewer to feel with this picture.

Whheeeee! I've suceeded!! *happy lion artist* :D

Was this tiger the same as the one that was headed into the arena? There are many noticable differences between the two pics, which the first thing that caught my eye had me saying, "What? No loincloth?" :p

Ah Rats! You caught my blunder. :(

The truth is that, yes, I wanted to have the tigermorph from the first picture appearing in the second to get across the "conveyor belt" idea of gladiators being fed into the arena one after each preceding match ended in order to keep the "show" going. Each gladiator would have his turn in which he would be "next up".

Let me lie my way out of this by saying that while the tigermorph was waiting, his owner told him to change his loincloth and shield so that the gladiator would not be the "same old thing" that the crowd has just seen.

Knowing that you will be "out there in the stands", Alden, I am going to have to be more careful in the future.

Thanks. :)

Artistically speaking, when I began work on Next Up 02 I realized that in the first I had shown the tigermorph with the same rectangular shield and loincloth "uniform" as the lionmorph. My only excuse was that in trying to choreograph all the details of the picture

... I lost track of who was wearing what.

... all the details of the picture I lost track of those two details. :)

Hmm... he must have told him to change the sword too. And as someone else already mentioned, the helmet changed too :p
One thing is for sure though, the artwork is excelent. As I have FINALLY gotten the chance to watch Gladiator last month, seeing this serries is pretty exciting. I wonder what kind of fighter will be coming out next? Perhaps a hyena, a panther, or even a canid? Who knows? I forgot to check the list of fighters on the way into the stadium. ^.^

awesome drawing and i love the details of it :3

Thank you. :)

you´re welcome :3

Cool ^^

BTW ever seen this for Lionman content, got it the other day

http://www.andymangels.com/FlashGordon.html

The only "lionman" I have seen in an animated flic was in one episode of Kimba the white lion. The character (not Kimba) was so much like my namesake character that I would have sworn it had been stolen from me. But the idea of a lionman is somewhat universal (e.g., Liono).

I would truly LOVE to see a CGI lionmorph in a motion picture who would be given the same care and treatment as the tigermorph Kaze, from Timothy Albee's "Kaze, Ghost Warrior."

It is kinda wierd watching Thun in the 1979 Flimation *Flash Gordon*, as its kinda like watching one of yours or Wookies charas running around ^^

This is really great! There are only two minor detail things that bug me. The firs is that the helmet mask doesn't seem angular enough to support a muzzle. The second is the arm with the armor on it looks... odd... the armor on his upper arm looks almost like it is part of his skin somehow... Other than that I really love it :) Too bad this is for actual fights and not for fights along the line of 'World Wrestling' it'd be nice to know all these hunky males manage to get out okay.

Boy, you guys are killing me! :D But I take it as a compliment that you all are paying that much attention to my work. Thank each and every one of you.

I'll try to excuse my way out of this by saying that his nosepad and mouth are right up against the metal of the mouth guard. You pretty much have to take whatever the armourer gives you in the way of protection. Otherwise he'll just tell you that 'its no fur off his back if you want to go out there wit' out no armour at all.'

The armour on his right arm was chainmail and would mold itself to his arm.

Okay, glad you mentioned this. Historical fact is that 80% (or more) of gladitorial combats were NOT to the death. The cost of training a gladiator made such wastage financially ruinous for the owners. Of course if the person sponsoring the games had very deep pockets it could be arrainged. But for the number of days a series of games could run even he could not afford to pay for too many fight-to-the-death gladitorial combats.

So the chances of these fighters getting out okay were good. :)

Well one of my tenants is that if I don't know it's broke I can't fix it. Praise is very nice, it makes you feel all warm and glowy, but it's not very helpful if you're trying to improve *hugs* But be assured, your work is very nice *nuzzles*

Hehe good point about armor ;)

That's cool to know :) I'm a sucker for happy endings.

Nice! ..I never seen this version before, ( only the lion one with the Tiger in the doorway.)

There's one other arena pic that is in the works. I will have to watch "Gladiator" a couple of times to get motivated. :)

Very nice job, especially on the upper body there

Thank you.

Hot kitty... now drop the cloth covering his crotch and let's see his REAL sword! ;)

Now if the tigermorph wins this fight and you have enough sestercii (i.e., money), his owner is more than willing to rent him out to you for the evening, the night, the morning and well into the next day for your personal "examination". ;)

Are we going to see a battle royal between this guy and a certain hyena gladiator?

What? Does Brutus have his own fan club? [For the rest of you, go see Silvermane's site to find out about the "hyena gladiator".]

As for a combat scene ... well, I have two more pics to finish in this Next Up series. One more pic that is an action scene might be fun to do. *the seed of an idea has been planted in the lion's noggin* :)

Mahahahaha my inspiration kows no bounds of late :)

if he wins he may live to fight another day and anther until he buys his freedom and the wood sword be presented to him

Seems as though a certain wolf knows about gladiators. :)

Gladiators didn't actually fight to the death though. Some died in combat sure, but if you really research the topic (And I'm not saying that you didn't) you'll see that these fights weren't that dissimilar to modern wrestilng, planned out and orchestrated - not fake - but the whole principle was to weaken or tire-out your opponent not kill him. There was too much money put into their training and such for them to be sent out to their deaths.

All that aside Great 2 Pics

Well done, Vulpine Redfox!

You are 100% correct about the majority of gladitorial combats NOT being fought to the death.

Hollywood aside, historical records provide enough evidence to suggest that somewhere in the neighborhood of 85-95% of gladitorial combats were not to the death. As you say, it would have been financially prohibitive to do so.

No one would want to invest tens of thousands of sestercii in the housing, feeding and training of a gladiator only to see him killed on his first time out for a measly return of a hundred or so sestercii in the rental fee paid by the Master of the Games.

But to pull down really big fees, both the owner and the gladiator might agree to a fight-to-the-death match. It would be an instant "big event" that would pull in a really big house with everyone, except for the loser, coming out ahead.

Thanks. :)

Oh just to clarify when I said - not fake - I was talking about Gladiator Battles not mdern wrestling.