NO TYRANTS, NO KINGS

📌 see pinned post: directory, tags, links. I don't take art requests.

[sforzesco]

📌 INTRO + DIRECTORY 📌

I sign my art as KASTILLO • late 20s • he/him • filipino • not a historian, none of this is an academic reconstruction of anything • the experiences are nothing • the rome stuff is probably about samurai warlords and dynasty politics. or maybe it's a james bond thing. could be a cinematic setting to discuss other topics, or even some kind of framework • watch starz spartacus

I DO NOT TAKE ART REQUESTS

⛔🔞 mature/adult themes 🔞🚫

GIVE SICK. I INFREQUENTLY PERISH. OMNIA VINCIT AMOR.

⭐ MAIN TAGS: eughh under construction, rearranging everything

❌do not reupload my art❌

CONTACT

[balinsasayao]

I've reading philippine metrical romances (awits & corridos) & became fascinated by how mars is portrayed in these narratives, esp compared to like. imperial roman latin literature

anyway, a design for mars in these romances (for a stage adaption, or perhaps comics)! I mixed together some good old fashioned hollywood epic costume flair, the ksour essef curiass, regional festival costume inspiration + regional textile history, & the sleeve detailing is based on details from saint statues because one of these romances connects mars and venus to st anthony of padua and that's something that'll rattle around in my head for the foreseeable future.

anyway, here's the moment my brain latched onto the topic of mars' portrayal in these narratives (something about mars turning away from a battlefield in horror/disgust in statius' thebaid vs the surprise/delight at the battlefield here. given enough time and coffee, I Can And Will Connect These Dots)

Buhay na Pinagdaanan nang Principe Orontis at nang Reina Talestris sa Caharian nang Temesita

[sforzesco]

an extremely abridged version of a longer scene I wrote out months ago, but the longer scene involved mago going up the stairs leading to the senate and I'm gonna be real. I didn't feel like drawing all that when I mostly wanted to test out some pens and see which ones fit best for what I'm envisioning (what I'm envisioning also involved blood and gore).

anyway, I was scribbling away at it on and off during the fall, and I think this particular page is as done as it's going to be (the pens I wanted to test out were tested and I think I figured out the dream team combination for this particular idea)-- maybe next year I'll try and tackle drawing the entire scene out :) it depends on if I. finish reading books. the research pile for this is dense.

As evidence that the joyful tidings he brought were true, [Mago] ordered a quantity of gold rings to be piled up in the vestibule of the Senate-house, and they formed such a great heap that, according to some authorities, they measured more than three modii; the more probable account, however, is that they did not amount to more than one modius. [2] He added by way of explanation, to show how great the Roman losses had been, that none but knights, and amongst them only the highest in rank, wore that ornament. [3] The main purport of his speech was that the nearer Hannibal's chances were of bringing the war to a speedy close the more need there was to render him every possible assistance; he was campaigning far from home, in the midst of a hostile country; [4] vast quantities of corn were being consumed and much money expended, and all those battles, whilst they destroyed the armies of the enemy, at the same time wasted very appreciably the forces of the victor. [5] Reinforcements, therefore, must be sent, money must be sent to pay the troops, and supplies of corn to the soldiers who had done such splendid service for Carthage.

Liv. 23 12

[sforzesco]

lucan's pharsalia, trans. jane wilson joyce &

appian civil wars 1.120, trans john carter

a million (several) years ago I said that in my ideal world, spartacus would have gotten the chance to gut crassus like a fish and read the fate of rome in his entrails. I also said something about spartacus' sacrifice at crixus' funeral games is like a foundational sacrifice/curse on rome. continuing that thought, there's something about how there's a narrative echo of crassus' fate in the fate that falls on spartacus (bodies unburied) and how crassus' death was a sort of death knell for that iteration of rome which was already something of a bloated corpse.

it's good to be back and thinking about spartacus, I took a brief detour a year and a half ago to get through an absolute brick of a book on sparta/lakonia and then picked up the broad topic of athens to pin down some thoughts on thrace, especially around how greece/rome perceived thracians and it's been. well. hm. so! speaking of thracians, pentheus!

The Allure and Repulsion of Thracians, Despoina Tsaifakis

which of course can bring us back to crassus

Dionysiac Tragedy in Plutarch, Crassus, David Braund

anyway, spartacus pouring blood in place of gold all over crassus (Dio 40.27)! let's do some fucked up funeral rites baby, we're cursing rome!

[sforzesco]

brainstorming with trebonius! cassius is less amused by some suggestions than others lol (context re; the molten gold comment) (edit: I mentioned it in the tags, but the whiteboard list is a reference to the one in BTE ep. 215)

[sforzesco]

hi, if you have an ao3 account have you read the, uh, crassus/sulla fics set during the 1st civil war? i thought i'd ask because it contributed to my own brainrot - the author's character analysis of crassus drives me insaneee. sorry if that's not your thing!

HI ANON ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THESE FICS

BECAUSE I SURE FUCKING HAVE

bonus live reaction from the aftermath of when I was liveblogging it to a friend:

[sforzesco]

@girlcavalcanti said: pardon me wHAT are these and where do I find them, I tried to look them up by title but found nothing

here's a link directly to the Sulla-Crassus relationship tag! the fics are the top four (out of the five there), but two of them are locked so you have to be logged into ao3 to read them

[sforzesco]

GUYS THERE'S A NEW SULLA/CRASSUS FIC

[sforzesco]

hi on the topic of sulla/crassus fic: chamber music

[sforzesco]

hello i would like to ask if you have read sullucullus fic on ao3

AH tragically not, I don't actually read a lot of historical fiction set in rome (my preferred medium for rome and greece are shows and film and theater because I like thinking about. uhhh. the production design), but. the fic I have read is mostly sullacrassus

[sforzesco]

Just wanted to say that your art is a huge inspiration, stylistically and in general, and I am always delighted to see it. Your seemingly effortless style, anatomy and line use is something I really aspire to, and I stare at each thing you post for a pretty long time trying to figure out how you got there. If you ever feel like elaborating on your process, especially in regards to anatomy and composition, I'd be real excited

I had to spend some time thinking about this one because I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about my own process anymore-- I change stuff up pretty often because I'm always looking to try out new things (really into Austin Briggs TV Guide illustrations rn, would love to just. eat one)

for compositions, a lot of it is just visual communication stuff. comics, animation, posters, advertising, film. when I have the time, I like reading interviews from artists I admire to see how they go about conveying thoughts and themes, esp. since genres & art movements all have a language. I'll be in (redacted city) and stop and look at theater posters on (redacted street) and 'read' the visuals and think about what the designer was communicating with it & guess their influences. (personally, I tend to lean towards negative space heavy compositions because I like the weight of it, but everything else is in service to whatever thought I have when I start figuring out layouts.)

and anatomy is.....uhhhh. well. I like doing pen only anatomy studies while watching sports or martial arts or athletic stunts. which a lot of people don't like because if you fuck up, you've fucked up in pen, but I find it relaxing! if it sucks real bad, slap a sticky note over it and do it again! (you can see what some of my sketchbook looks like here, these are in pencil because my usual pen was not watercolor friendly)

idk if any of this is helpful or interesting, tbh at the end of the day, I just really enjoy drawing comics, and comics is sort of everything thrown into a blender + drawing stuff over and over again

[sforzesco]

i really like how you use historical paintings as backgrounds in your comics

I'm glad!! I started doing it when I was like. DEEP. into a gorillaz obsession and wanted to do more collage/mixed media style work and it became a permanent fixture haha

[sforzesco]

just a short scene playing around a bit with family drama

Again, one of the sons of Crassus who was thought to resemble a certain Axius, and on this account had brought his mother's name into scandalous connection with that of Axius, once made a success­ful speech in the senate, and when Cicero was asked what he thought of him, he answered with the Greek words "Axios Krassou."

i haven't committed to any particular narrative angle around it, although it'll probably click in place once i have a better handle on tertulla as a character and then i can figure out how to make it worse for all players on the table haha

[sforzesco]

an idea of a scene that takes place after this scene and before this one, but lucullus is taking the lead in this public praise-humiliation ritual. or maybe it's his idea of being nice about it, knowing that sulla is seething.

A Year of One’s Own: Dating the Praetorship of Marcus Crassus, M. Stone

also featuring an older design of lucullus when he was visually meant to mirror crassus because I'm just feeling out the scene and felt like using this look for him. & pompey is here as well

[sforzesco]

ludovico, sforza maria, and filippo :)

[wicca]

'Conducted by an Angel' (from The Divine Comedy, Purgatory), 1807, John Flaxman

[sforzesco]

antony baiting trebonius with increasingly dubious defenses of caesar because it's funny + messalla being brutus' #1 hater

Alternative Memoirs: Tales from the ‘Other Side’ of the Civil War, Kathryn Welch

& regarding brutus asking for money and cassius' friends Not Liking That: plutarch, brutus 30

[sforzesco]

sketching! just sketching away.....anyway, he's talking about publius taking the bait

Clothing the Shami Prince: the Dress of Parthian Horsemen, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

[sforzesco]

cleaned up some parthian archer sketches I did awhile ago when I first started reading about the history around parthian archery and recently got interested in all over again after watching a terrible movie lol

[katabay]

hello! it's been awhile since I've plugged my ko-fi (I stopped adding it to my posts and took it out of my pinned awhile back) but I do have one! times are tough all around (to say the least), so don't worry about it if you have to hold on to what you've got, but if you DO have a couple bucks to spare and enjoy what I get up to, here's a link to my tip jar!