Hokee pokee... The Jesters

As bright a patch of sunlight on the streets of Gierburg as the Jesters are supposed to be, in too many ways they are the obvious symbol for the city – bright and gaudy from a distance, cold, mad, dishevelled stinking bastards up close, with all the humour of a six-week old corpse. Your average citizen shies away from a Jester in alarm or points one out to their children to stay away from.

Jesters have a special role in Gierburg. They are an important part of the background, but also relevant as miniatures in the game. Therefore, Jesters are iconic miniatures of the Gierburg universe and in this post I would like to show two of them.

The first Jester is the Omoklon, Twisted Jester miniature from Guild of Harmony. In Gierburg Cianty will be using him as "Til" to spread terror.



This is actually a superb miniature and I enjoyed painting it a lot. There is not much to say I guess, other than I tried not to make him look like the McDonald's clown, to which I came dangerously close at one point due to the red and yellow colour scheme. But I think I saved the day by introducing a brown leather jacket and the dagger and twisted facial expression also did their part. I am also quite happy with the shadow on his right calf, which turned out rather nicely I think.

The second jester is an old Games Workshop model for Warhammer from the Bretonnian Collector's range.


Now "unfortunately" this guy originally looks pretty jovial. Not exactly spot on for the "scray clown" that he is supposed to represent. So I tried to give him something that would betray (or failing that at least hint at) his twisted nature. So I painted his hobbyhorse as coldly as possible, trying to give it a worn and decaying look. Hence the brittle wood and the verdegris covered copper mane. This thing looks all but a toy... more like something he pulled out of the sewers and developed schizophrenic relationship to.

Also I think the pose comes in quite handy. This guy's next move could very well be to bash somebody's head in with that stick of his. Who knows what's in that bag?



See you next time!
take care,

-Tom