Jerome Moo is entered in the “Steampunk Myths and Legends” update: View Challenge Page
Latest Update: Concept / pre-visualization: more sketches
Steampunk Myths and Legends Entry: Jerome Moo
jeromoo
#3
Hi guys, I browsed through an old children’s book titled “Myths from Many Lands” which is a beautiful compilation of myths from around the world hence the title itself.
One story caught my attention. It is the story of the Stone Fire-Eater, a tale from Korea:
In a great volcano, not far from the city of the King, lived a Fire-Drake. He was always hungry, and his food was anything that would burn. He liked trees and grass, but best of all houses and buildings which men had made.
Looking out of the volcano one day, he saw that the King had a beautiful new palace in the middle of the city. "There's my dinner!" chuckled the Fire-Drake. "A real banquet it will be tonight! Won't the king be annoyed!"
The Fire-Drake called for his friend the South Wind, and when it was dark they set out for the city. "We'll have a splendid blaze!" roared the Fire-Drake. "Make sure you keep the rain-clouds well away!"
The South Wind was delighted, and went blustering ahead into the city, so full of life that people had to hold their hats and hurry home to shut the windows.
When the Fire-Drake reached the edge of the city, he said to his friend: "Blow as hard as you can! I'm going to begin with some small houses to whet my appetite. Then for the main course!" The Fire-Drake roared with joy as he made his meal off the city. The flames leapt towards the sky until it seemed as if day had come. And when it did come, there was nothing left but a stretch of ashes with a heap in the middle where the palace had been.
The King and his people, who had escaped by running away, were very angry at what the Fire-Drake had done. So they held a council, and decided to send to China for a Rain Dragon. It cost them a great deal of money, but it seemed worth it. When the Rain Dragon arrived he was given a royal welcome, a string of amber beads, and as many turnips as he cared to eat.
The Dragon was a failure, however. At first he made it rain too often and turned the land into a swamp. When the King complained, the Dragon sulked and stopped the rain altogether. he was given a great feast to soothe his feelings, and ate so much that he fell asleep while on guard, and the Fire-Drake and the South Wind between them ate the whole of the new city, palace and all.
The Rain Dragon was sent back to China in disgrace, and another council was called. For many days the wise men studied the maps, and at last the wisest said:
"It is clear that the Fire-Drake always comes up that narrow valley from the south-west. It is the only good road from the volcano!"
"True, true!" agreed the King and the other wise men.
"So we must dig a huge hile in the middle of the road where the valley is narrowest and fill it with water. When the Fire-Drake comes, he will fall into it, and he will be so put out that he'll come no nearer the city."
This seemed a good idea, and everybody turned out with spades and dug for a week. When the hole was finished and the earth cleared away, the let the river into it until it was full, and went to bed feeling safe.
The Fire-Drake was hungry, and he came that night for a meal. He fell into the pond on the way and was very put out. Even so, he still ate a good deal of the palace.
Things were not quite as bad as they had been. Then a sculptor came to the Kind and said: "We must carve a huge Fire-Eater of Stone which will frighten the Fire-Drake away for ever." This seemed the best idea yet.
All the stone-masons set to work and cut out a huge block of stone. The sculptor carved it into a Fire-Eater so hideous that the South Wind rushed off to tell the Fire-Drake about it.
"I shall come and see for myself," he answered, and off he went. After falling into the pond on the way, however, he reached the city feeling cross and chilly. As soon as the stone Fire-Eater saw the Fire-Drake, it began to lick its lips and gnash its huge teeth: "Ah-ha! I shall eat well tonight!" it cried, and it turned a freezing glance on to the Fire-Drake.
"Brimstone and sulphur!" shrieked the Fire-Drake. "look at those jaws! I haven't a chance!"
So he turned and ran back to his volcano, and never came near the city or the palace again. For the stone Fire-Eater is there waiting for him to this very day.
------END OF STORY-------
For this steampunk theme, I will rename it to The Steam Fire-Eater.
More concept sketches to come as I try to sketch out the body and the other characters.
P.S. Sorry for the image quality, I had to use my camera for the lack of any proper scanner.
Just discovered your thread! So cool to have you here. Really like the deisgn, keep it up! 
Ferx
#8
Hey Jerome,
Cool to see you in the challenge man! 
Really great idea, like a lot and your first sketch is really cool! All the best and looking forward for more updates on your concept! Cheers!! 
nwiz25
#9
weeeeeeeeeeee!! :bounce: :applause: it’s great to see you again buddy! :love: me waits to see what you weaving this time! 
all the best to you! 
jeromoo
#10
Hi guys, sorry I’ve been absent from any progress at all. Been too busy with going back to my hometown (2 times actually) and all the end of the year stuff. Alright, alright, no excuses. So here’s showing what I have done so far: a sketch of the body for the Steam Fire-Eater.
I am going to have to dispose of this concept because when I cross-checked it with my colleagues from Korea, they all have never heard of such myth in their homeland!
Consider this concept scrapped, however cool it is. 
I’ll be updating very soon with another idea I have.
jeromoo
#11
Hey guys, I want to say how sorry I am to not have replied to your welcomes for so long. I’ve been not feeling very motivated lately. But now I am trying to get back in the game, so I’ll try my best to update as much as I can!
joana: Bom Dia, Joana!
RogueWolf: Hi there, Jason. Thank you. But I won’t be going in this direction anymore. The myth doesn’t seem to really exist despite being in the book.
ReveFilm: Hi Pascal, thank you for your kind words!
Donglu-LittleFish: Hi Hi Donglu! Thank you for coming to check out my thread!
chilombiano: Hi Daniel! Thank you! All the best with yours too!
Ferx: Hi Fernando, thank you so much for your great support! All the best with yours too! I hope things will go smoothly for all of us and that we can finish in time, especially for me.
nwiz25: Welcome back, neville! It is great to see all familiar faces on this challenge. I am waiting to see what 2d render magic you are going to whip up this time! I am going to try to make the effort to check out all of the fellow participants’ progress from now on.
jeromoo
#12
Hi here’s a new idea I have for the challenge. Instead of depicting something that comes from completely fictional worlds and characters, I decided to try my hand at ‘steampunk-ing’ real life legends.
In this case, the legend of the great love the Indian King Shahjahan had for his deceased wife, Mumtaj Mahal and the monument he built as a powerful testament to that.
I’m still at the concept/idea generating stage. Gosh, I am so slow!
jeromoo
#13
Hi here’s a new idea I have for the challenge. Instead of depicting something that comes from completely fictional worlds and characters, I decided to try my hand at ‘steampunk-ing’ real life legends.
In this case, the legend of the great love the Indian King Shahjahan had for his deceased wife, Mumtaj Mahal and the monument he built as a powerful testament to that.
I’m still at the concept/idea generating stage. Gosh, I am so slow!
joana
#14
No image?..
…
[edit] Bah, my internet is slow
Looks nice! So how long will you need doing this? One week? 
mdavid
#15
Hey Jerome, I’m a big fan of your illustration skills and am looking forward to seeing how you work with this. I notice your concept sketch already reveals some nice steampunk thinking. Good luck with this
jeromoo
#16
Did I just read that right? Only 18 days left to go?
My macbook pro just went kaput on me last weekend before my trip back to my hometown for my 2 weeks Christmas vacation. I have a feeling that I will not be able to make it for this challenge, but I will still post up the sketch I’ve done (in between episodes of Stargate SG1 series marathon on DVD at home :D)
Looks like I definitely won’t be able to complete the challenge in time, what with the unavailability of my laptop; and spending quality time with my family and friends. But there’s always the Nvidia challenge which looks to be more interesting that this one and hopefully I will get the laptop repaired in time too.
All the best with your entries, guys!
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.