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Th
eAr
to
fABHORSEN
byRengi
nTümer
Table of Contents
Preface.................................................................................................3
Abhorsen House...................................................................................5
Clayr Observatory.............................................................................. 47
Chamber of the Oak Tree................................................................... 63
On Style.............................................................................................. 79
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Preface
O
ne day during my early teens, my mother
came home with a present - a brand new book
for me to read. Being the novel-loving child that I was, it
didn’t take long for me to start the book, and I was hooked.
Sabriel by Garth Nix got me yearning for the rest of the
series, even though I wouldn’t get my hands on the second
and third book a while later. However, after all these years
the books have still stayed in the back of my mind as a
great source of inspiration and an original concept. As a
result, when I came up with the idea to create an artbook
as a graduation project, the Abhorsen series was an obvious
choice, even after reviewing other books as an option. The
Abhorsen series seemed more suitable than other books
because it was relatively unknown and there is no film
based on the books (yet), and therefore I would not be so
influenced by an established image, and be free to come up
with my own world.
This book displays the art for a hypothetical movie,
going through visual development and experimentation
inspired by the art books already out there, especially
Pixar’s and Disney’s artbooks for Tangled and The Princess
and the Frog. The book will display a range of experiments
and thoughts on paper, fleshing out the characters and
their world though sketches and paintings.
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Abhorsen House
“S
abriel stood on a narrow ledge that
projected out from the bank of a river at least
four hundred yards wide. A little to her right, a scant
few paces away, this mighty river hurled itself over
the cliff, to make a truly glorious waterfall. Sabriel
leaned forward a little, to look at the waters crashing
below, creating huge white wings of spray that could
easily swallow her entire school, new wing and all,
like a rubber duck swamped in an unruly bath.
It was Abhorsen’s House.”
It was a very long fall, and the height, coupled
with the sheer power of the water, made her quickly
look back to the river. Straight ahead, halfway
across, Sabriel could just make out an island, an
island perched on the very lip of the waterfall,
dividing the river into two streams. It wasn’t a very
big island, about the size of a football field, but it
rose like a ship of jagged rock from the turbulent
waters.
Encircling the island were limestone-white
walls the height of six men. Behind those walls was
a house. It was too dark to see clearly, but there was
a tower, a thrusting, pencil silhouette, with red tiles
that were just beginning to catch the dawning sun.
Below the tower, a dark bulk hinted at the existence
of a hall, a kitchen, bedrooms, armory, buttery and
cellar. The study, Sabriel suddenly remembered,
occupied the second to top floor of the tower. The
top floor was an observatory, both of stars and the
surrounding territory.
The Great Hall | Digital
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Coming Home
T
he Abhorsen’s House is an important
location in the first book of the Abhorsen
Trilogy. It provides Sabriel and the reader with her
first bits of informationn about the world beyond
Ancelstierre, and provides a starting point for
Sabriel’s transformation from a schoolgirl looking
for her father to the Abhorsen, who has to lay the
Dead to rest.
The House is a haven, the home that Sabriel
would’ve grown up in if times had been kinder.
It’s entrance is described as something that could
almost be a little yellow-brick cottage in the hills,
and is a sharp contrast to the chase-scene that takes
place beforehand:
Lighting Key | Digital
|7|
“There was more light now, heralding the
advent of the sun, and she could see a sort of wooden
landing stage leading up to a gate in the white wall.
Treetops were also visible behind the walls, winter
trees, their branches bare of green raiment.
Birds flew between trees and tower, little birds
launching themselves for their morning forage. It
was a vision of normalcy, of a haven.
The gate swung open, pitching her onto a
paved courtyard, the beginning of a red-brick path,
the bricks ancient, their redness the color of dusty
apples. The path wound up to the front door of
the house, a cheerful sky-blue door, bright against
whitewashed stone. A bronze doorknocker in the
shape of a lion’s head holding a ring in its mouth
gleamed in counterpoint to the white cat that lay
coiled on the rush mat before the door.”
However, when Sabriel has recovered from
her flight from the Mordicant, the house takes on a
more mytical and serious mood. Sabriel awakes to
candlelight and when she enters the dining room,
the leaded glass in the windows makes Sabriel
wonder whether they are made of glass at all. Later
on, Abhorsen’s House becomes the place where
Mogget makes Sabriel realise how little she knows
about the world, and how grave the tidings for her
father and the Old Kingdom are.
The books themselves provided a fairly good
start in terms of the layout of the house, especially
since Garth Nix provided a plan of the House and
its gardens with the books. More than that, though,
his descriptions of the characters’ surroundings
have always been ample, but leave enough room for
interpretation.
The hardest part would have been the exterior
design. The rooms were well-described and even
when some liberties were taken in terms of the
design of the rooms themselves, the props and
functionality stayed largely the same.
The top-down view provided by Garth Nix,
however, seemed a bit unsuitable for this image that
a house in the middle of the waterfall conjured up.
Garth Nix’s design is very symmetrical, with one
thick tower jutting up in the middle of the House.
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With the river raging on both sides and
wild landscape for miles, a symmetrical
design would make the house seem
stark and boring in comparison. It
needed to be a whimsical, welcoming
home, though still full of mystery and
potential for exploration.
“I spent some time
entertaining the
idea of the Abhorsen’s House being
in the middle of two waterfalls, but in
the end it didn’t really work with story
elements presented in the later books,
so I let the idea go.”
Sketch | Digital
Sketch | Digital
Concept | Digital
Concept | Digital
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Concept | Digital
| 10 |
Concept | Digital
Lighting Key | Digital
Final Leaded Glass Design | Digital
“Abhorsen House is a house full of
history. The stained glass windows were
an important part of the Great Hall,
displaying part of that history.”
Optional Leaded Glass Design | Digital
Lighting Key | Digital
| 11 |
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Lighting Study | Digital
Initial Sketches | Graphite
| 13 |
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“The
Abhorsen is an
important figure within the
Old Kingdom. The furniture
should display wealth, but
also have a certain soberness
to them.”
Furniture Concepts | Digital
| 15 |
Furniture Concepts | Digital
| 16 |
Sabriel
“A
tall, curiously pale young woman
stood over the rabbit. Her night-black hair,
fashionably bobbed, was hanging slightly over her
face.
They pulled a thin, cotton-like undergarment
over her head, and a pair of baggy drawers up her
legs. Next came a linen shirt, then a tunic of doeskin
and breeches of supple leather, reinforced with some
sort of hard, segmented plates at thighs, knees and
shins, not to mention a heavily padded bottom, no
doubt designed for riding.
A brief respite followed, lulling Sabriel into
thinking that might be it, but the sendings had
merely been arranging the next layer for immediate
fitting. Two of them pushed her arms into a long,
armored coat that buckled up at the sides, while the
other two unlaced a pair of hobnailed boots and
waited.
The other sending waved out a gleaming, deep
blue surcoat, dusted with embroidered silver keys
that reflected the light in all directions. It waved
the coat to and fro for a moment, then whipped it
over Sabriel’s head and adjusted the drape with a
practiced motion.
Last of all came sword-belt and bell-bandolier.
The sendings brought them to her, but made no
attempt to put them on. Sabriel adjusted them
herself, carefully arranging bells and scabbard,
feeling the familiar weight—bells across her breast
and sword balanced on her hip. She turned to the
mirror and looked at her reflection, both pleased and
troubled by what she saw. She looked competent,
professional, a traveler who could look after herself.
At the same time, she looked less like someone
called Sabriel, and more like the Abhorsen, capital
letter and all.”
S
abriel is the protagonist in the first book
Headgear Concepts | Digital
of the Abhorsen Trilogy. Right off the bat, she
is portrayed as a responsible, down-to-earth kind
of girl, but throughout the book she also realises
how little she knows of the world she is burdened
to protect. She starts as a senior and prefect with
top grades and a lot of respect from the younger
girls, but as soon as she leaves the school to seek
her father, it becomes clear that the Old Kingdom
is a dangerous place, and she has no idea how to
sufficiently protect herself. The first book is mostly
about her finding her way in the Old Kingdom and
fitting herself to the new role she is supposed to fill:
that of the Abhorsen.
Abhorsen’s Sword | Digital
Sabriel | Digital
| 17 |
Bandolier Concepts | Digital
| 18 |
“Working on this project completely
changed the view I had of most of the
characters when I first read the books. The
project made me take a much closer look
at all the character descriptions, and their
characteristics in their behaviour
as well.”
“It took a while before I
Early Concepts | Digital
Sabriel’s Mother in Death | Digital
| 19 |
Sabriel | Digital
got to the essence of what
Sabriel felt like to me. That’s
what it is about for me - not if
they fit the description exactly,
but if they “feel” right to
me. When their personality
shines through in their face,
stance and clothing, then I’ve done
my job.”
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Early Concepts | Grahpite
Behaviour Sketches | Digital
| 21 |
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“The Bells are the Abhorsen’s
tool to lay the dead to rest. I
didn’t want to end up with the
standard bell silhouette, so I
used Alchemy to help me break
away from the conventional
shape.”
Early Silhouette Concepts | Digital
Concept | Digital
Concept | Digital
Sabriel in Death | Digital
| 23 |
Abhorsen’s Bells | Digital
| 24 |
Storyboard | Digital
| 25 |
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Mordicant
“T
here, between gusts of snow, she
saw a figure leaping from step to step;
impossible leaps, that ate up the distance between
them with horrible appetite. It was manlike, more
than man-high, and flames ran like burning oil on
water where it trod. Sabriel cried out as she saw it,
and felt the Dead spirit within. The Book of the
Dead opened to fearful pages in her memory, and
descriptions of evil poured into her head. It was a
Mordicant that hunted her—a thing that could pass
at will through Life and Death, its body of bog-clay
and human blood molded and infused with Free
Magic by a necromancer, and a Dead spirit placed
inside as its guiding force.”
“The Mordicant’s design was a challenge.
It had to have a recognizable shape, but I also
wanted it to be fluid or not entirely solid, since
it’s an otherworldly creature that actually belongs
in Death. At the same time though, it had to be
threatening and strong.”
Early Concepts | Graphite
Mordicant | Digital
| 27 |
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Early Concepts | Digital
Behaviour Sketches | Digital
| 29 |
Chase Through the Forest | Digital
| 30 |
Mogget
“Mogget
is a cynical
character, a god of sorts
trapped in cat form for
hundreds, if not thousands
of years. Thinking back
to Disney’s Lady and the
Vagabond, I felt that a Siamese
would fit this character best.”
“A
bronze doorknocker in the shape of a
lion’s head holding a ring in its mouth
gleamed in counterpoint to the white cat that lay
coiled on the rush mat before the door.
Sabriel lay on the bricks and smiled up at the
cat, blinking back tears. The cat twitched and turned
its head ever so slightly to look at her, revealing
bright, green eyes.
“Hello, puss,” croaked Sabriel, coughing as she
staggered once more to her feet and walked forward,
groaning and creaking with every step. She reached
down to pat the cat, and froze—for, as the cat thrust
its head up, she saw the collar around its neck and
the tiny bell that hung there.
The collar was only red leather, but the
Charterspell on it was the strongest, most enduring,
binding that Sabriel had ever seen or felt—and the
bell was a miniature Saraneth. The cat was no cat,
but a Free Magic creature of ancient power.
“Abhorsen,” mewed the cat, its little pink tongue
darting. “About time you got here.”
Mogget | Digital
| 31 |
Early concepts | Graphite
Cat Studies | Graphite
| 32 |
“I considered a few different races as
well as going for a mix of, for example, a
cat and a fennec. However, since the book
didn’t feature any fantasy creatures
such as dragons, I decided against
the mix.”
Gesture Studies | Digital
| 33 |
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“The collar keeps Mogget in cat form.
Without it, he can turn back into his
original forms. The bell on the collar
determines his way of serving. With Ranna,
the Sleepbringer, the cat mostly sleeps.”
Mogget’s Collar | Digital
Mogget | Digital
Behaviour Sketches | Digital
| 35 |
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Touchstone
“S
he
approached
nervously,
her
curiosity tempered by the need to be wary
of strangers. He looked different dressed. Older
and somewhat intimidating, particularly since he
seemed to have scorned her plain clothing for a
kilt of gold-striped red, with matching leggings of
redstriped gold, disappearing into turned-down
thigh boots of russet doeskin. He was wearing her
shirt, though, and preparing to put on a red leather
jerkin. It had detachable, lace-up sleeves, which
seemed to be giving him some problems.
Two swords lay in three-quarter scabbards near
his feet, stabbing points shining four inches out of
the leather. A wide belt with the appropriate hooks
already encircled his waist.”
Concept | Digital
“Touchstone
is a serious
guy, who is carrying around
a lot of guilt. He feels he has a
duty towards Sabriel and has
to protect her at any cost.”
Royal Bural Ground
Early Sketches | Graphite
| Digital
Touchstone | Digital
| 37 |
Concept | Digital
| 38 |
Concept | Digital
Touchstone | Digital
Portrait | Digital
| 39 |
Swords of the Royal Guard | Digital
| 40 |
“I
was always wondering
if Touchstone was pulling of
the kilt. I toyed with the idea
of just giving him pants, but
somehow this seemed to fit his
sense of doing his duty as royal
guardian at all costs, even if it
meant his clothes would be
gaudy.”
Sketch | Digital
Behaviour Sketches | Digital
| 41 |
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Touchstone | Digital
Sendings
“C
uriously for mail, it made no sound,
no jangling from the flow of hundreds of
steel links. A strange body under it too, Sabriel saw,
as the black dots and the red wash faded, revealing
that her rescuer wasn’t human at all. He had seemed
solid enough, but every square inch of him was
defined by tiny, constantly moving Charter marks,
and Sabriel could see nothing between them but
empty air.
He... it was a Charter-ghost, a sending.”
“Sendings are beings that exist to
serve. The sending featured here is also
featured in the storyboard further on.
She had to appear stern and purposeful
for the comic effect, even though she is
a servant.”
Sending Thumbnails | Digital
Sending | Digital
| 43 |
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“The Sending’s skin is made up
out of thousands of little magical
marks, and because of that it’s
basically transluscent. It took a lot of
experimenting with shapes, colors,
sizes and amounts of the marks.”
Early Concepts | Graphite
Skin Close Up | Digital
Early Concepts | Graphite
| 45 |
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Clayr Observatory
“L
ight was the first thing Lirael noticed,
and space, and then the massed ranks of
the Clayr, silently standing in their white, rustling
robes. She stood in the center of a huge chamber
carved entirely out of ice, a vast cave easily as large
as the Great Hall she knew and hated so much.
Charter Magic lights shone everywhere, reflecting
from the many facets of the ice, so that there was
not a hint of darkness anywhere.
Lirael instinctively looked down when she saw
all the other Clayr, so she couldn’t meet anyone’s
eyes. But as she cautiously peered out from behind
her protective fall of singed hair, she saw that they
were not looking at her. They were all looking up. She
followed their gaze and saw that the angled ceiling
was perfectly smooth and flat, one single enormous
sheet of clear ice, almost like an enormous, opaque
window.
“Yes,” said Sanar, noting Lirael’s stare. “That is
where we focus our Sight, so all the fragments of the
vision can become one, and everyone can See.”
“I think we may begin,” announced Ryelle,
looking around at the massed, silent ranks of the
Clayr. Nearly every Awoken Clayr was there, to
join a Watch of Fifteen Sixty-Eight. They stood in a
series of ever-wider circles around the small central
area where Lirael, Sanar, and Ryelle stood, like some
strange concentric orchard of white trees that bore
silver and moonstone fruit.”
The Observatory | Digital
| 47 |
| 48 |
Concept | Digital
“The
Observatory is the space
that has transformed the most. What
started out as an arena of ice became a
space more reminiscent of a cathedral.”
Concept | Digital
Early Sketches | Graphite
| 49 |
| 50 |
Concept | Digital
“There
should be a sense of
mystery in the images concerning the
Observatory. It’s the one place where
Lirael is forbidden to go, because she
does not yet have the Sight.”
Concept | Digital
Concept | Digital
Concept | Digital
| 51 |
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Lirael
“L
irael hated sharing the mirror,
because it made yet another difference
more obvious. Most of the Clayr had brown skin
that quickly tanned to a deep chestnut out on the
glacier slopes, as well as bright blond hair and
light eyes. In contrast Lirael stood out like a pallid
weed among healthy flowers. Her white skin burnt
instead of tanning, and she had dark eyes and even
darker hair.”
Costume Concepts | Digital
“The
first character I started
sketching out when I started the project
was Lirael, probably because she was
part of my favourite book out of the
series. I think it shows in the process,
since it was much more rigid and less
creative and free-flow.”
Lirael and the Disreputable Dog | Digital
| 53 |
| 54 |
“Lirael started out as a moody, goth-
“Lirael is part Clayr, but she
like girl. Later on, when rereading the
scene I chose to storyboard, I discovered
she has a determination and
intelligence to her that should
shine through as
well.”
gets her looks from her Abhorsen
blood. This creates a stark contrast
between the girl and her cousins,
further emphasizing her
inability to fit in.”
Early Sketches | Graphite
| 55 |
A Typical Clayr | Digital
Style Concepts | Digital
| 56 |
Behaviour Sketches | Digital
| 57 |
Sketches | Graphite
| 58 |
Whistle | Digital
Clockwork Mouse Sketches | Digital
Emergency Clockwork Mouse | Digital
Metal Flask | Digital
Lirael’s Dagger | Digital
Lirael’s Waistcoat | Digital
Key Bracelet | Digital
Key Bracelet Sketches | Digital
| 59 |
| 60 |
Concept | Digital
Braid Structure | Digital
| 61 |
Color Keys | Digital
| 62 |
Chamber of the Oak Tree
“T
he corridor didn’t lead outside, but
Lirael saw how she had been misled. It
opened out into a vast chamber, bigger even than
the Great Hall. Charter marks as bright as the sun
shone in the distant ceiling, hundreds of feet above.
A huge oak tree filled the center of the room, in
full summer leaf, its spreading branches shading a
serpentine pool. And everywhere, throughout the
cavern, there were flowers. Red flowers. Lirael bent
down and picked one, uncertain if it was some sort
of illusion.
But it was real enough. She felt no magic, just
the crisp stalk under her fingers. A red daisy, in full
bloom.
Lirael sniffed it, and sneezed as the pollen went
up her nose. Only then did she realize how quiet
it was. This huge cavern might mimic the outside
world, but the air was too still.
There was no breeze, and no sound. No birds,
no bees happily at work amid the pollen. No small
animals drinking at the pool. There was nothing
living, save the flowers and the tree.
And the lights above gave no warmth, unlike
the sun. This place was the same temperature as the
rest of the Clayr’s inhabited realm, and had the same
mild humidity, from the moist heat distributed via
the huge network of pipes that brought superheated
water from the geysers and steam plumes far, far
below.
Lovely as it was, it was a bit disappointing.
Lirael wondered if this was all there was to find on
her first expedition.
Then she saw that there was another door—a
latticed gate, rather—on the far side of the cavern.
It took her ten minutes to walk across, longer
than she would have thought. But she tried not to
tread on too many flowers, and she gave the tree
and the pool a very wide berth. Just in case.
The gate barred the way to another corridor,
one that went into darkness rather than light. The
gate, a simple metal grille, had the emblem of a
silver moon upon it, rather than a sun. A crescent
moon, with much sharper and longer points than
could be considered usual or aesthetically pleasing.”
Lirael and the Stilken | Digital
| 63 |
| 64 |
Thunbnails | Digital
“The
oak tree is the
centerpiece of the Chamber,
and therefore should have
an
interesting
silhouette
and shape. The twisted bark,
reminiscent of trees found
in Ancient Bristlecone Pine
Forest in California provided
something extra.”
Chamber Concept | Digital
Lighting Alternative | Digital
Twisted Bark Sketches | Digital
| 65 |
Chamber at Night | Digital
| 66 |
LIghting Key | Digital
Concept | Digital
Concept | Digital
Binder - The Chief Librarian’s Sword | Digital
Concept | Digital
| 67 |
| 68 |
“Does
the walker choose
the path or the path choose the
walker?”
Sample of the Floral Diversity | Digital
- Garth Nix, Lirael
Gate | Digital
| 69 |
| 70 |
Stilken
“I
t stands higher than a tall man,
generally taking the shape of a comely woman,
though its form is fluid.
Often the Stilken will have great hooks or
pincers in the place of forearms, which it uses with
facility to seize its prey. Its mouth generally appears
human till it opens, revealing double rows of teeth,
as narrow and sharp as needles. These teeth may be
of a bright silver, or black as night. The Stilken’s eyes
are also of silver, and burn with a strange fire.”
Lighting Key | Digital
Stilken | Digital
| 71 |
Initial Concept | Digital
Early Sketches | Graphite
| 72 |
Body Marks Concepts | Digital
| 73 |
Portrait | Digital
Concept | Digital
| 74 |
“At first the Stilken was just
a woman with claws. At one
point I got very frustrated
with the mundanity and lack
of scariness.”
“I wondered, how can I make
her scarier without deforming
the silhouette of her face?
And then suddenly I thought
of the beautiful yet creepy
face paintings of Dia de los
Muertos.”
Behaviour Sketches | Digital
| 75 |
Storyboard - Page 1 | Digital
| 76 |
Storyboard - Page 2 | Digital
| 77 |
Storyboard - Page 3 | Digital
| 78 |
“Phobs has been a huge influence in
On Style
the later stages of the project. Her strong
use of line and great differentiation in
character types, as well as her immense
attention to historical detail have
inspired me a lot.”
T
his project has been a learning
experience for me in all sorts of ways. Though
I was a bit stumped at first, I learnd as the project
progressed that, for me, style is something that
develops, not something that comes at the snap
of a finger. Along with developing the characters,
environments and props I’ve been devloping a
workflow and a way of sketching and painting, a
way of shaping my characters and environments.
I am by no means done developing my skills,
but this project has given me a start in developing
an attractive, original style.
Eugene Schmidt |
| 79 |
Phobs | Digital
Digital
| 80 |
“Looking at other people’s
Donglu | Digital
work has been a great help to
find a starting point. Sometimes
I’d look at an image and see an
element of Abhorsen framed
with that composition, or
drawn in that style.”
Nick Thornborrow | Digital
Helen Chen | Digital
| 81 |
| 82 |