Every once in a while I'll get a request to illustrate someone's tabletop RPG character, or even a creature for a GM to highlight as a visual aid for their players. With the advent of Kickstarter (and Crowdfunding in general), small press publishers have begun incorporating this into their production queues as either a Backer Tier or a Stretch Goal.
Who:
This piece was one of the half-page illustrations created for New Haven Game's Myth & Magic. I'm not sure, but I think it will be featured in the Game Masters book. I looked around online, but unfortunately could not find a website or any updates on this product. I hope all is well with NHG.
What:
As mentioned above, this was a half-page (5.5" tall by 8.5" wide) digital image. It was originally ordered as another black & white piece, but I essentially offered to color this one if I could also use the image for Harsh Realities products. I just loved it that much.
How:
I (almost) always start with a pencil sketch, which I share to the client for their approval before diving into the digital work. It's a smart move to save time and effort, but also just a good business tactic to help keep the client in the communication loop. For this particular piece, however, I still needed a B&W version that matched the insane style I had chosen for all the other digitally inked pieces. So what I ended up with was a piece that I basically had to finish twice to get it to look how it ended up. Foolish, but worth it for the eventual payoff.
Each character was fairly well described to me, but the design and details were mostly up to me. Things like the archer's bow and the wizard's staff were very specific though.
Something I wanted to accomplish with this was a feeling of epic proportions. Almost as if the image could be a still from a bard's tale or a treasured painting depicting some great event. I wanted all that, but I also wanted it to feel somewhat cinematic as well. I think it got there in the end, but it took some work.
The lines created by the various objects and directional indicators in the image force your eye to wander around the image. In fact, even though he's hard to miss, the construct/golem character is often the last figure noticed. Why? Because the attention grabbers are the wizard's staff, the arrow being fired by the bow, the sorcerer's rod (and hand), and to a lesser degree, the elf's staff. These objects move your eye around the piece until finally you settle on the staff's glow and realize there is a figure back there about to heave a large wooden bench at someone/thing. Then you start to take in all the various details of what exactly is going on here. Many of the lines are paralleled to reinforce this eye movement and keep the viewer engaged longer. Beyond that, I wanted to try something different here in that using the rule of three (splitting the image horizontally and vertically into three rows and three columns to find four places where the lines interest, which are where our eyes frequently rest in an image), three of the four points are occupied by a hand. I thought that would be a fun experiment, and in the end it does not disappoint, IMHO. The fourth point, the wizard's knee, gives way to leading your eye off the image (with help from the wall behind it) so that you eventually turn the page.
Thanks all! See you next time! Thanks for stopping by!
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