Ninja Mountain Podcast; Episode # 63

I join this week's, large, crowd for ongoing chat about being a freelance illustrator.

Listen here.

The Hundred Handed One.

The Hundred Handed One.

D&D Chapter Start; The Plane Above.

Approx 21" x 19". Acrylics. Original art for sale: £1500.

©Wizards of the Coast

The Plane Above; Secrets of the Astral Sea has now been released, which means I can share my work on this D&D supplement. The Hundred Handed One was great fun to work on, and certainly satisfied my love of working with multiple figures, even if they are mainly compressed into one gross daemonic beastie!

The illustration followed the same layout requirements of previous Chapter Starts I've worked on, with the image spreading across two pages with the guttering faling about  a third in from the left. I tried to work the composition around this with the adventurers being placed on facing pages, and the monster flowing between them.

Value & Layout Sketch; digital greyscale.

I also sought to aid depth and clarity through colour choice, the red, green and blue providing strong delineation. The focus of the image is the explosion and that is emphasised through the strong white light and triangular composition of the combatants.

Line Sketch; graphite on board.

Here are details of the D&D book: The Plane Above

Ninja Mountain Podcast; Episode # 62

I had the pleasure of contributing to the latest episode of the Ninja Mountain podcast, wherein Jon, Andy and I chat to fellow Ninja Mountaineer Torstein Nordstrand about working on concept art.

Listen here.

Dungeon # 177 Cover

Dungeon #177: The Master.

Approx 51 cm x 51cm. Acrylic. Original For Sale: £1500. © WOTC

The psychic energy flowed through the Rakshasa as he bent the will of the Goristro demon to his own ends. More souls would soon lie trapped in the rock beneath his feet...

The Goristro towers over the Rakshasa, but I wanted the latter to be the point of interest. I tried to achieve this by placing the strongest contrast of light and dark upon him, whilst also having the broadest range of colours. To add to the menace, and power, of the pairing I tilted the horizon and chose a low  viewpoint. The edges and definition also gets softer and looser as you move away from the focal point.

One pleasure of working for the online D&D magazines is that the turnaround between commission and publication is pretty quick. So rather than the months of wait that normally occurs this was a mere matter of weeks. Consequently this is very close to where I am wanting to push my painting at present, especially in trying to work hard on the focus.

Part of that concentration includes texture and edges. This was my first painting where I employed a matte acrylic gel. It provides a bit more body and lengthens drying time. This seemed to help especially with the blending in the background and on the spell effect.

Incidentally this is also the painting that I was working on when we recorded Episode #56 of the Ninja Mountain podcast. Listen here.

I also took  a number of 'in progress' photos and hope to construct a walkthrough from them.

Dungeon #177

Ninja Mountain Podcast: Episode 60

I managed to clamber back up the rocky slopes of the Ninja Mountain again this week, where I enjoyed a great chat with Andy and Jon about the nature of being a freelancer.

Ninja Mountain #60