Friday 24 September 2010

Falon the Warpriest.

Alerted.

Acrylic, Approx 8.5" x 20"
Original Artwork For Sale
©Wizards of the Coast.

Wizards have just released the Heroes of the Fallen Lands, a player's essentials supplement. Not only did I create the cover artwork, depicting a new set of iconic D&D characters, but I had the pleasure of portraying one of them, Falon the Warpriest, inside as well.

I didn't design the concept for the character, but when you get to work with an iconic they do get moulded a little bit towards your own sensibilities, and a sense of part ownership accrues. At the very least he acquired an extra pouch and potion bottle.

With the two internals I added a little narrative that hadn't initially been asked for; so that above we have a lone single character shot, but one that directly relates to the piece below...

...this is what happened next:

Duel

Acrylic, Approx 16" x 21"
Original Artwork For Sale
©Wizards of the Coast.

Making those additional connections and being able to add that little bit more is always very satisfying.

Here is the cover artwork, which was shown in  a previous blog post.

Heroes Of The Fallen Lands

Acrylic, Approx 16" x 21"
Original Artwork For Sale
©Wizards of the Coast




Wednesday 15 September 2010

World of Warcraft

It is a little while since I have shared any World of Warcraft work, and as a new set of cards for the trading card game has just been released now would seem an ideal time to catch-up.

Hemet Nesingwary
Acrylic; original for sale.
© Blizzard Entertainment.

Skeletal Warhorse
Acrylic; original for sale.
© Blizzard Entertainment.


Swift Palomino

Acrylic; original for sale.
© Blizzard Entertainment.

Branthea The Resolute

Acrylic; original for sale.
© Blizzard Entertainment.

Explosive Flames

Acrylic; original for sale.
© Blizzard Entertainment.


Tuesday 7 September 2010

Red Box

Enter The Lair
Acrylic, Approx 19" x 19"
Original Artwork For Sale
©Wizards of the Coast.

The 'Red Box' holds a legendary place in Dungeons & Dragons lore. It was one of the original introductory starter packs, featuring iconic artwork by Larry Elmore, and  was a portal through which many gamers entered the hobby.

You can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that Wizards of the Coast were going to revisit that product, and that they would like me to do likewise with the artwork. The look of the D&D red dragon has changed in the intervening period, as has the appearance of the heroes, but I wanted to capture the feel of the original, and pay homage in my own way.


This is the original, and now current as well, version of the box, as presented on Wizards' web site.


Here you can see my artwork being used on the rules manuals.

This project was a great thrill to work on, albeit challenging to homage such a famous painting, and I take great pleasure to think my own work will be an instrumental part in the next generation of players gaming experience.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Fantasy+

I was very happy to be selected for inclusion in a newly released artbook; Fantasy +, The Best Hand-Painted Illustrations.



It is a celebration of fantasy artists who work traditionally, and being included amongst the twenty contributors was great. It is a nicely produced, full colour, publication, with each artist having 10 pages to showcase their work, alongside which we provide insights into each piece.

The other illustrators featured within this 200 page book are: Donato Giancola, Don Maitz, Volkan Baga, Brian Despain, Eric Fortune, Lucas Graciano, Petar Meseldzija, Peter Ferguson, Raul Cruz, Ron Spears, Shaun Tan, Steven Belledin, Tom Fowler, Eric Joyner, Ciruelo Cabral, Therese Nielsen, Greg Staples, Adrian Smith and Daren Bader.

Find out more here.