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

Imperial Steam Tank - the digging continues

Imperial Steam Tank

 Illustrated story from Inferno! magazine.

©Games Workshop

One of my longest standing clients is Games Workshop. In 1997 The Black Library had not been long spawned and one of it's first creations was Inferno! magazine - a mix of comic strips, short stories and illustrated features. My first commission with GW was for issue #1; an illustrated story collaboration with Jonathan Greene. He provided the words and I the detailed linework that accompanied them. We worked on a number of these pieces together before Jonathan concentrated on the straight prose of his novels, and I began to undertake the writing.

25 x 32 cm. Technical Pen, Ink, acrylic on Bristol Board.

We have just exchanged emails, and I was prompted to look through some of the back catalogue. The Imperial Steam Tank was one of my earliest solo projects, and also one of the shortest, but I enjoy it's nostalgia value, and it reveals my roots.

I was keen to incorporate the text into the illustration as much as possible. That wasn't always possible, but this was a prime example where I got to run riot. Looking back I appreciate how much freedom I had to create with these pieces. I proposed the idea, and was then left to run with it.

The Battle of Nis-Pazar.

48 x 36 cm. © Games Workshop

The subjects also allowed for a wide variety of approaches. The humorous pseuod-technicality of the Steam Tank would be followed by a 'where's Wally?' battle scene like Nis-Pazar or the Military History approach of 'preparing Steel Storm'. It was a great learning experience that I value even more fully now.

Preparing 'Steel Storm'; Battle of Bhavangar.

52 x 27 cm. © Games Workshop.

 Check out Jonathan Greene's Blog, he's on his eleventh novel and lots more besides.

The Moving Imp

I am itching to share various artworks, but am having to wait until publication dates come along. Meantime I was sorting through my storage drawers, in response to a sales enquiry, and I stumbled upon the pencil sketch I made for a new address card when we moved about 3 years back. I thought it was a fun piece that having emerged from the bottom of a pile of paintings could step out into the world a little further.

The Moving Imp

20 x 28 cm, graphite on cartridge paper.

Original artwork for sale: £50

Ninja Mountain Podcast #56

It has been a little while since I have had the pleasure of appearing on the Ninja Mountain podcast. The regular recording night clashes with my one regular gaming commitment, but last week we had a rather impromptu chat-whilst-we-work, that was organised by Jon Hodgson.

The result can be heard here:
NM podcast #56

and I think we covered an interesting range of work related topics.