Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Role Playing Game Portraits
A month ago I tweeted an image of some Role Playing game portraits I did in the early '00s inspired by some Tony DiTerlizi 'Flawed Characters' Portraits from Dragon Magazine around the same time. While looking for something else in a file cabinet, I uncovered the originals of those drawings and a few more to boot! I've re-scanned & colored them for the sake of the blog. Here they are with some commentary:

Dwarven Fighter:
My favorite of the bunch. I gave him evidence of some serious injuries (and a dead eye to match) Don't know what function the rings & pins serve on his pauldron straps, but the look cool.

Elven Rouge & Assassin:
I had a backstory for these two, being an arranged couple. The Rouge was a grizzled version of my standard D&D characters (thief with a conscience) and the Assassin is a cold blooded killer that eventually scares the Rogue away. (It's a themed arc-type pairing I'll use in a later story)

Halfling Bard:
Bards get a bad rap, but I think if handled properly, they can be rather cool. Become a minstral that gets in good with the King/Queen and then uses the closeness to his advantage. The $#!+ eating grin on this guy's face makes me think he's already set that plan in motion.

Dwarven Cleric:
I don't get sick of drawing craggy old bearded characters. So often you see D&D Clerics as being clean and neat. So this guy got a tangled mess of facial hair and only a few stubby teeth to push the idea of piety and faith being a Cleric's weapon, not fastidiousness.

Elven Paladin:
After the Elven Assasin drawing I got hung up on doing ringmail with a stencil...but youy can see that it starts to fall apart as a technique rather quickly. I imagined that something horrible happened to her mouth/jaw, so the armor is also cosmetic. And even though back in the 2.0 days of D&D, non-humans couldn't be Paladins, I always liked the idea of non-human holy knights with different deitys and rituals.

Halfling Mage:
This guy looks more run down than flawed & scarred. I don't know if I had a class in mind for him back when I drew him..but after the coloring gave him a bit of a Weasley/Gryffindor looks, I thought it was appropriate he was a mage. It's also fun to imagine a D&D mage that isn't just wearing robes and Gandalf's hat.


I will be offering the original drawings (pencil on 8.5" x 11" paper) of all of the above for sale through my online store later today. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed & Facebook page for more info.

Holiday Sale Reminder:
In my online store you can use promocode MOUSEGUARD to receive 10% off your order! The discount is good on Original art, Shirts, Non- Mouse Guard pieces, Prints, and the Winter B&W edition. The sale runs through the end of the year, so whether you are buying a gift for a Mouse Guard fan, or something for yourself, If it's still December, you can get a discount. I'll be updating the store with more items as the sale goes on (check Twitter or Facebook for updates)

Watercolor Wednesday:
Here are last week's Watercolor Wednesday pieces in case you missed them or wanted a closer look. First up is my attempt at a John Bauer style Giant (though he was known for Trolls rather than Giants...I wanted to draw a giant) This is one of my favorite Watercolor Wednesday pieces to-date.

The second piece started as a bad drawing of a Jack Frost like ice-pixie. The trick to turn it from a bad rough drawing into a watercolor I was pleased with had everything to do with defining the edges of the character by painting in the background space around him. The negative shapes between the icy/snowflakey bits and the happy accents that formed them are where the magic happened
 Tomorrow I'll post a few more paintings in my online store.

2013 Appearances: Emerald City: March 1-3
Fabletown Con: March 22-24
C2E2: April 26-28
Spectrum Live: May 17-19
Heroes Con: June 7-9
San Diego Comic Con: July 17-21

*more 2013 dates coming*

3 comments:

Red Herring Jeff said...

Those are great illustrations! I love how the lines on the paladin's ring mail actually add to the impact of the pattern, rather than detract from it.

scruffy said...

Role Playing Games, the training ground of artists and authors everywhere :)

Anonymous said...

Hehehe...the Halfling Mage sorta has a Doctor Who feel too.....

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