HEX: Raucous Revelry

This illustration was painted for Doombringer, the latest release for the game HEX: Shards of Fate. As you can see from the picture, the game isn't all doom and gloom! The little berry characters are called "Boonberries" and they were fun to paint.

Hearthstone: Crystal Lion

Painting this crystal lion for the new Hearthstone set, Kobolds and Catacombs proved very challenging. Thankfully, art director Jeremy Cranford offered some valuable suggestions (particularly about the glow around the lion) that helped me bring the piece home. I'm always grateful for his input.

I've included my preliminary sketch below and because I think this particular image works best when cropped into the oval shape it appears in on the Hearthstone card, I've also included a cropped version.

Hearthstone: Drywhisker Armorer

This fellow was painted for the new Hearthstone set, Kobolds & Catacombs. I had tremendous fun with this picture and it was a bit of a slow build as I worked toward getting the colors and lighting just how I wanted them. It's a bit different than some of my other work for the game, with a little more emphasis on the surrounding environment than usual. However, the focus remains on the character, as it should. I've included my preliminary sketch below and I may share some process images in the coming days. Thanks for looking!

Hearthstone: Jasper Spellstone

Here's a series of paintings I did for the upcoming Hearthstone expansion, Kobolds & Catacombs. The idea is the amulet holding the spellstone opens and becomes more magically powerful in each stage.

For those who like to see some of the process, I'm also including an alternate version (in gray) of the sequence. As you can see, in the end we went in another direction but I like this concept, in which the stone is revealed by having the casing that surrounds it fold down and outward.

Hearthstone: Unchained Magic

Here's one more painting from my work on Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne. This one was tricky and it went through a bit more development than usual so perhaps I'll post some process images later. Meanwhile, this is the end result: an undead dragon (known as a frost wyrm in the game)!

Hearthstone: Vryghoul

This is my painting for Vryghoul, a card in the new Hearthstone expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne. I've included my preliminary sketch with the painting. I had a blast painting this zombie-like character and I'm grateful for art director Jeremy Cranford's very helpful suggestions.

Meaningless aside that might interest someone: I often listen to audiobooks as I work and I was listening to Stephen King's Different Seasons while painting this picture. The book and subject matter went together well.

Hearthstone: Avian Watcher

I painted this illustration of for the new Hearthstone release, One Night in Karazhan. 

I've included a preliminary study in gray. I was initially leaning toward something dark and moody but Hearthstone is a very colorful game so in the end, the color scheme ended up being rather electric, with a highly saturated palette, right down to the glowing green eyes.

Skylanders Battlecast: Food Fight and Coldspear Cyclops

Here's one more from Activision's Skylanders Battlecast, a frozen scene depicting the character Food Fight and a Coldspear Cyclops!

Skylanders Battlecast: Crypt King and Bad Juju

Here's another painting for Skylanders Battlecast, this time featuring the characters Crypt King and Bad Juju. The latter is in the background and he's trying to control the actions of the former.

Skylanders Battlecast: Smash Hit

This painting for Activision's Skylanders Battlecast game features a character named Smash Hit and a cement-slinging machine he's invented, Designing the cement slinger was a hoot and I had a great time with this painting as a whole. It went through some changes along the way so I'm going to share the process for it in my next post.

Skylanders Battlecast: Grave Clobber

Here's another piece I painted for Activision's Skylanders Battlecast. It's one of my favorites. The character, Grave Clobber, has just been dumped out of a water pipe and he's feeling a little stunned.

Like all of the Battlecast paintings I've been posting, this one was painted digitally, in Adobe Photoshop.

Princes of the Apocalypse Part 2

Here's another illustration created for the Dungeons & Dragons adventure, Princes of Apocalypse, published by Sasquatch games and Wizards of the Coast. This one involves a halfling discovering a large contraption in (you guessed it), a dungeon.

I got very wrapped up in the lighting on this one, for what I hope are obvious reasons.I really enjoy working on pictures with a single, very localized light source.

Princes of the Apocalypse

As the title of this post implies, this image was painted for the recently released Dungeons & Dragons adventure, Princes of the Apocalypse.  It depicts a genasi (a Djinn or genie-like race) casting a draining spell on the orcs attacking her. I had a good time with the lighting and colors in this one, as well as the characters.

This artwork was commissioned by Sasquatch Game Studio who put together the book in cooperation with Wizards of the Coast. It was a pleasure to work with them!

Keepers of Grimoire art

In March, I was contacted by the nice people at Orca Bear Studios, LLC and asked to work on some art for their developing trading card game, Keepers of Grimoire. It's a fantasy world with some unique twists of it's own and I had a great time working on it. I'll post some of the work I did over the next week or two. To begin, here's a dragon who is actually composed primarily of water (aren't we all?), which is streaming off his extremities as as he flies and a female character named Karina, who's sporting some stylish "steampunk" gauntlets.

You can learn more about Keepers of Grimoire at the game's site, www.keepersofgrimoire.com