Hearthstone: The Boomsday Project

Here are my paintings for the latest Hearthstone expansion, The Boomsday Project. This set was particularly fun for me because it placed an emphasis on robots and mechanical creatures and I love designing and painting robots. I had the opportunity to do just that for Boomsday (although I didn't design the Omega Defender—the power armor with the goblin operating it).

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: 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.

Dwarf Golem

I painted this Dwarf Golem for a project years ago but I don't think it was ever published. I came across the image today while organizing some files and decided it was time to share it. 

Hearthstone: Tar Lurker

This is the third of 3 tar creatures I painted for Hearthstone: Journey to Un'Goro. The great thing about designing a creature made of tar, slime, etc. is that you can really play with the shapes and forms to create an interesting silhouette and (hopefully) a cool monster.

Hearthstone: Stegodon

This is a companion piece to the picture I posted yesterday, Spikeridged Steed. It was also painted for the Journey to Un'Goro set. As you can see from the accompanying sketch, my initial idea was to have the dinosaur laughing at his fallen rider.

Hearthstone: Blood to Ichor

Here's another painting for the new Hearthstone set, Whispers of the Old Gods. Conceptually, this one started off from a slightly different place than it ended up. Originally, the slime creatures emerging from the ichor weren't a part of the picture. The wounded figure in the foreground was simply supposed to be "bleeding" green ichor. Then, the art description for the picture shifted and the green slime creatures were actually supposed to become the focus. That was tricky since it wasn't quite how I had originally conceived the artwork. Ultimately, with the help of art director Jeremy Cranford, I think I arrived at a pretty good solution. The green slime things were a blast to paint!

I'm including the original sketch below.

Hearthstone: Grotesque Dragonhawk

Here's another image painted for Hearthstone's new Whispers of the Old Gods expansion. This one was painted at the same time as the Berserker painting I posted last month and now that Old Gods has been released, I can finally share it with you.

I'll share a couple more paintings from the set here over the weekend so please check in again!

Isonade

This is the last of the illustrations I did for Pathfinder Bestiary 5. It depicts a giant, primitive shark with a crab-like carapace and a hook-like tail. Even though this is a spot illustration, I really tried to convey an underwater atmosphere in this one.

Capramace

Here's another illustration from Pathfinder Bestiary 5. This one shows a "Capramace", described  to me as a "feral, goat-man monster" that's "wildly chasing a victim". My assignment was just to show the monster so there's no victim here... unless of course you feel victimized by the sight of a hideous goat man.

Unlike the last few illustrations I've posted from this project, this creature isn't my own design. I was provided with a reference created by another artist which showed the creature in a crouch. My job was to re-interpret him into a more dynamic running pose.

Heikegani Crab

Here's a fantasy take on a real creature: the Heikegani crab, which is also referred to as the Japanese Ghost Crab. According to Japanese folklore, Heikegani crabs contain the souls of fallen samurai warriors. The version I painted isn't dramatically different from the real thing but the suggestion of a face on the back of the actual crab has been reinforced into a monstrous, distorted face. Plus, this crab wields a knife!

I'm not sure why a crab needs a knife but hey, knives are useful...

Painted for Pathfinder Bestiary 5.

Bagiennik

I painted this creature for the recently-released Bestiary 5 for Pathfinder, published by Paizo Publishing. It's a sort of humanoid salamander. I tried to give it a somewhat light touch since it's more of a whimsical creature than a "bad guy".

I love designing creatures like this.

Earthen Statue

Here's one more illustration (and one more statue) painted for Hearthstone: League of Explorers. I've included more process imagery this time because I thought the process behind this one might interest a few of you.

As you can see below, I began, as usual, with a line drawing. From there I began blocking in values, in gray, and building up the picture, all while knowing I intended to throw a spotlight onto the statue in the foreground and blur the partially carved statues in the background.

I began adding color and light, going with a very warm, yellow and brown color scheme. It's not a color scheme I use often and I thought it would be a challenge that would also suit the picture. At this stage, Art Director Jeremy Cranford helpfully suggested softening the rays of light so they weren't so distinct from one another (that helped the picture tremendously), adding some motes of dust (another good idea) and creating more color contrast by adding more cool color. That warm/cool contrast can really help a picture pop on a card.

Those suggestions led to the blue and gold version you see at the bottom of this post and, ultimately, to the final art you see above, which pushes the contrast between warm and cool colors even further. I'm still not sure which of these last two versions I prefer but I think the final art reads best in the Hearthstone card format.

Some pictures require the artist to go on a longer journey than others! I hope some of you find this info about the process behind this one interesting. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Giant Stone Statue

Here's another piece for Hearthstone: League of Explorers. The working title for this one was Giant Stone Statue. I think the final card is titled Investigate the Runes. Unlike the statue in the previous painting, this one's not moving but hopefully it's nice and imposing!

I've also included my value study in grays.

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.

SolForge Drawings

One of the trickier things about being an illustrator is switching gears between projects that require a different mentality or style. I had to do this quite a bit last year. Fortunately, that switch can be fun too!

I worked on some cards for the online card game SolForge (published by Stone Blade Entertainment) last year but the approach was very different from my usual method. I was asked to do clean line drawings that would then be colored. As a lifelong comic book reader and someone who's done a bit of work in comics as well, I'm very familiar with this sort of approach and the idea of passing a line drawing along to someone else to finish in color appealed to me. I was interested in seeing how someone else would interpret the underlying work.

I was under the impression the coloring would be done "comic book style", along the lines of this Kaiju artwork I did for Stone Blade, but it ended up being much more opaque and painted. It's very different from what I expected or what I would have done myself but that was inevitable, especially because I had no contact with the artists who colored the work.

Another aspect of these cards is that each one involved a sequence of 3 images. I haven't had a chance to play the game but as I understand it, this has to do with the game mechanics. Each image involves an increase in power of some kind so characters or creatures grow larger, spells manifest, energy is released, etc.

I'm sharing two examples of cards I drew, along with images of the final cards, colored by some unknown souls out there. The first set of images is titled Tuskin Sporelord and involves a character bringing large mushrooms to life. The second depicts a titan.

On the Shoulder of a Giant

Over this past year I had the chance to realize a dream I've literally had for decades: to illustrate a picture book. I collaborated with author Neil Christopher and Inhabit Media on On the Shoulder of a Giant, a picture book based on a traditional Inuit story in which a giant named Inukpak adopts a hunter. The book was released a few weeks ago and I'm very proud of it.

I've posted the cover (and the preliminary sketch) above and I'll be sharing art from the interior of the book all week so please stay tuned!

On the Shoulder of a Giant is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble. I encourage you to pick up a copy and write a review. You can post about it on Goodreads too!

You can find Inhabit media on the web at http://inhabitmedia.com

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!

Vorn and Salramm

These two pieces are from the recently released Caverns of Time set for the World of Warcraft TCG. The first is a charging Tauren warrior named Vorn and the second is (if I remember correctly) a necromancer named Salraam the Fleshcrafter, accompanied by some of those goofy-looking (but fun to paint!) Warcraft ghouls.