BNR: Achievements

References to movies and albums 

For the weeks where I don't have the time to create a new art piece I will instead post an asset I created for Bust-N-Rush (BNR), the first game we made at Techtonic Games.

I threw in a couple homages in these "cheevos" to some pop culture items. I can't recall where the brick-face one is from, if you figure it out let me know.

The free demo for BNR is below, where you can also purchase the game (soundtrack optional) for 8$.
http://www.techtonicgames.com/where-to-buy/

BNR is a 'runner' for PC and Mac.

Sunday D&D character illustration: Syrano d'Cannith

Photoshop speed painting to illustrate a 'Dungeons and Dragons' player's character. Started and finished in one sitting.


This time I wanted to have a more dramatic pose inspired by the Marvel comics drawing lessons that always stress dynamic elements in characters like foreshortening.


Here was the description:
"...human, who after a disturbing magical accident, almost died. In order to save his life a Renegade Mastermaker [3.5 ed] ended up replacing a very large quantity of this guy’s flesh (and both of his arms) and added adamantine plating as construct grafts. 
...he will be wearing pants and boots (blue pants preferably, of the kind you'd expect to see a shirtless wizard wearing,) and would have a completely hairless and a partially fire-scarred head. He'd have no metal from the "collar bones" up and there would be visible human flesh in the left arm pit to the waist on the left side of his stomach, not much, mind you, but some. Also, the left hand (the only one you can really see in the picture, would be a metal-and-wood five-fingered hand."

Influences and resources:

Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street, Jonah Hex, Robocop, Overtkill from Spawn, Dr. Doom, Iron Man, Baxter Stockman (cyborg version not the fly version) from TMNT, Borg Queen from Star Trek First Contact.

Warforged are a player race in D&D Eberron campaign setting.

Art Evolution Challenge

I'm looking for feedback on my current art project. Please give critique, even if it's only one sentence.


The winner of this competition will be featured in Black Gate, a magazine of sci-fi and fantasy which had a project called Art Evolution: The Visual Development of Art in Role-Playing from 1979-2009. This was 25 of the RPG industries most established artists illustrating the same character, Lyssa, in their own unique style and genre. The only reference was, "A young female human wizard with black hair who always wears white trimmed in gold."


Now there's a chance for up and coming artists to take their shot at Lyssa, called Art Evolution: The Next Stage. 5 winners will be featured in Black Gate next to the "greatest artistic RPG talents of all time."


The runes on the floor are in Draconic from D&D 4e, and they say "thewillowen.com". The runes on her ribbons coming from her waist are brushes from Obsidiandawn.com. In the center of the magic circle on the floor is a design of a 20-sided die.

I made sure she was stacked with magic items so she would look like she could fit right into a game of D&D. Magic ring, necklace, cloak, staff, scrolls, magic potions, a key on a chain, and a dagger (behind her hip). In the first colored iteration I gave Lyssa a staff from Adventurer's Vault 2, but then I went back to my original version of the staff because the new one wasn't reading very well. On her head is the Chimera Headdress also from AV2. 
At first I was hesitant to make her book the Necronomicon from Army of Darkness, because it's a pretty evil book and it doesn't really fit that well with her because she doesn't look that evil. But then I decided, "to hell with it, I'm gonna draw what I want to draw."


Inspiration and influences: Michael Turner, Ben Wootten, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Army of Darkness, and all of the other entries in the competition.


This piece is dedicated to Adam Adamowicz, rest in peace.


[Update] Winners can be viewed here: http://theartorder.com/2012/02/27/art-evolution-judging/#more-1778
126 entries. 5 winners, 5 honorable mentions. They're all professionals and even veteran artists, so I don't feel too bad losing to them.

Sunday D&D character illustration: Goliath Awesome

Final version

Figure sketch

Photoshop speed painting to illustrate a 'Dungeons and Dragons' player's character.


Here were the requirements: 
Goliath (4e race), grey skin, dark markings, white eyes, bald, bit of an evil streak, big even by goliath standards. 
His years as a ranger show in his wildness.
He wields dual Lightning Bastard Swords, but they are never in sword form. He essentially just carries two large lightning bolts.
Fury and rage embodied with the destructive power of a storm.
And scars, one of ears is missing/mostly gone.


Influences & resources: 'God of War', obsidiandawn.com, Theokoles from 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand'

Without effects (large sized)

Sunday D&D character illustration: Dragonborn Fighter

A little late this week. Been having shoulder problems.

Photoshop speed painting to illustrate a 'Dungeons and Dragons' player's character. Scion of Arkhosia Paragon Path from Player's Handbook 2 is what gives him the dragon wings. I don't believe dragonborn normally have tails though, that was specific to this character.

Reference and inspiration: Frank Frazetta, Dragon Age, bats.