Art

Deviant Friday Five – Akizhao Edition

/ jstater / 3 Comments

Another Friday, another five pieces of art from an artist I follow at DeviantArt. This week, I’m highlighting akizhao.

Akizhao paints in what might be termed an “anime” style, or at least with anime sensibilities. This style can be a bit controversial in old school RPG circles, but I like it – hell, if it’s good, I like it. Orthodoxy does not appeal to me.

Barbarian

Lao Dao
When fantasy games look to Asia for inspiration, they usually look to Japan. They might want to start looking at China, whose stories of “knight errants” is almost tailor-made for adventure games.

Spider
When the eight eyes peering back from a cave turn out to be this guy instead of the four kobolds the players were expecting, well then the game gets interesting.

Hope, Water and Heart Stop

Dragon

Deviant Friday Five – Adriano Batista Edition

/ jstater

This week’s artist: Adriano Batista, aka Adrianohq

And yes, so far Deviant Friday Five is beginning to look like pin-up girl Friday. In my defense, comic book and fantasy art has always been about 80% pin-up art.

Red Sonja
and don’t let the scale mail bikini distract you from that awesome shield art

Jungle Girl

Jungle Girl again
I found the masks very inspiring when I was writing my faux-African part of NOD (to be published eventually)

Wyrms Book Three
The old tavern scene

Lyrael the Hunter
Cat girls have invaded Western fantasy, and they’re not leaving anytime soon

Inspirational Art – Gustaf Tenggren

/ jstater

If you haven’t experienced Gustaf Tenggren before, please make an effort to do so (beyond the few images in this post). As I complete the J10 map of Venatia with its pseudo-Western European vibe, understand that images like those of Tenggren are foremost on my mind. These images come from Illustrateurs, a French blog that makes me feel more sophisticated every time I read it.

Fairies are underused in modern fantasy, in my opinion. There’s no better “big bad guy” than a little bastard who can mind your mind in two

Going after a dragon with an AC of 9 [10] – that’s bravery

Talking animal (i.e. halfling) in an ogre king’s castle – that could happen in NOD.

Tenggren’s design for the Evil Queen in Snow White.

This, my friend, is a paladin.

NOD on rpg.net

/ jstater / 3 Comments

My daughter googled my name last night, and this review of NOD #1 turned up on rpg.net. Sleeper rated issue #1 a “7”, which isn’t bad since he gave the same rating to the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, the 1st edition DMG and Vault of the Drow ;).

Anyhow, if you have a hankering to rate the first issue, that would be a good place to do it. Unless you hated it, in which case rating it would be a terrible waste of your time.

Oh – and why the Darwyn Cooke drawing of Red Sonja? Because Darwyn Cooke + Red Sonja is reason enough.

Deviant Friday Five – Adam Hughes

/ jstater / 2 Comments

I’ve been a lurker at DeviantArt since 2007, always on the lookout for material I could use in the game I was running. In that time, I followed over 360 artists, and have enjoyed drinking my morning caffeine (Diet Dr. Pepper, to be specific) while perusing the latest offerings of these talented folks. So, looking for a nice routine to slip into, I decided I’d start featuring a few pieces of work from my favorite deviants.

This week – Adam Hughes

Yeah, I know – a guy who likes the art of Adam Hughes. Astounding. But look at the technique, for crying out loud. Regardless of the sex appeal, the man can draw. Here’s five from the modern master of comic book pin-up art.

Come on, you’d tramp halfway across Mars for her too …

Batwoman, doing what batpersons do

Everyone’s favorite amazon – and for the record, I’m not a fan of the new costume or the profound lack of imagination behind the entire scheme – looks like DC’s going to have to kill Superman again real soon

Walt Disney’s contribution to the world of pin-up art

I want to believe in chainmail bikinis, I really do.

Inspirational Art – Quirky Fantasy Art

/ jstater / 3 Comments

There is a style of quirky, comical art that I really adore. It has a way of putting me in a happy place, full of wonder at the little details and the placement of lines on a page. I would love to see an RPG illustrated in such a style*, but fear I would be in a minority in that respect. Anyways – Mattias Adolfsson and Kennon Jamesare good examples of this kind of artist – very creative and very skilled at hatching their vision on a piece of paper. Here are a few examples of their work …

Matthias Adolfsson

Kennon James

* Wouldn’t it be cool to merge an old school RPG like Swords & Wizardry with the art book concept. Different copies of S&W illustrated entirely by a single artist. So, you would have the Frazetta S&W and the Russ Nicholson S&W and the Arthur Rackham S&W, etc. In the words of Bare Naked Ladies, if I had a million dollars …

Inspirational Art – Mazes and Wanderers

/ jstater / 1 Comment

Just a couple images I found on the web today …

So the party is making its way along a stream or canal and comes across this maze. The interesting thing here, I think, is not so much the challenge of navigating through it, but the mystery of why it was put there in the first place.

This is like inspiration after the fact. I was just recently contemplating a weird PC class called “The Traveler” (no, it doesn’t involve a red umbrella), and this image (by E. Gorey) popped up.

JMS