Category Archives: Illustration

Curse of Strahd D&D Commission

Another Curse of Strahd party commission! I think this is the fourth one I’ve done now? It’s evidently quite a popular module — I can probably draw that Castle Ravenloft in the background from memory by now! I actually played briefly in a Curse of Strahd campaign recently, until I had to drop out because of lack of time. Maybe one of these days… Anyway, this was a really fun piece to do! I love these posed “group photo” pieces — they’re always a lot of fun to compose. I also started to find a nice coloring process on this one that’s sort of a hybrid between cel-shaded, and fully-painted, which looks great, but is still efficient to do.

Horror Podcast Cover

Here’s a little horror poster I did for an episode of a horror podcast.

Muel’s Marvelous Menagerie of Mercenaries!

Here’s a fun comic book cover-style piece I did for a D&D group!

Amber Electric T-shirt Design

Here’s a really fun piece I had the opportunity to do recently — a t-shirt/logo design for a woman-owned electrician business, Amber Electric! Amber reached out to ask if I ever did Ed Roth-style Hot Rod art. I told her I never had, exactly, but that I was familiar with his work, and would love to take a shot at it. Here’s what we came up with!

Yet one more in my angels & demons series, figuring out this whole digital painting thing! A more brutish counterpart to the elegant devil from before. This guy came out the best yet, in my opinion. Some things about painting really started to click into place. Those chains were a lot of fun to do — I have a little trick for drawing chains that works with inking, so I wanted to see how it would work with a painted style — pretty well, it turns out! Still got a few more of these guys in the hopper.

Dapper Devil

I’ve been real quiet for a while, but I’ve been learning digital painting. Years ago I drew a series of angels and demons in an inking style I was exploring at the time, and I had a lot of fun with it, so I thought I’d return to that. Here’s the first!

A Thousand Faces of Adventure Book Cover

Here’s a book cover I drew for a book called A Thousand Faces of Adventure, A Role Playing Game inspired by Joseph Campbell’s studies on the Hero’s Journey.

“I Am Catalina” book cover by Hannah Toro.

Another book cover for Hanna Toro!

“Dear Maria” Book Cover

Here’s a book cover I designed for Hannah Toro’s book “Dear Maria”, featuring her character, Audrey.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu character designs

Here are some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu characters I was fortunate to have the opportunity to design for Heroes Martial Arts in San Jose, CA! My own experience in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gave me a leg up here.

D&D party gets revenge on Dungeon Master!

This was a fun twist on the typical D&D party commission — their dungeon master is at their mercy, about to pay for all the misery he’s inflicted on the party!

Video Game Tavern Commission

Here’s a piece I did a while back for a whiskey & video games blog — a bunch of game characters sharing a drink in a tavern.

The Fellowship of the Snake

A fun D&D party commission I drew recently! This one was set up kinda like a comic book cover, title and all. A lot of fun characters here, but I think my favorite is the snake riding the Mage Hand!

Super Serial

Here’s an illustration for a novel about serial killers for hire!

Sci-fi Comic Cover Commission

Here’s a commission I did last year for a nice couple’s anniversary, featuring the two of them on the cover of a retro science fiction comic!

D&D Bard & Warlock

Here’s a D&D commission from a couple years back that I never posted. Half-elf Bard & Warlock, if I remember!

Burning Spaceman

This is a commission from last year — I’m not sure, but I think it was a t-shirt design. Spaceman with burning head. I like it!

Star Wars Droid Commission

Here’s a commission piece I did recently. A new subject for me — a Star Wars droid! This was commissioned for a Star Wars roleplaying game. The commissioner has been playing this character for years, and he’s gotten a big banged up in that time, hence the mismatched left arm and left leg.

The Cult of the Blue Oyster, My Online D&D Group

I’d always shied away from the idea of online D&D. I just wanted to play with my friends, even if we only made it once every couple of months. But when Covid hit and the lockdown started, that was no longer an option. Then it occurred to me that there must be lots of others in the same situation, so it would be a great time to finally try out this online thing. Just a one-shot, you know. I whipped up a Discord server, hit up r/LFG, and in 15 minutes I had a group. However, that one-shot grew, and after a couple of personnel changes for various reasons, we’ve got a fantastic group full of great players (and great people!), and we’re now over 20 sessions deep into the weekly campaign I’ve always wanted to run.

Clockwise from the top, here’s the Cult of the Blue Oyster!

Kalderon “Kal” Enevara, Eladrin Sorcerer! Kal is a gentle soul, on a mission from his God to heal a corrupted forest in the Barony of Sarnoff. He’s new to this world, and enjoys learning about all the various flora, fauna, and customs. He’s even got a jar full of tadpoles he’s meticulously tending to. But he really just wants to get this thing over with and get back to his family in the Feywild. I don’t know if I have the heart to tell him…

Jade Coil, Tabaxi Monk! We don’t know her too well yet, because she’s pretty new. Her player’s previous character, a Warforged Paladin with a dark past, ended up straight up murdering an allied NPC in an emotional dispute, and then the player didn’t really want to play that character anymore. Enter Jade! We know she likes learning about religion and history, and going “bonk bonk” with them paws!

Gwin “Bloody Redd” Garkalan, Dwarf Bard. Perhaps the chaotic beating heart of the group. She disguised herself as a male to learn the manly arts in her highly gender-segregated dwarven society, but she was discovered and cast out. Prone to music puns, now she roams the land, shredding on her axe and inventing heavy metal!

And last but not least, Massimo “Mas” K’Zar, Aarakocra Ranger, and Wolfie! Mas is a young bird boy on a quest to become a great hunter. He tends to kinda hang in the background, only to pop up with a well-timed quip. But when he sees a sweet hat on an enemy cult leader’s head, watch out, because he’s gonna GET that hat. He also feeds Kal’s tadpoles with bugs shaken from his feathers.

Canadian Snow Geese In Love

Just a little commission I did a while back.

Brandon Palas

Comics & Illustration