Tag 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.

 

Mighty Ground Pounders End-of-Campaign Poster

Here’s a huge illustration I had the opportunity to do recently for a D&D group to celebrate the ending of their two-year-long campaign. It features the whole party, their airship, the main villains, and a bunch of their favorite NPCs.

I got to try out a new coloring process on this one, using my newly-developed digital painting skills to bring more depth and variety to the rendering. I’m really pleased with how it came out.

My favorite detail about this piece is the Mindflayer head in a jar on the back of the evil wizard in the foreground. They sent me an update of their final sessions showing how that turned out, since I when I finished the piece, they still had a couple of sessions left. That Mindflayer head became a Mindflayer giant for the final battle, with a mini on the table that must’ve been a foot tall!

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.