Flowers!

Dug this up from last year, though I'd post it. More dungeon stuff upcoming, of course.

Self defined: further visual aids

Finding good images of renaissance building that aren't castles or churches is very difficult. When I try to design things like the granary and the pigsty below, I found myself basically having to make things like the floorplans up from whole cloth, while only being able to source details like those above. Advice on this appreciated.




These two pictures are courtesy of the mad bastards of UK urban Exploration. Here they are, exploring an abandoned mine underneath Northhamptonshire.




These two devices are the heraldry of the new and old cities, rival factions in the setting the game's set in. They'd make good decoration for the adventure write-up, when I come to make the pdf together.

Likewise, here are the visual aids for some of the rooms I'm designing. Decided to go for a more complimentary colour sort of thing with this, see if it makes them look any livelier. The last lot were a bit muddy.

"You shield your eyes as you reach fresh air and sunlight once more. You seem to be in some kind of granary, and can hear some of the ordinary noises of the city outside. There is a smell of fresh grain and newly-cut wood, mixed with the same nagging chemical smell as before. A handful of workers turn in surprise as you enter, but others, strangely robed and hooded, continue about their business."

"This secluded area lies on waste-ground, surrounded by burned-out and abandoned buildings. The bright autumnal sunshine gleams off the trickle of water running along the cracked river bed, towards a large grate at the far end."


"You find yourselves at the centre of a web of tunnels, disappearing off in every direction. The ceiling is low and drips unpleasantly. The darkness is near-total, and you get the feeling that the water flowing is not as wholesome as it could be. Confused noises echo in the distance out of sight."


"You hear this room before you even see it. Mixed with the grunts and squeals of penned animals, there is a feeble moaning, quiet but echoing between the tall wooden panels that divide the space. Dirty straw covers the floor, and there is a terribly...organic smell in the air. A ragged figure sifts through the muck at the furthest end of the room, seemingly oblivious."

"The air is thick and cloying in this tunnel. A faint, sickly glow from the torch by the far wall illuminates dozens of floating shapes in the water. The smell of decay is utterly beyond description."

Self-Defined: I Love You Keith Thompson

Yes, it's official, I shall track down Keith Thompson and make him my wife. It's not just the skill or the detail he puts into his works. It's not even the thought, creativity and wealth of experience he seems to put into everything he does. It's the narrative. Each one of his pictures is a story. For instance, above we have The Ghoul, a piece from his website. It's not just just scary, intriguing or horrifying, as a result of being well drawn and well designed- it gives the illusion of belonging to something bigger, even though it was created in a vacuum. This ghoul, far from being some throwaway video game enemy or B-movie roadside horror, is a creature with a past and future.

And did I mention he's only a few years older than me?
Find further goth, gore and grimness, see www.keiththompsonart.com .


See? I can do sepia toned rural horror with strong attention to anatomy and internal narrative TOO! Well, I can try.
Also, I think I may be enjoying this whole "aged paper" thing a little too much.

Self -defined: D&D Dungeon tiles

La Piazza de Gesu, Rome


A rough streetmap of Late-Imperial Rome

St Peter's Church, Rome







Here are some of the room designs I've been working on lately. I've been thinking that the shaded, detailed effect I'm getting here doesn't really mesh with the inflexible overhead perspective. I should probably be going for something a bit more schematic and less representational, like the old floorplans I've been looking at. I wish I could find some really nice medieval blue-prints to work from- why were the Romans so much better at showing their working than anyone who came after them?

Self-Defined: D&D Visual Aids

"Stepping out into the air, you are struck by an icy wind, bringing coarse black dust that scratches your face and chokes you. The landscape before you is like nothing you have seen before- there is no snow. There are no plants. Only blasted, pitted rock, and a poisonous smell."

"This room is massive and sunlit, falling into deep shadows in the corners. The ancient stonework is worn smooth by time, and the roof is netted with holes. The crowd in attendance is clustered around the altar at the front, buzzing with excitement. Above them on the dais, an aged, helmeted priestess emotes in orcish, holding the crowd totally rapt."

"You arrive at the roof, and taste cold mountain air again. The slates here are new, and badly fitted to the ancient remains of the old Temple's roof. A winding walkway of loose boards marks out the pathway to the small watchtower at the other side"

"The scraping noise abruptly stops as you lean out the window, seeing nothing. On the very edge of hearing, there is the faintest rattle of chains as something moves into the room behind you..."

"You recognise him as the quiet, shy stable-hand from the Castle above. He clutches a large, crude iron mask as he speaks. 'Stop, please. I don't think you know what you are doing'"

"It stands nearly seven feet tall, covered in dirty black and grey armour. Its eyes burn like stars from the eyeslits of its helmet. Ice crusts its skin and armour, and its clawed hands twitch on the grip of the huge spear it carries. You fancy that its panting is beginning to sound like laughter."

This long, twisting corridor is dark and unused-looking, with puddled stains on the floor. The smell of decay is particularly bad here. On your right there is a tall wooden door, and on your right the corridor turns into darkness.

"You have seen much and more in the course of your adventures, but nothing could have prepared you for this. The puddles flow and expand as you watch, gaining size and twisting into a dozen nightmarish shapes. The stench of cold decay grows ever stronger."

"The narrow path sinks downward through the dark earth, becoming ever damper and less stable.The ceiling continues to drip, perhaps heavier now."

"From the biggest, oldest tree at the far end of the clearing, which is decorated with alarming orcish glyphs, there hang three mangled human bodies- evidently displayed as a warning. Beneath, between the roots of the great tree, a small hollow descends into the earth."

These are some of the locations and characters I've dashed off for our recent Dungeons and Dragons adventures- basic things, to be sure, but they help set the scene when my clumsy narration won't cut it. This is the basis for some of the work I'll be doing in this project.

Self Defined Project: Back to the Gaming Board

For this new project, I decided to go back to my roots and work on some of the fantasy stuff that got me interested in illustrating in the first place.
The reasons for this are two-fold: first, I was recently asked to do art for a fantasy film, and realised that there's nothing appropriate in my portfolio that wasn't two or three years old; secondly, I'm running a Dungeons and Dragons game at the moment and I think it'd be a good way of channelling my impulses to design for that in a fun and useful sort of way.



This is from an art book I stumbled across and was much enthused by in my late teens. Researching the title now, I see that the creator is more well-known for making Nazi-themed Japanese child pornography with a strong anal focus. Oh, internet, How I love thee.





Diablo 3 is nearly out (and has been "nearly out" for some years now, damn its eyes), and I've been satisfying my cravings for low-fantasy demon slaying by obsessively poring over the concept art that's been released.

Font project: Tape and Wires

For this project, I had to design a font based on photographs I'd taken. As I'm not much of a photographer, this presented a bit of a problem. Still, I was fortunate enough that my eye was re-caught by some details in a few familiar locations, providing adequate inspiration to continue.



Around uni, around town and around the interior of anywhere I looked, there were dusty spaghetti strands just out of eyeshot, twisting and curling behind every loose panel and up on every undecorated ceiling. They were so ugly, but so interesting, that I couldn't help but start drawing them.



The typeface I came up with as a result could do with a few changed letters here and there, but overall I think it works.