Critical Role - Season 2: "Regular Gnoll!"

Regular Gnoll! Regular Gnoll!

Via Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" song and video.

Critical Role - Season 2: Fjord's Falchion

My take on what Fjord's falchion looked like an episode or two back, after the Wrathful Smite:

This is what happens when your patron may be a Kraken!

Critical Role - Season 2: The Birds Are Still Out (also, Oglin Hornsblower)

Critical Role s02e02:

Beau gets arrested.

NPC Bookseller Sketch.

Critical Role - Season 2: The Birds Are Out Already

Critical Role s02e01:

Yasha carries Beau to her seat.

Dice, Camera, Action: "Gutter"

My take on the sword "Gutter" from the WotC Dice, Camera, Action stream.

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Drawn in Photoshop, with filters used to deepen the scraped metal feel on the blade, and accent the chrome on the fox and key.

Force Grey: The Lost Episode's New Title!?

After watching the WotC D&D stream for their live "Force Grey: The Lost Episode" (DM'd by Critical Role's Matt Mercer), it became clear that there was one true PC hero.  A giant among mortals.  A harden bulwark set against the forces of evil.  In short, a baby porcupine.

Click to enlarge (created in Photoshop)

Context: Dylan Sprouse was one of the new guests for the game (playing a Druid), and he managed to sneak in a way to both turn his character into a baby porcupine AND make it useful.  Truly the stuff of legends...or at least D&D bragging rights for some time to come.

WIP - Sketch to final (flipped for the parody pic)

Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew (Digital)

Back in April of this year, I drew a pen and ink sketch of Marvel's Jessica Drew.  Here is the digital update.

At some point I'd like to shift my character coloring from an interior comic styling, to a more painterly, comic cover look, to match how I enjoy digitally coloring certain other items.  This image highlights the difference, when you compare the sky, to the building to the character.  Hopefully, the shift was not too jarring.  I tried to bridge the gap, or ease the transition, via the way one might look at the image.

Medusa from the Inhumans

Don't get me wrong.  I am a big fan of Black Bolt, Karnak, and Ms. Marvel, but when Marvel pits the Inhumans vs. the X-Men there is only one choice for me: the X-Men.  My first comic over 30 years ago was the X-men, and those stories will always represent the best in Marvel's ensemble team comics.

That said, I have a friend that was not able to cosplay as Medusa for DragonCon, so I used an old image I started in 2011 which used her as a reference (see the first image), redrew it as a line drawing, and laid down some comic coloring on it.  If you cannot *be* Medusa, at least you can *look* like her in a comic panel!

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Were-pom!

I love watching D&D streams.  I think the first one I found was "I Hit it with my Axe," and soon after discovered "Acquisitions Inc." and the Wizards of the Coast Extra Life marathons.  I discovered "Critical Role" about 3-4 episodes in, binged the back episodes, and it became regular viewing.  I love that Wizards is on board with so much of this, even running streamed games to support their 5E product releases.

Something in their recent "Dice, Camera, Action" game caught my attention: during the Curse of Strahd #WaffleCrew play through, Anna Prosser Robinson's character was bitten by a Werewolf.  She tried to suggest to DM Chris Perkins that her character, Evelyn, was more of a Were-pom(eranian) than a Werewolf.

I needed to make Were-pom exist:

Digital Painting (a few hours in Photoshop) - Click to Enlarge.

Werepom!

"Werepoms gathered in their masses, 
wag their tails and beg for scratches. 
Fuzzy faces plot destruction, 
little dog of death's construction."

Ms. Marvel and the Mayor

I changed up the last image to make it a meta, fanfic cover - Ms. Marvel writing about herself getting an award from the Mayor of Jersey City.  I imagine she saved them from giant robot bunnies, but this is her fanfic, so maybe mutant Dr. Doom clones instead?

Click to enlarge.

Hars, Longbow of Flame

Continuing the story of the "Five Cousins":

When the Duchess' weaponsmiths set out to craft the "First Cousin", Argol, Crossbow of Frost, for an eccentric Gnomish tinkerer from the Kron Hills to the north, it was determined that an all metal construction would be detrimental to the magical effect desired.  The Duchess selected her missing son's favorite tree (he was an odd boy, who enjoyed the forest as much as the hill; possibly due to the greater abundance of things he could chop with his axe), and had it cut down to be used for the wood in Argol's construction.  The excess wood was used to create the "Second Cousin", Hars, Longbow of Flame.  All of the excess was needed, dwarven woodworking not being on par with their ancient metalcraft.

One enduring tale remains regarding Hars.  The elven hero present and the dwarven smiths bickered constantly during Hars' creation, so much so that the smiths begged the Duchess to slight their guest or deny him a weapon.  She weighed the cost of refusal, then acquiesced to them smiths' request in part: Hars was presented to the half-elven hero, and the elf was gifted the more sinister "Cousin", Sairu.

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5E game info for Hars, Longbow of Flame:

• Required level for attunement 5th: While the bow will radiate "transmutation" magic when examined by Detect Magic, it will not function as a magical weapon unless wielded by an owner of 5th level or greater (attunement is not required for this feature). 
• Attuned @ 5th Level: The bow counts as a magical weapon. It also deals an additional +1d4 fire damage when it hits with a ranged attack. 
• Attuned @ 9th Level: The bow also grants the attuned the ability to cast "Aganazzar's Scorcher" as a 3rd level spell. You must finish a long rest before you can use this feature again. 
• Attuned @ 13th Level: The bow also grants the attuned resistance to fire damage. 
• Attuned @ 17th Level and Above: Unknown. Theories include possible sentience, possible increases to damage or damage absorption, and/or possible additional fire-themed abilities.

U'kush, Rapier of Shock

In ages past, the Principality of Ulek was but a spattering of dwarven fiefdoms.  The Great Duke Under-the-Mountain ruled the largest of these holdings with a stern eye, a glorious beard, and a bloody hammer.  His might and and bearing did little to dissuade a group of drow, enthralled by the growing power of elemental evil, from stealing away his only son and fleeing back to the Underdark with some fell purpose in mind.  The Great Duke, unable to recover his sole heir and distraught with grief, feebly perished within the month of the disappearance (though some say that if you found his tomb, you would find his beard perfectly petrified and preserved in his coffin).

The duty to find the Duke's son fell to his noble wife, the Grand Duchess.  Being slight-of-beard, but possessing a keen insight, the Duchess spread word that a great boon of magic would be granted to anyone who would take up the noble quest to find her son, and a piece of the fiefdom would be the reward for his safe return.  Dwarven heroes and heroines flocked to prove their mettle and take up the quest, but the Duchess was shrewd: she knew that any dwarves granted land inside her fiefdom would be a future threat to her family's rule.  With a stroke of cunning, she selected the only heroes that could undertake such a quest but not threaten her line: the only five non-dwarves that offered their allegiance.

And so, "The Five Cousins" were commissioned and crafted.  These five dwarven-forged weapons were to be of the finest quality and imbued with great magic.  Alas, since the wielders were not dwarves, they would not be granted the honor of carrying traditional dwarven armament.  This did not diminish the quality of the weapons however.  Each weapon was magically imbued with a unique element; surely, if the elemental cultists worshiped four elements, a theory of five elements working in unison would be more powerful!  Five is greater than four after all....

History does not tell us the fate of the heir, nor does it tell us what became of the "Cousins" after the heroes' descent into the Underdark.  "U'kush, the Rapier of Shock", was the fifth of the "Five Cousins", and was said to be wielded by a halfling brigand of notorious charm.  Note that in the drawings of U'kush that survive, dwarven-halfling prejudice is evident: while the blade functions as a rapier, it is smaller than a typical model and it is influenced by short sword design.

Click to enlarge

5E game info for U'Kush, Rapier of Shock:

• Required level for attunement 5th: While the blade will radiate "transmutation" magic when examined by Detect Magic, it will not function as a magical weapon unless wielded by an owner of 5th level or greater (attunement is not required for this feature).
• Attuned @ 5th Level: The blade counts as a magical weapon.  It also deals an additional +1d4 lightning damage when it hits with a melee attack.
• Attuned @ 9th Level: The blade also grants the attuned the ability to cast "Witch Bolt" as a 3rd level spell.  You must finish a long rest before you can use this feature again.
• Attuned @ 13th Level: The blade also grants the attuned resistance to lightning damage.
• Attuned @ 17th Level and Above:  Unknown.  Theories include possible sentience, possible increases to damage or damage absorption, and/or possible additional lightning-themed abilities.

PS: 5E is outstanding.  Yes, I still port everything to Greyhawk, but setting aside, WotC has a winner with this edition.

Retro Splash

Digging through an old folder, I discovered an old splash page for some long forgotten project.  This may be from the first year I had a copy of Photoshop (PS7?) together with a Wacom (4x5 Graphire?) tablet:

The influence of Cowboy Bebop, and Venture Bros credits,
is strong here it seems...

I still have the small Wacom, and I am still tempted to use it on certain images.  Using it for so long I had developed a good feel for it, so when I run into trouble on a project I immediate think to myself it would somehow be easier with the more comfortable device.

Mr. Sparkles - Guild Wars 2

Another Guild Wars 2 themed image.  Pre-purchase weekend cannot come soon enough!

This time, instead of making up something on the fly, I went with a soon-to-be iconic Mr. Sparkles and his famous in-game catch phase:

Click to Enlarge

Whether you are starting on the 25th, the 27th, or 28th, prepare to don your behind hats!

The Summoning - Guild Wars 2

I finished up a few tweaks to the previous Facebook cover photo and turned it into a Guild Wars 2 themed image - when the Al.chemy pieces started to come together yesterday, this is the result that formed in my mind.

In the game's mythology, the "Deep Sea Dragon" is a bit of a mystery, as it is the only Elder Dragon to not be named thus far.  Each dragon has a champion, and since increased activity of the enemy NPC race known as the Krait seems to be linked to this Dragon's activity, I thought this champion should certainly bear a similar appearance.

Guild Wars 2 comes out on the 28th of August, and it is going to be a long wait.  After playing in all three beta weekends and the two stress tests, I am already in love with the game.

Click to Enlarge

Jaqen H'ghar, Valar Morghulis

Before season two of HBO's Game of Thrones started, I did a a few quick sketches based on a photo of Tom Wlaschiha to see if I could get an idea for an image of everyone's favorite introduction to the Faceless Men, Jaqen H'ghar. I finally got around to working on the image idea for Jaqen, figured out how to tell Arya's story with it, and finished it all up (unfortunately, the season is well over with at this point).

I originally wanted Jaqen, Arya, and the coin to look like a vector image with a white background.
The coin never looked correct without some detail however, and this led to many changes.
(Click to enlarge)

Here are two of the aforementioned initial quick sketches, just for the sake of showing where the original idea for the image started.  I hadn't even seen a picture of Jaqen's hair yet, but it was pretty obvious from the books that it needed to be long; the shock white on his left side was a simple redo after viewing.

See, and I made it through this post without spoiling a single thing from the book!  Someone call the Citadel in Oldtown and have them send Pate to deliver my prize!

"I Hate Love" Garbage

Image inspired by a post on Garbage's website, in honor of both Valentine's Day and their new song "I Hate Love".

Click to Enlarge

2/14 V-Day Update:
Make sure to check out the "I Hate Love" teaser video on the Garbage website!

Buzz Buzz

Just for fun.  Labeled NSFW for the suggestion more than anything else.

This started as another Manara-esque practice image, but turned into something else.

Practice Image: Manara Mania

Practice image post today.  A random, stylistic tribute to the Italian comic book artist and writer, Milo Manara:

(Click to Enlarge)

Melisandre

A digital portrait of Melisandre based on the casting of Carice van Houten for Game of Thrones - Season Two:

(Click to Enlarge)

The night may be dark and full of terrors, but it may be due to the fact that it is also inhabited by a seductive red priestesses who summons both the dark and the terrors!

Also, as a quick follow up: if she happens to suggest that there is still time to spill your wine, spill your wine!

Work in progress pics

The reference used for the original sketch was this photo, and all rights, credits and such for the photo itself go to the proper photographer/source.