Star Wars D6: Playing with family and some drawings (crude tho they may be)

The Force Awakens just hit theaters and as with the rest of the world I went and saw it. I am not really here to talk about the movie, so no spoiler for those of you who live under a rock. 

I spoke briefly to +Adam Muszkiewicz at U-con about having never really played start wars D6 and this all culminated with the following.

What happened though is I finally got up the gumption to actually run a game I have had forever, but have not had the drive to read it all, learn the system (which it turns out is super simple, hand to forehead) which is the West End Games Star Wars D6 game. I have the second edition, fourth printing from 1994, along with the sourcebook. And thats it. 

The kids and wife were on break, so what better way to celebrate the holiday break than with a family game of Star Wars D6. 

Here are the three starting scripts:

 The first is Jayce Twoburner a human played by my 11 year old. He is a rookie transport pilot on his first intergalactic run. 

This is Gizmo (Ewok Trader) played by my 8 year old. He is travelling from one system to the next with two Bantha's which he is trading for a speeder. He has spent every credit getting them shipped and has high hopes of making it rich.

The final is my wife's script she is playing the "lynch-pin" character a female human droid sales/fabricator working for a large company who has Imperial contracts. Things get complicated. 

The story starts off with Jayce piloting the transport ship under the tutilage of Bill Watoona a sulustan. Mid way through the journey from Nebula 9 (made up system), to Sigma Base (made up system) the empire shows up. 

Bill Watoona tells Jayce that he is transporting contraband (the two Bantha's for Gizmo) and does not want to slow or stop for Imperial inspection crews. 

Needless to say things go from bad to worse and the transport ship crash lands on the Castell Moon, a lightly inhabited planet of purple grasslands and steep plateaus. They see a city in the distance upon one of the plateaus, and a host of tie fighters enter the atmosphere shortly after crashing. 

Only our three heroes escape, and find themselves thrust into action. Gloria, a business woman has no weapon, Jayce has but a hold out blaster, and Gizmo has a force pike with blaster attached (made up weapon). 

They also see a bounty hunter ship enter the atmosphere (though they do not yet know it is a bounty hunter ship) and a troop of imperial stormtrooper scouts on speeder bikes heading their way. 

After a fight with the scouts, they gather weapons and scout armor and head for the city, a small spaceport called Colmar. 

A bit of artistry here, but a basic outpost rendering that worked quite well for the game. 

When entering the outpost Gizmo heads to the weapons shop to try a bit of "burglary" as he is quite broke and they left his Bantha's on the plains after they commandeered the speederbikes after the fight with the scouts. 

He runs into a troop of stormtroopers and quickly gives up any idea of such nonsense (he is eight) and joins Gloria at the cantina. 

Meanwhile Jayce (dressed in scout trooper armor) heads to the hangar area in an attempt to steal a ship out of there.  He runs into a troop of tie fighter pilots and after they asked for his operating codes, he makes a run for it, leading them back to the cantina, where they narrowly escape. 

Gloria, meanwhile recieves a message from her boss, telling her: "Negotiations have failed, get the codes to Diesal Vines on Aquilon 5" (made up system)

They leave the cantina only to run smack into a bounty hunter and his lackies. After a shoot out on the streets with him, and Gloria taking a serious wound, they head to the hangar and steal a junk freighter called the "Dustpan Delight" Pictured here. 

Again, a bit of quick rendering: 

With little thought to the consequences they jet into the atmosphere and run into an imperial blockade a super star destroyer and a flight of tie fighters. Finding that none of them know how to run a hyperdrive they send their ship into a dead spin, until Jayce makes a nearly impossible roll and hits the hyperdrive. Off they zoom. 

end of Episode 1. 

A lot happened and I learned alot about running this game. 

The next episode finds our heroes fleeing the empire with contraband codes, being chased by the bounty hunter that survived the street fight. They also have to find this Diesal Vines on Aquilon 5, evade the rebellion (unless they head to them instead and give over the codes) and oh by the way the junk freighter they stole is owned by a pretty nasty dude name Terik who is a Yuzzum junk dealer, wanted on 4 systems. 

Should be fun. 

Here is the bounty hunter's ship:

Here is a quick drawing of Terik. 

Honestly, I will get back to regular artwork for clients soon! 

Thanks for reading along, comments always welcome. 

Castles & Crusades Isometrics III

It has been a few weeks, but there is news on the Lost City of Gaxmoor front, for which I illustrated 9 isometric buildings. It has been released as a pdf on drivethrurpg.com, I think it is listed at $3.99, which is a steal for these isometrics. It will probably make print after the first of the year so stay tuned. Go there, download it check it out. 

Here is another sample of what you will get when you do. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed Troll Lord Games 2015.

This is one of the few smaller buildings I did for TLG but I think it is one of my favorites. It was simple, and straight forward, not to mention it is located in the heart of the crypt district. The interior is loaded with all sorts of items, including a foyer, a sitting room with wine rack and banner with a " "G" for Gaxmoor, a pantry with hanging sausages, for those late night forays into the crypt, there is a claw foot tub, a study with shelves of books, and a bedroom. No basement, but for some reason I really want to put one in there, with like barred tunnels leading to the "undercrypts."

Very fun project to work on. It looks like I will be doing more of these soon for TLG as well. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

The Sketch Cache

Sketching: we all do it, even if it is just doodles of randomness that occupies our time during meetings, impromptu coffee shop time sinks, or actually sitting down to generate concepts for a living. Even if you think you have no talent at all, you've sketched something. From a stick figure to a crayola doodle of life at six, sketching is what we do to show representation of what we "see" in our head, and what comes out of our implement. Some are better than others, some make a living at it, some just do it for themselves. If you have a blank anything, from paper to stone to the inside ceiling of a cave as a canvas, and you have an object that can impress upon that object and leave a mark, you can sketch. Cave men did it, Egyptians did it, the greats like Leonardo, and Michelangelo did it, up to modern times. 

Wow, not sure where the diatribe came from but its staying. Anyway, its a good opener for me to showcase some of my more recent sketches. Some are concepts for current projects, others just studies, and some are failed attempts at the gathering of random lines drawn on paper. 

I wont comment on all of them, but then again maybe I will. 

Perfecting something, or maybe not. The center one leaves something to be desired for sure. 

Waiting room sketch with an ESPN magazine for reference. These were done with a ballpoint I believe. All I had at the time, I like to constantly work on faces, expressions, shapes hair, everything. 

Concept sketch for an upcoming +Thork Hammer project. This looks nothing like what the final will eventually look like, but I was working out the perspective and shape of the thing. Background of rough trees, and some hills, are jotted in very hastily. It will eventually be larger, and more detailed but this gave us a place to start getting our brains synchronized from what I read in the draft to what he saw in his head when he wrote it. 

Final pencils for the same project, this will be inked and finished up with a background.

Initial sketch for a potential client. Fast rendering of a dragon statue, and a dead dude, with on onlooker. 

Here is the same scene where I made it a bit more dynamic, and tightened up the composition of the sketch. Does it look better? Which do you prefer? Comment below. 

Here are a few more for the same potential client.  The first I had the figure up to the edge of the platform, looking out over the mist shrouded valley. 

Here I have moved the figure back in the scene a bit to better represent his size in relation to the tablets along the edge. It also fills a lot of that empty space at the bottom of the page. 

Here are a few rough concepts for another new project. 

That shark just sort of invaded the space. Must have been mind wander while I thought of other fishy type things. 

Working out the perspective of a perspective town. 

Close to finished pencils, not sure what I am going to do with it yet. This was a brainstorm sort of sketch that I just went with. Didnt turn out too bad, and I will submit it as well to the previously mentioned project. 

Well, I hope that gives everyone a bit of insight into more of my process, how my brain sketches and how my hand interprets what is going on in the cranium. I also felt bad that I have not been posting as regular and thought I had to make up for it. Hope this helps. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

Castles & Crusades: Isometric III

I would like to take this opportunity to just say thank you to all of my followers, supporters and clients, with out you I would not be able to do what I do. Again, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!

Now, on to the isometrics. 

If you are new here, go check out the previous two blog entries to see the Black Feathers and the Half-Caved Inn isometrics. 

For the third installment I give you the Old Mill & Granary site located within the Lost City of Gaxmoor as published by Troll Lord Games, and co-written by Luke & Ernie Gygax. 

With out further ado...The Old Mill & Granary.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Troll Lord Games 2015.

Opening the image in a new tab will give you a bigger look. 

Inside the granary are the skeletal remains of the oxen used to turn the mill, bags of rancid flour, mice/rats, a lift, several wagon/carts and a ton of other details. 

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for looking, comments are always welcome. 

Castles & Crusades Isometrics II: Half-Caved Inn

Continuing in the series I started showing off the isometrics for Troll Lord Games and their Castles & Crusades game I present the Half-Caved Inn.

This building is detailed as part of the Lost City of Gaxmoor campaign setting.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Troll Lord Games 2015.

A simple two story isometric of a ruined Inn. Starting in the basement the walls are stone constructed, and debris is everywhere. There is even a group of mushroom people dwelling there and a small tunnel leading out. 

The primary floor shows a collapse damage, in each of the rooms, the masters bedroom, office, gathering/eating room, small two-bed room and lobby. The stairs as well as the wall show damage as well. 

The upper level is almost completely wrecked, with a partial collapse onto the first floor, and debri everywhere. Can you find the ransacked chests?

The roof elevation shows its wear as well, with holes, rafters showing and plaster and lathe shown below the flaked off siding material.

Hope you enjoy this series. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

Castles & Crusades Isometrics I

I attended Gary Con in February and it was a very good time. I posted before some of the sketches I did during my time there, well now I figured I would post up some of the work that came as a result of my trip. 

I met with +Jeff Talanian who perused my portfolios and he gently nudged me toward +Roy Snyder. Thanks to Roy, I showed my stuff to Castles&Crusades front-man Steve Chenault. Steve really like the Isometrics (Norwind Arms Exchange, Proudfoot & Archer, Roving Eye Tavern) I did for & Magazine. A sweet review is here by OSRToday writer +Jason Paul McCartan. 

After a few months, Mr. Chenault contacted me and we were working together to create 9 Isometrics for the Lost City of Gaxmoor Kickstarter. 

I previewed The Black Feathers here in sketch form, and Steve posted it up to the Kickstarter updates page. 

Here is the final results of The Black Feathers Mercenary Villa.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed by Troll Lord Games 2015.
"Right Clicking and clicking open in new tab will give a larger view."

This one was one of the bigger isometrics I have done. Two floors, two basements, and a roof profile. It comprises one of the larger villas within the City of Gaxmoor, is the home to a prominent band of mercenaries, and has a multitude of rooms. 

There are bedrooms, an indoor garden, a wine room, several dining rooms, studies, and kitchen. These are only a few of the places of interest within this huge building. 

After talking with +Ernie Gygax I got a better idea of the nature of the Lost City, and went with a pseudo Roman/Greek architecture styling mixed with some of my own creations. 

You will find statuary, plants in vases, various weaponry and other sundry items all sketched in to help the Castle-keeper with his/her tasks. 

I hope you enjoy this one. There will be more, as this was completed several months ago, and I am nearly done with all 9 isometrics on order. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.

Snake Feather Dragon and Rachava

Matt Hargenrader approached me again to fill out some more artwork for his "Dwellers in the Dark Places" monster manual for old school games. 

He gave me three illustrations to complete, and these are the first  two of those three. He also wants me to illustrate a worm called an Inkrassa. That should be fun, and is on the drawingboard soon.

Until then, enjoy the Sanke Feather Dragon.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed Matt Hargenrader 2015.

This guy is a sort of cross between a dragon and a Couatl. 

I wanted him aloft, and looking to dive on something below. It was difficult to get it all right, and those feathers took a bit of work to get right. He has six "leg" which is unusual for a dragon, plus the wings, so in order to get them all in I had to give him sort of an elongated abdomen with multiple sets of pectoral muscles. His hind legs are long and gangly  and I like the airborn look of them. 

I actually did about three sketches of this one before deciding on the pose, size and form. Overall I am pleased with how it turned out. 

For the next one, I posted a preview of it on G+ and am showing the final one here now. 

This is a Rachava, sort of a small thorn creature. He is only 6"-1' in diameter according to the write-up but a constant thorn in the err shoe for adventurers. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed Matt Hargenrader 2015.

For this one, I was given a decent sketch of the creature to look at, but the sketch didnt quite capture the look and feel I had imagined when I read the details. If this thing was to blend in with his surroundings, he needed to look like brambles and thorns. His open rib cage can capture small prey, and he bolts around on two over-sized feet. 

Of course when I showed my wife, she called it a Furbie! Go figure. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

#Drawlloween Pumpkin Headed Satyr

This entry into the #Drawlloween art mixer is totally inspired by a conversation that +Vincent Florio (used without permission, but I think Vince is a great guy and wont mind so much) and the +RollForInitiative Podcast crew talked about several Halloweens ago. It has stuck in my head for all that time until this moment. 

Here with out further ado the Pumpkin Headed Satyr!

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

If you would like to use this for FREE in your RPG or fantasy module or supplement contact me, I will send you a high resolution digital copy of this one in PNG or TIFF format. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.

& Magazine Character Studies IV

The fourth and final of these illustrations for & Magazine was perhaps the most interesting couple I had to draw. 

Here we have a smallish male (Jorma) and a half-ogre female (Casady), an odd couple to say the least. 

Once again these were drawn separately and then merged digitally. I wanted to make Jorma very demure for a male, slightly handsome and slighty roguish. 

For Casady she had to have that half-ogre look, but what human male would really go for an ugly half-ogre? While there are probably a few out there who would, I didnt think Jorma would be one of them. So she had to be slightly brutish, but have a subtle "prettiness" as well. 

When I first submitted this one to +Bryan Fazekas he reminded me that Casady was a half-ogre, as I had drawn them roughly the same size, they didn't fit the article. Well, that is what good editors do! I had totally screwed the pooch so to speak. A human and a half-ogre the same size. Jeesh what was I thinking?

Thank god that I had drawn the two separate and then joined them in GIMP. It was a time saver in the end. It was a simple fix to crop them out of their odd pairing and then re-size Casady to fit the actual size of a half-ogre. 

Here is the result. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

For these Character Studies, I really concentrated on the facial shape and hair. I really wanted to strive for realistic sketches of the characters, rather than the comic-style black and white that I typically work in. For Jorma that mean that I gave him a slender fave, with stout nose and a bit of a pouty look. (He is married to a half-ogre after all). His hair I gave that 80's feather with a bit of a mullet, and some scraggle of a beard, tho not full like his father.

He wears a light linen shirt with a simple stitch pattern, and his eyes show a bit of his father with the squint. 

For Casady, I gave her straggly Ogre hair, but I made sure that it was kempt, (again I had to make her suitable for a human male). I gave her a broad ogre like brown and wide nose, dotted with either a wart or a nose piercing (viewer's choice.) Her eyes are soft, non-ogery (if that is a word) perhaps harkening back to her human progeny. 

I gave her a woolen sweater with broad collar, because thinking about it, what else would a female half-ogre wear. I am not thinking many seamstresses sew dresses in her size!

Well, there you have all four couples (eight characters in all), happy simple sketches and the whys and where-fores of their designs. 

Hope this was interesting enough to hold your attention. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.  

& Magazine Character Studies III

Time flies when you are having fun that is for sure...a week went by and left me in the dust. Onto the blog. 

Last time we left off with the & Magazine character studies I presented you with Kantner and Grace in Character Studies II, and before that we talked about Kaukenen and Joey in Character Studies I, well now that & Magazine Issue 11 is published you can run over there and download it for FREE and check out all of the other artwork that is in there. Lots of fine fellows volunteer their efforts to that publication dedicated to the 1st Edition of the Worlds Most Popular Role-Playing Game. 

This week we will view the illustration of Creech & Signe.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

Creech is a fletcher, and the bodyguard of his mistress Signe, who is a practicing thief when she gets a chance. See more in the pages of & Magazine Issue 11.

I started with Signe as I wanted to capture that elusive look, she is quite devilish with her grin, and I am please with the way she turned out. I drew her with a coyish look but hinted at an underlying mischief by having her look directly at us out of the corner of her eyes. Her facial features are attractive, and I gave her a simple pulled back cut to her hair. 

Her best features in my opinion are her eyes and hair. Of all of the character sketches her eyes are the best, and her hair has a natural fall to it with the shades and highlights. 

I probably could have done a better job forming her jaw and chin, they look a bit brutish, but give her a "I can take care of myself" look.

Again these sketches were combined in GIMP. 

For Creech I wanted him to be directly facing the viewer, giving a look of "try it punk". His face is rounded with a bald head. The description actually called for "naturally" blonde but I didnt like any of the hair I put on him. Bald to me has a natural connotation of strength, unless of course there is a comb-over involved. I am fond of the braided headband, and if you look closely you can see that the motif is an arrow denoting his "fletcher" profession. I assume Signe stole it for him.

I really need to work on textile texture. Both of their shirts could have been better. I have seen some instructional vidoes on drawing texture. Maybe I'll check them out. I deffinately think I could have done better. 

Creech's beard is one of his strong points, the article doesnt mention a beard so there is a bit of artistic license there, but I favored a strong "Gerard Butler 300" type for Creech. The heavy shading at the edges and "back" of the beard are pretty well done and force the front of the beard forward in the illustration as it is lighter.

Other than than his eyes may be a bit smallish...hmm. 

Anyway, there is one more of these Character Studies before I show off some other artwork I have been working on. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

Hyperborea update...

+Jeff Talanian has just posted a kickstarter update on the project I have those dinosaur illustrations in. They look very nice in print. He should be shipping very soon (post carpel tunnel I presume.)

I am excited to get my copies, as soon as I do I will post up final images for everyone to see. 

Until then, here is a teaser from the kickstarter website.

The layout is nice. I particularly like the serpents in the corner. 

Again, I hope to show more in a few weeks. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

& Magazine Character Studies II

It has only been two days since my last post, but I figured I would post up another in the series I did for & Magazine for the Tinkerer's article in Issue 12. 

As stated previously, +Bryan Fazekas and I wanted to get portraits together to represent the NPC characters in the article. 

Here is the second set, and following, my commentary about their design, layout and techniques.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

Again these were drawn separately and then digitally merged. 

I started with Kantner (male) and actually he was the first one that the article details, as well as the first one that I worked on. I wanted him to be big, and to reflect his taciturn nature to be straight  of face, and gruff looking. He has scaring to the side of his face from burns, and that had to be in the illustration. 

I think that his nose is his best feature from a design standpoint, and the fact that his eyes are stern looking gives him the overall feel that I was looking for. I added in the bib buttons with hammer and horse shoe motif to suggest his occupation of black smith. I am pleased with his portrait overall. 

For Grace, I wanted to go with a sort of everyday female face. Rounded but not childlike as she is probably in her mid to late forties. I am quite pleased with the hair once again, which as I reflect on this, I feel has been in past drawings my worst trait. I can only comment that I have spent a lot of time working on hair over the past few weeks, trying like mad to figure it out. Photo reference helps a ton as does the youtube videos that are out there.  

Her eyes (surprisingly) are not all that bad in my opinion, and I suppost I could have improved them a bit. To me her eye lids are good, but her irises themselves feel off to me. Maybe it is the size of the iris as compared to the overall size of the eye that is wrong. I shall endeavor to increase my skill. 

She is clothed in a simple dress with a bit of detail work at the neckline. 

Overall the two of them together look to be a decent couple. She is fair, though not beautiful and he is rugged and dignified in his pose. Having him behind her works well, and establishes him as the more dominant figure in the drawing, which given their relationship is all in due course. 

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome.  

& Magazine Character Studies...

Here are a few more pieces for & Magazine, a quarterly 1st Edition Suppliment. This particular issue covers Inns, Taverns, and Waystations. I submitted several pieces for the article titled Friend or Foe: The Tinkerer's. 

All of the NPC's detailed are couples that travel together, and +Bryan Fazekas the editor/writer of the article and I decided that portraits of the couples would work pretty well. 

It just so happens that I have been working on life studies and portraits as part of my ongoing personal improvement plan as an artist, so it fit right in. Each of the portraits were composed separately and then merged digitally with GIMP. 

I really tried to not overwork them, in pencil and do them as quickly as possible. Turns out there were parts that gave me fits. Read on for my honest assessment of the artwork.

This first one is of Kaukenen a male cleric and his spouse Joey, a magic-user. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

As it turns out I drew Joey early on, and completed Kaukenen as the last of the eight portraits. Looking firstly at Joey, the description called for a homely woman with intelligent eyes. There are several aspects to her portrait that I am fond of and several that I could have done better on. 

Firstly, I am not an expert at drawing hair, however, I have been practicing and watching a ton of instructional videos, and I am quite pleased with her braiding. The dark and lights really sell the wrap around style of the braid, and the wisps of hair coming along the sides of her face, I feel really framed her, perhaps her left (right to the viewer) "wisp" could have fallen more naturally. 

Now for the not so goods, first I need to work on eyes. That is the plan for my next self evaluation. I have a firm grasp on creature eyes but human eyes are another beast all-together (excuse the pun). Secondly, I am planning on working on facial composition. What I mean by that is the shape and curve of her jaw, and cheeks seems off to me, granted she is not supposed to be beautiful by any stretch, but there is something that I did not capture as well as I had hoped. There are a ton of rules to follow when building a face, and I think I need to re-look at those rules. 

As for the male; he was the last portrait I completed in this series, and I feel I did the best job on him than any of them. First, the extreme right facing angle of him is unique, and gives the viewer a good profile image. He was written as ruggedly handsome and a "catch" for the ladies. The best feature is the hair, surprisingly. Perhaps I have gotten the hang of it after all of the study. 

His worst feature in my opinion is once again his eyes, though I did a better job of creating a believable expression, there is something not right about his right eye (left to the viewer). I worked and worked it, but it didn't get better. 

Once I digitally combined the two, I feel I could have composed them better, to fit together. He seems to be staring off through her head, and it would have been better compositionally if I would have faced her at the extreme angle that I had positioned him, but it works overall I suppose. Drawing them together could have probably solved the problem, but I wanted to draw each portrait large, so that I could work each at a larger scale for detail sake.   

Well, that seems like a lot of reading, so I will leave it at that and save the other drawings for another post perhaps in a day or two. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

& Magazine Filler Pieces

Issue 12 of & Magazine should be out very soon, and so here I will display a few filler pieces that should grace the pages of that fine periodical. 

These first few will accompany one of the many articles relating to Inns and Taverns in this issue. 

A mug and loaf of hard bread.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

I return to the technique of wood graining with the board, and gave the cup/mug a simple crown motif, as well as a metallic shine. For the handle I wrapped it in leather for a better grip, one doesn't want to spill the mug you know.

Tossed in a quick fork for some more...er...flavor, and the loaf of hard bread with one end broken off completes the illo.

Cutting Board and cleaver.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

Who doesn't like carrots! This illo is a simple fill piece the cleaver being the prominent subject matter with its steel shine and sharp edge. The carrot being secondary I tried to get the feel of the pieces in various configuration to show their 3-D-ness. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

Ice Maidens of the Frozen Horn is here!

RCPinnell also known as +Thork Hammer has published a free B/X OD&D tournament module that I have donated artwork for. You can download the adventure module here on www.dragonsfoot.org.

Direct Download

ICE MAIDENS OF THE FROZEN HORN

The module concerns a halfling artifact stolen by a clan of Frost Giant Women. 

Very interesting and easily adapted to any favorite gaming system. 

Here is the cover image.

Copyright RC Pinnell 2015. Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

and the original.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

I wanted to capture a scene in the module that brought the heroes of the story within close proximity to the Giantesses as they hacked away the only bridge between the halfling village and the mountains that they were escaping to. 

I think I could have made the giantesses a bit more large, but I still think it conveys that they are not human sized. The warrior figure shows up in the next two images as well. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

For this illustration I wanted to pit our hero against the giantess. I could have done a bit better job on the background, and some of the anatomy was a bit off, but the image works. 

Here is the final interior image. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

I love the contrast of this piece. The bright shining relic and the deep black background. A bit of cave interior, with our hero and the vanquished Frost Giant Maiden at his feet. 

This was fun to work on, it took me longer than I had hoped to get around to working on it, but I think the cover and the relic piece were worth the wait. Juries still out on the frost giantess image. 

Thanks goes out to RC Pinnell (Thorkhammer) for asking me to be a part of this project, and for being extremely patient.

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.  

Life Studies I

I am always trying to improve my work, both for my professional and personal improvement. Believe it or not I have not done a lot of life study art in the past. A few times in college, and that is about it. While perusing the interwebs I found several suppliers of life art videos on youtube.com. 

The one I found the most helpful was one called Croquis Cafe. They give you timed images of models that you can readily choose from and place them in a variety of interesting positions so that artists can study them. 

They start off with one minute drills, leading to 2 minuted drills and then a five minute drill. None of that really works for me, so I pause the video so that I can concentrate more on figure. 

Anyway I thought I would share a handful of them here. 

This is what came out when I tried to do a one minute study. 

Not very good here. I think I tried too hard to focus on building those shapes before and not concentrating on the outline of the figure. 

Next is a bit longer, I think this one took about 2 min. 

This one is significantly better, and using the whole 2 minutes was hard to define details, but getting the general feel for the position was key. 

I found throughout the study time I allocated that I needed more time for each model than what the video gave me. I took about 3-5 minutes for each of the following. I think overall my speed improved, and I suppose if I continued to do these life studies, my time would improve dramatically.

Here are a few more. 

Each of those felt really good to me, and I could see some improvement from the first few. 

Here my techniques have improved drastically I think. The overall form and figure are smoothing out, and the line work is much more strong. 

I see marked improvement in building the figures here. The contours are well defined with few lines, shading and structure are better as well. These took about 4 min each to complete. 

This one was the epitome of my life study experience during this session. I feel like I was able to give the proportion, concept, shading and characterization of the figure its deserved attention. I think I spent like 10 minutes on this one. 

Throughout all of these I erased very little, and just let the pencil glide across the paper. These are simple to do, and take very little time. I suggest anyone who is interested in drawing realistically to do some life studies, even if you do not time yourself. And with the resources listed above, you do not even have to leave the comfort of your own home, travel to a college or be placed in a room with fifteen to twenty other "artists" and a model. 

One of these days i would like to do a true life study with a real model, but time and money are a huge factor. 

Thanks for looking comments always welcome. 

  

First look: Gygax Magazine issue 6 Art...

Check out facebook.com/gygaxmagazine. Their July 24th post give a hint to some more of what I have been up to lately. 

Fun project, I cannot wait for everyone to see the final art in the magazine. 

Here is a picture screenshot from their face book page as a spoiler. 

Gygax Magazine

July 24 at 10:33pm · 

Issue 6 is getting close. Here is a sample of the layout with Steve Kenson's article and art work by Del Teigeler. We pretty much just have the cover, with original art work by Jim Holloway, and the game design to put in place!

Thanks for looking, Comments always welcome. 

Frost Giantess: Ice Maidens of the Frozen Horn (Thorkhammer)

I listen religiously to several podcasts while I am commuting to and from my day job, and while at the drawing board, my favorite by far is the Save or Die Podcast a classic D&D podcast. If you are a fan, and listen too, then you know the name Thorkhammer. +Thork Hammer published the continuation to the giant series of modules on his own several years ago, and in fact those modules are still available in several locations across the net including RPGnow.com. 

If you do not know Thorkhammer then you really need to. He is involved in Dragonsfoot.org, as well as other prominent OSR websites. Look him up it will be well worth it. 

Several months ago, Thork approached me and wanted to work together on a free downloadable product that he had been working on. It's title Frost Maidens of the Frozen Horn is a module designed for use with B/X D&D but easily usable with any version of the worlds most popular RPG. 

The writing is complete, I have read through the adventure, and it is great! I am filling in with the cover work, and several interior illustrations. I am holding the cover back for now, and waiting to show it off until we released the book to the general public. 

Still, I want to give all of my blog visitors a snipit, so here is one of the interior illustrations. A frost giantess fighting and armored adventurer. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. 

I personally think she is going to split him in twain, but will you dare pit your favorite character against these Frozen Maidens? 

More to come, keep checking back. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.