Random Gamers Guild: Spartoi Undead and WIP.

Things are flying here at Mavfire Arts Studio (Fancy name for me, myself and I), I am working on so many projects right now, but that is not at all a bad thing. Unless of course you are an avid blog reader, and you see that this blog has not had a post in over a week. Yikes...I shall be steadfast and try harder. Apologies to all, and thanks for everyone's kind words, +'s and all that jazz. On to the post. 

Matt Hargenrader of Random Gamers Guild, and his "Dwellers in the Dark Places" creature catalog has opted me for several more black and white illustrations of his uniquely distinct critters, monsters and what-have-yous. 

This first one is a completed creature. The terrifying undead Spartoi...

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Matt Hargenrader 2015.

Unique in that they are the remains of the dead, but with hardened leathery skin, and they rise from the ground fully armed and armored. But to find out more you will have to check out Matt's "Dwellers in the Dark Places" when it comes out. 

This second one is a teaser WIP of the Hesaki Rat...

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Matt Hargenrader 2015.

With their boney head and two sets of eyes these things give even me the willys. They are large carnivores and with two sets of eyes can pretty much see you before you know you are sighted. Fun project to work on, I am excited to see this one in print (err...PDF).

Hope you liked

Thanks for looking, and comments always welcome. 

More Expanded Petty Gods....

+Richard LeBlanc aksed me to fill in some of the gaps for his Expanded Petty Gods tome that is in the finishing stages. While yesterday I had nothing to put up on the blog. Today I have two more illustrations. 

The first is Zimbiboo, the God of Dust.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Richard LeBlanc 2015.

He is just a little guy, and belonging to those urban-scapes I placed him appropriately into a corner filled with dust, cobwebs and a carpet to sweep him under. 

The second one is of Wallakatutun, the Petty God who "Walks between Worlds". 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Richard LeBlanc 2015. 

A crazy old wizard who studied the scroll of the Mi-Go and walked between worlds, before being transferred into a the body of a Golem, and then into a staff. Now a Petty God. I dont write this stuff, I just draw it, very fun though to try and incorporate all of the nuances of his character. 

Thanks again Richard for giving me the opportunity to illustrate a few more Petty Gods. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

Random Gamers Guild: Greater Gha'vial

It has been another long week, and I am getting busier by the day. I am almost at my maximum capacity, and still having a ton of fun illustrating for everyone. 

Due to a lot of my work being either in progress or super secret squirrel stuff for publishers, I dont have a whole lot of fresh stuff to put up here. Never fear, I went through the archives and realized that I didn't post some of the pieces for Matt Hargenrader's Random Gamers Guild. I am not sure how I left these out of the rotation, but it happens. 

Here is the Greater Gha'vial he is a relative to the Common Gha'vial. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Matt Hargenrader 2015.

I really worked on the texture of the skin of this alligator like creature. Gave him a crudimentary sword and extra armor plating, as opposed to the more common form of the species. He was a ton of fun to work on, and the detailing gave me nightmares.

Next up the undead cousin of the Greater and Common versions. 

The Skeletal Gha'vial. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Matt Hargenrader 2015.

I particularly liked this one, the pose, the decrepit nature of him, and the rune clad sash over his shoulders turned out pretty well. These things guards their swap lairs, so putting him in the swamp water solved two issues. One having to work the details of skeletal feet, and two, putting him in a simple environment. 

I like the way his head is lower than his shoulders, very old feeling. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

Borderlands Logo

Recently +Steve C of The Borderlands Blog asked me to work on a logo for his fledgling publishing company. I worked on it for quite some time, and I appreciate Steve's patience over that time frame. 

Unlike most all of my other artwork, this logo was done almost completely in digital. I worked the initial sketches (thumbs) for Steve to approve by hand, and then scanned them. Let me tell you, I don't give enough credit to those of you who work entirely in digital medium. 

Regardless of anyone's personal opinions about whether digital is art or not, boy what a task to do everything on a Wacom tablet. I dont know personally how anyone does this all the time. I have an older CTE-440 tablet with a 4x6 inch drawing area, and it was a chore. I can imagine that a larger tablet would be better, but the feel of it was....abnormal. I dont think my brain will ever be the same.

Good experience though and after about a day of working on it, it was fairly seamless. 

Here are the initial sketches (thumbs) I worked up for Steve. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

Steve wanted a combination of the last one's image, and the script of the third. I scanned them into the computer, and came up with this.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

Digitally I turned the original drawing blue so that I could then distinguish what I had worked on and what I had not. 

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015

I added the black and white version after I finished the colorized version, because I figured Steve might want a black and white version for printing purposes. 

Here is the final version in full color.

Initially I had many of the highlights in silver, but Steve thought they would look better in gold, so those got changed. He wanted the "Hogtown" to be metalic, and left the majority of everything else for me to decide. Steve was great to work with and hope we can work together in the future on one of his projects. 

This was a fun project to do, and I look forward (though my brain does not) to working completely in digital in the future. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 

Hyping Hyperborea! Chasm of the Faceless King. (and small Garycon review)

Gary Con was a huge success for me, I was able to meet some of the big names of role-playing including +Frank Mentzer, +Jayson Elliot +Luke Gygax +Ernie Gygax +Stephen Chenault +Jon Hershberger  and +Jeff Talanian among many other great gamers.

It started off for me on Friday night, and as happenstance favored me I met Luke right off the bat, though he probably doesn't remember, I caught him walking out of the "Con Office". I talked to him briefly and he informed me that I was too late to get a badge, but could get one in the morning, and was so nervous that I forgot to network some of my artwork to him. Hey.... I was new to the scene, being the first Con I have attended, and meeting him I was just not that prepared okay. 

I had the pleasure of sitting in and watching Jeff run "Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess" which will feature 12 of my pieces of artwork, and written by +Joe Salvador. His table was packed, but I grabbed a corner and watched as they worked their way through the Fane. From what I saw of the adventure there are some nasty surprises in store for those of you who are able to pick it up when the kickstarter kicks off. 

On Saturday, I made my way to the dealers hall, met with Jeff and he gave me a few comp copies of "Chasm of the Faceless King" (see below for images) Yea!.  He will be offering this OSRIC compatible mini-adventure soon on his website Hyperborea.tv I was commissioned to do the cover for him, and I think it turned out fantastic. While a small adventure in scope the details and encounters are fantastic, er nasty.... but you will see what I mean later!

I networked huge on Saturday Jeff's booth was set up next to Jon's and Roy's booth and I talked with both briefly. +Roy Snyder introduced me to Stephen Chenault of Troll Lord Games. I shopped my portfolio to him and had a good conversation with him, and may be doing some work with him in the future. 

Jayson I met briefly in the lobby of the Con, and he seemed interested in my work as well, and I was able to slip Ernie a card as he was dashing into the mens room. I felt like a politician most of Saturday, shopping my artwork and shaking hands. 

I spoke briefly with Frank, got his autograph on my beat up copy of the red box DMG, and slipped him a business card. He was impressed and told me to get one to Chris at the Eldritch Ent booth, which I promptly did. Frank incidentally introduced me to  +Tom Tullis of Fat Dragon Games. What a great bunch of guys, everyone at the Con was warm and inviting. 

Saturday night I sat in on the auction, but everything there was going for more money than I had to offer, some great stuff for a great cause. I am not sure how much they earned but several pieces of artwork by Easley and Butler fetched decent amounts, as did an original Gary chess set. It was amazing being able to see some of the artifacts from the hay day of TSR too. 

Overall the highlight of the convention for me was getting to meet Jeff, and speak to him in person. What a great guy, and solidified the fact that he is such a stand-up guy in my book and I look forward to working for him in the future. 

Okay, I know I have been droning on and building anticipation for "Chasm of the Faceless King" which did I mention you will be able to pick up shortly on North Wind Adventures website.

Here is the cover of the adventure:

copied from Ghul's post on http://hyperborea.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=388&p=1

And here is the original of the cover image. THE FACELESS KING (aka XXUBLEKS)

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed to Jef Talanian 2015.

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.