Shadowcore: January 2015

January 21, 2015

Kaijudo - Gone but not forgotten...

2014 saw the release of my first, and last, Kaijudo cards because in 2014 the game was cancelled. I joined the Kaijudo team a little later then some, but before it was all over I had a chance to work on some really fun pieces. It was a huge blast to work on such a colorful and less realistic universe.

I was sad to see Kaijudo go and I am sure I was not the only one. Thankfully before the end I was able to create five pieces for the game. Of those five, three saw print, one was released digitally, and the last was never released but I was given permission to share it. Here are my contribution to Kaijudo...

"Virulent Worm" - Kaijudo - Eye of the Storm

"Rock Bite" - Kaijudo - Unreleased

"Decay" - Kaijudo - Vortex

"Lava Burst" - Kaijudo - Vortex

"Overshields" - Kaijudo - Vortex

RAWR!

January 15, 2015

D&D Dungeon Master's Screen

Last year when WotC approached me to illustrate the Dungeon Master's Screen, I was in disbelief, and double checked the recipient address to make sure they hadn't accidentally sent an email that was meant for someone else. Once I realized that, yes, they did actually want me for this assignment I jumped up and down and squealed. Then I peed my pants a little bit.

It is the largest and most time consuming (digital) piece I've ever done, about 45 days. Due to advertising needs, I had to do the image in layers, each character, environmental element, and effect had to be on a separate layer. It also had to read as four separate panels, integrated into a single wide horizontal foldable format. In the end it was around 20 layers (and I painted on the wrong layer at least a dozen times throughout the process).

Thumbnails

Grayscale
They liked thumbnail #1, and we collectively decided to flip the image so it read from left to right. I also wanted to increase the size of the dragon so it's wings spread across all four panels.

Color Process
A number of elements were revised, mostly the Kobolds surrounding the adventure party. I painted those changes in color instead of my usual grayscale to color method.

Final Color

individual Panel Details