Some Art from the Vault

My Mother passed away a few weeks ago. She'd had one of the nastier brands of cancer for a while, the type you don't get better from. The type where every treatment raises the question of whether the effects of the treatment are better or worse than those of the disease.

My sister was going through some of her things and found this, an old scratchboard drawing I did back in high school. A DnD scene with an White Dragon, an adventuring party entering it's cave in the background. Reminded me I used to be halfway decent at drawing.

Mom was always very supportive of her kids' artistic endeavors, sending us to all the after-school classes we wanted. I should probably draw more. Maybe once life gets a little less crazy...

In Memorium: Angus McBride

For a while I've wanted to make a post of Angus McBride's artwork. McBride was a very prolific illustrator with passion for ancient military costume. Perhaps his specialty was Celtic costume, but his work has a wide range of different cultures and periods. Anyway, next time I run a D&D campaign, I definitely want to make use of his work to illustrate various tribes and peoples the party will be facing. Below I attacked a few of his works.  I think my favourite is the Persian Heavy Cavalry vs. Roman Legionaries, though the Highland Mercenaries also look very gameable...

Polish Resistance Game Art

Here's some game art for Polish Resistance.  Enjoy!

Polish Resistance Members

Young partisan cleaning his weapon

Partisans marching through liberated town

Ragtag gang of partisans

Homemade weaponry

Allies

Karlotta Stepanski, a spy for the Resistance, embedded as a secretary in the German Civil Authority

A Russian sniper displaying his weapon

Enemies

High Inspector for the SS

Halftrack similar to the ones the party has been following

 

A German Ace pilot

Zombies

  Civilians

Dr. Gustav Sporer, an Archaeologist at the local Univerity

 

Muirne Adamski, a lounge singer at the German Officers' club

 

 

 

 

 

Lucas the Limber

Responding to Noism's challenge:

Lucas the Limber(front-left with the red cap) is a legendary thief and con-artist, operating in the Principality of Randstad.  He often mixes with the wealthy upper-classes, posing as a visiting dignitary or long-lost relative of some lesser-noble.

The one smudge on an otherwise successful career, was an incident that occurred several years back, in the very heart of the Temple of the dog god Canidon in the city of  Rutterdam. Lucas was caught red-handed while forcing entry to the vestibule of the High-Priest, by His Grace himself.  The priest, being somewhat amused by the smart young thief, was merciful and decided to forgo the usual punishment for sacrilege: being thrown in a pit of hungry wolves. Instead, hoping to draw the young man towards a greater reverence of Canidon, he merely cursed Lucas. Due to the curse, whenever Lucas ceases to touch or at least to rest some of his weight on a dog, he becomes clumsy and loses his considerable thieving ability.

But Lucas bounced back rather quickly from this awkward career setback.  He can now be found, once again, up to his old antics.  But now he is always accompanied by his two faithful greyhounds, Canis and Antigone.  He is very careful to always be in contact with one or both of them, so as to ply his trade.

He has become quite proficient at this, as in the the picture above, where he has, completely undetected, just purloined the golden codpiece from Count Lucifer Everdingin(seated next to him, wearing a black cap).  Note that he is dextrously putting some of his weight down on one of his hounds via his chair, while he touches the other with his extended leg. Certainly a young man of unique talent and endless adaptivity.

Stats

When Touching a Dog
Level 5 Thief
Str 10
Dex 18
Con 11
Int 15
Wis 5
Cha 13

When Not Touching a Dog
Level 0 Fighter
Dex 3

In Appreciation of Justin Sweet

I first ran into Justin Sweet's work on some of the recent Robert E. Howard collections.  A fan of Frazetta, Sweet's style is a bit more mellow, but still has a lot of personality, not to mention beautiful details.  His website has some good stuff too, here's a few samples:

The image above is one of my favorites, a scene from the Kull adventure "The Shadow Kingdom".  You can almost hear the snake-men hiss. The detail of the tapestry and Kull's skirts are great too.

Apparently another Kull scene. This one resembles any number of Frazetta action scenes, with the hero above a pile of aggressors.  Justin seems to be the go-to guy for Frazetta style art judging by his book covers and concept art.

Here's another of my favorites from his site.  Looks like Dark Sun meets Mad Max.  I actually used this one for some NPCs in the OSRIC PBP game I ran a couple years back.

Possibly another Howard one, I'm not really sure.  In any case, it shows a barbarian standing ready, but here his aggressor is the frozen wasteland around him.

I don't know what this is, but it looks awesome!

Sweet also has some great portraits, possibly as concept art.  For some reason, seeing a picture of a Dwarf in the style of a Renaissance portrait feels more 'real' to me.

The treacherous path along lonely seaside cliffs.  You can nearly taste the brine in the foggy air.  Feels just right as the party makes their way from the last outpost of civilization to some mysterious, legend-haunted coastal castle.