Friday 28 December 2012

Crum in colour

Borrowed a bamboo tablet and got a beginners guide to digital painting for Christmas. So, despite not reading through it properly, have started messing about in photoshop. Here are my first attempts at colouring a sketch. I probably should have used a better starting image as mistakes in the original sketch are really bugging me. Was a fun few hours but there is so much to learn!

Thursday 27 December 2012

Crum - Barbarian

Although Crum's massive muscle mass helps him inflict epic damage, it also means he needs to consume over 10 times the daily rations required by the average human dungeoneer. As a consequence 90% of his generous encumbrance allowance is made up of protein rich meat products. Dwarvish sausage is a favourite.

Crum is also proud master of the Rune Fork. A weapon, that if left in a victim's body, will slowly cook them to death (cooking times: 10 minutes for rare, 20 minutes for medium and 30 minutes for well done, adjust times accordingly for non-human sized adversaries)

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Hapless Hero


Gone for an Erol Otus meets Akira Himekawa look for the hero.

Based character proportions on 28mm tabletop miniatures - with over sized head, hands & feet.

Generally naturalist palette, but use of a single bold colour in acknowledgement of the 8bit sprite source material.

Originally envisioned the character with a cloak, which would've helped depict movement, but dropped in favour of a backpack which is quintessentially more 'dungeoneer'.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Gnomish

Gnomish is a complex language with a rune based script.

Gnomish has the largest vocabulary of any tongue, with the official dictionary comprising of 800 volumes. The tomes contain over 200 words to describe 'conical hats', and nearly a complete volume is dedicated to variations of the word 'beard'.

It is this level of precision within the language, along with the gnome's inventive nature, that has enabled gnome science to progress beyond that of most other sentient races (excelling at deceptology, mushrology).


Thursday 6 December 2012

Spell Dance

After the last true wizard's disappeared from the face of the earth, their infinite knowledge largely destroyed in the Age of Ignorance, magic has struggled to achieve the significance it had once enjoyed in previous ages. Yet magic remains a revered and misunderstood craft (much like elvish fashion design).

To the uninitiated, spell casting resembles a highly energetic drunken dance, complete with incomprehensible mutterings. Channeling and controlling magical energy is a very strenuous activity and the fragile human form is not a suitable conduit. Whilst weaving magic, bones will twist and warp, skin will glow and shimmer and there can be localised anomalies in the laws of nature (time, light, gravity, etc...) Often these side-effects will leave the magic users body permanently transformed, including: rapidly growing fingernails, glowing mucus, prehensile beards and such like.

Once the exhausting ritual is concluded, which can be anywhere between a few seconds and a few centuries, spellcasters are often left fatigued, with a severe migraine and a bad case of the munchies.

Lately, non-magical interpretations of these 'spell dances' have become a popular form of entertainment and are today enjoyed in taverns and palaces alike. Notable spell dances include:

1) The Prance of Death
2) The Shimmy of Healing Rain
3) The Jig of Summoning

Tuesday 4 December 2012