Evolution of a Trolllkin

Hey all,

I thought that for this post, I'd share some insight into the development process I went through with the good folks over at Kobold Press while working on their new character race the Trollkin.

I'm a longtime D&D gamer and in fact I cut my teeth on 2nd Edition and Dragon Lance modules and I'm always "game" to work on fantasy ip's.  So when the team at Kobold quarterly approached me to help them develop this new race for their setting, I was pretty stoked at the opportunity to create something relatively "New" to the fantasy world.  No Pressure right?..

So, the initial brief was for a playable race that is half human, half bad guy called a Trollkin. Trollkin are the product of interbreeding between a monster race like a Troll / Ogre and a human. Genetically, they are very diverse and it was very difficult to nail down a "look" for these guys. Well, it's pretty tough to nail these things on the first pass so I whipped up some really rough sketches to show my Art Director a couple of options for the Trollkin's look to help us hone in something that works. This first image is simply a series of heads to indicate some character and a sketch of a humanoid creature with a spear.

After this stage, the AD was able to have some visuals and was able to identify what he didn't like and provide me some direction moving forward. Next we have another image which is again pretty rough but it contained enough information for the AD to see that we were on the same page.

Ok, so now we are getting somewhere. Next I moved on to a tight drawing that incorporates all of the accumulated information thus far.

 

 Once again, I sent off another email to my AD to show him this image and get some final feedback and approval to move onto the finished image.

 

Finally, we arrived at the completed image that everybody is happy with. You'll notice the differences in this last image are rather subtle but do give the image just enough extra " Umph". Some things we changed were the addition of a shield, more pronounced claws, bigger spines on his back, more and "bushier" hair etc.

All of these images were completed digitally in Photoshop and that is the primary software that I use for illustration. I hope that you found this article informative and please drop me a line if you have any questions.

Cheers!

Ravens Call Adventure

Hi Everybody,
Recently I finished up a series of black and white illustrations for Kobold Press for their new Raven's Call adventure module.

Here are the images that I created for them below.

Kobold Scout:

 

Coalkell the Ogre:

 

The Damphir:

 Trollkin Shaman:

 

Village:

 

Trollkin:

Guildhall made the Top Ten!

This is a shameless plug but I`m throwing it down anyways. ;)

Last year I worked on a game for AEG titled Guild hall and guess what, it was `listed Guildhall as one of the top ten games they were introduced to in 2012! The review and top 10 list can be found HERE.

Another Blog!

Hey everyone.

For any one who is interested, the guys from the Daedalus Study group and I decided to start our own blog to continue our discussion on all things related to our profession. If you are so inclined, feel free to pop on over and chime in to our discussion as well as hear me sound off from my soap box.

Cheers!

Mike

Thunderstone Update

Hey All,

Today we have a quick update on the recent work I did for AEG's Thunderstone Advance product "Root of Corruption". I painted 4 cards for this game last spring which I already posted on my blog here.  The thing is I was not able to post the complete painting until the product was released so as not to give away anything. No Problem.  Now that the game is out and I'm holding it my hands I can finally post the complete versions of the Weapon Mage and The Woodguard.  The main difference is that I am now able to show the little characters that accompany the main characters.

Check it out!

Also, AEG released another product with my work Nightfall: Crimson Siege is also out now. Check it out at the Link.

Glorantha Kickstarter

Jeff Richard over at Moon Design Publications sent me this link to their kick starter campaign for their Glorantha campaign setting. So far it looks like they have done exceptionally well and have a lot of support to get the book made. Great Job guys!  If you watch the short video, you will see that they have featured 3 of my illustrations during the talk.

Go over there check it out. Also, don't be afraid to tell them that you like my art and want to see more. Wink Wink Nudge Nudge.

Cheers!

AEG Interview Part #2

Hey all,

In this next installment of my interview with AEG I discuss my creative process and a bit about the evolution of the Assassin character.  Check it out Here

Or you can read it right here.
"Mike, do you have specific processes to your work? What’s something you figured out that’s kind of unconventional?
Specific process….  Whenever possible I try to stick to the tried and true method of developing an illustration laid out by the masters. That includes rough sketches, studies, finished drawing, color rough, and then the final illustration.

Let’s start with the image of the pig farmer. The development for this character went about as smoothly as you can get. Both the art director [ed.--AEG's own Todd Rowland] and I had a clear vision for this character. The only change required from sketch to final was that he needed to look a bit happier.

 

However, the Assassin was another story. Initially, the brief called for this character to be more of your back alley thug type. I would describe him as a “greasy knife in the back for a copper” kind of guy. The initial sketch pretty much nailed the concept but the team wanted to see options for a change in his pose.

At this point, there was some thought that this character could look a bit more “current,” and this is when we brought in the robes and talked about making him look younger.

We went through about five sketches and eventually settled on the posture from #4 and the costume from #5.

My process for painting is pretty straightforward. I start off with an under drawing and then paint over top of it like I would with traditional media. Then I start laying in the basic colors which is sometimes called “ flatting” to help establish my color scheme and basic value structure.

Once I’m happy with that, I move into modelling ( sometimes called rendering) the forms to establish the shapes and details. In this instance, you can see how the painting evolved along with the character. Initially I painted his legs thinking that he would be wearing hose as well as he had an older face. As the design changed, I had to paint over the legs and add in the robe and new face. Thankfully Photoshop allows me the flexibility to do this on the fly.

If I was still working in traditional media like oils, these types of changes would be doable but would have taken a lot longer. Once the rendering stage is complete, I clean up the silhouette, add a few adjustment layers to tweak the image, flatten it  and send it off to the client.

For more information on my work and for process animations and demos, please stop by either my website www. mikeperryart.com or my blog http://mperryart.blogspot.ca.

If you have any questions or would like to say hi, I would love to hear from you. You can best get a hold of me via email at mike@mikeperryart.com.

Cheers!"

 

For some reason, the process images that I submitted for this article were not posted on the AEG site but I directly refer to them which must be confusing to readers. Anyways, for clarity sake, here are the images that I was referring to.

 

As always, thanks for stopping by.