Not slacking off...

I'm working on the cover for the new FATE System Toolkit from Evil Hat at the minute (SO excited!)
I'll post some more stuff once I get some time.

Stay frosty, people.

Technical stuff

So, today I have been deep in the matrix and fiddling around with file sizes and types.

I've worked out a few things, which are pretty cool.

First up: I can create Vectors from my linework now,meaning they can be resized and manipulated until the cows come home without suffering any degradation or pixelation. Which is pretty awesome.

I use Inkscape for this- it's a free program and I can't recommend it highly enough. Download it now! As well as drawing in vectors and making very tidy layouts, it also has an option to convert to vectors. Import your linework, go to Object and then Trace Bitmap. Have a play with the options to find your own personal sweet spot.

Don't forget to save as a PNG to preserve the transparency.

Here's a preview of the tidyness:

I've also worked out how to remove the white background from a flat jpeg pretty easily.
This one uses Photoshop.

Open your image, then duplicate layer. Delete the original layer as you can't make changes to the background layer as it is permanently locked.
Now either  click on the fx button at the bottom of the layers palette or double click on the preview of the layer in the palette.
On the box which pops up you have a couple of sliders- pull the white tab from the right of the top slider down to the left a bit until all of your white background disappears. be careful as if you take it too far, bits of your image may start disappearing.

The save as a PNG to preserve the transparency.

Hope this helps somebody somewhere!

Hydra Attack!

I coloured-up the hydra scene for the Heroes of Hellas RPG. 

Just used the original pencils without any modifications (despite the temptation to fix MANY things...).

Once again I have fully painted the sky in my ongoing efforts to master painting. No imported textures here.

I added atmospheric effects, blur, etc. All by hand. There is a stone texture used on the rocks, though, which is my one cheat.

Everything done in Sketchbook Mobile, on my phone, with my finger.

Here is a higher-res version of the image. I hope you like...

Singularity 7

Here are a few little pieces I did for End Transmission Games' Singularity Seven RPG.

Quick turnaround on this gig. Fun company to work with.

The game is out now so go check it out!

Heroes of Hellas

I was sat on a bus in 'The Yorkshire' and I thought I'd do something productive so I found one of my old Hellas linework illustrations and thought I'd colour it.

I had to tidy up the linework a bit first though. An HOUR AND A HALF LATER I was finished tidying. Man, my linework has really tightened up since I went all digital. I also saw at least a dozen errors which I wouldn't have let slide now but I left them all in otherwise I might as well have redrawn the whole thing which would have defeated the purpose of the exercise.

Anyway, it was nice to revist an older piece just to see how much I have moved on. Sometimes it feels as if you haven't gotten anywhere until you really go back and pull apart your old stuff to see for yourself.

It was also nice to revisit this piece. A lot of these Hellas pics are very close to my heart: I redrew and redrew them trying to get the poses just right. This amazon girl was always a favourite- I really like how her face and pose turned out. The costume, armour and weapons are all exhaustingly researched for precision as was my practice on all of the Hellas stuff. Being an anthropologist myself and having an archaeologist brother (we all know archaeology is just a branch of anthropology ;) ) I find it invaluable to dig into and pull apart the cultural reference so I can base my work on it. Even the grandiose full-on fantasy pieces have a foundation of acurate historical artifacts. I find adding this sort of thing adds believability to the unbelievable.

Triumphant!

Here is another character which I designed for the print edition of the fantastic Triumphant! RPG frpm Beyond Belief Games which is now available on lulu.
Very pleased with the colours on this one.
She's called Star and I envisaged her as a companion for the Captain Superior of the 80s who has gone on to become a hero in her own right.
She has golden cestus which are my take on Wonder Woman's bracelets and lasso.
Also, she's blonde. I don't draw blondes very often, but I felt it suited the character and design in this case. And it helped to differentiate her from Diana/Donna Troy a bit.

Carpathia RPG

Here is the vampire hunter character from Carpathia.
He is actually the first one I designed and helped to cement a lot of style choices which will remain consistent in the art throughout the project.
He was going to be someone completely different but for some reason this guy insisted on being drawn instead. I know not why, but I couldn't say no to him.