A spot of fantasy art... (larger download than the average thread)

[Silverlion]

Gorgeous, just gorgeous.

[Narf the Mouse]

That wasn't a criticism; it's just not to my taste.

[Hodgson]

Thanks guys!  Apologies for the lateness of response - busy busy busy - I'm mid way through moving my studio to a new location - down stairs to what was the garage, but is now my swish new art room. Oooh La!

All comments greatly appreciated though, in spite of appearances!  I totally aim for a painterly appearance to my work, so guilty as charged, and I'm happy to accept that it won't please everyone. But that's cool, such is artwork.


Hey, since I'm here, this is a new(ish) one, which I just released at my poster shop on lulu.

[Sacrificial Lamb]

Jon, your work kicks ass! As usual.

[Kyle Aaron]

Congratulations, Hodgson, on the publication of your art as the cover to Dragon Warriors!

[Hodgson]

Congratulations, Hodgson, on the publication of your art as the cover to Dragon Warriors!

Cheers guy! I'm having a blast with these DW covers.  Four in the bag so far, one on the drawing board as I type!

[Hodgson]

So the DW Bestiary sold out in 45 minutes at Dragonmeet. I had a ball meeting up with lots of familiar faces as well as some new ones.  Really great to get to chat to Oliver Johnson, one of the original DW authors.

Since both the core book and the Bestiary are out here's a selection of interior art I did for them:












Cheers!

[Hodgson]

So I just stepped out of the thread for like 2 years, but I'm back now.

Here's a personal piece I did whilst hard at work on art for Cubicle 7's The One Ring LOTR rpg:

My entry to Jon Schindehette (head of art on DnD)'s "Discover a Muse" contest:


Legends of Anglerre cover. Was originally for the core book, then the Companion, now back on the core:


That's probably enough for now.  Cheers!

[Hairfoot]

Holy McGreeble!  Thanks for the update, or I never would have known about this thread.

Great work.  I agree with earlier posters that it's evocative, modern and exciting, and you've chosen not to go down the dungeonpunk road.

I'll be keeping an eye out for books with your art.


EDIT: I notice the Froudian influence in post #82.  Very nice.

[Silverlion]

Wonderful wonderful stuff.

I really do love your work. I actually think I like the watercolor esque styles for some of it. The black and white works are really great.

[Benoist]

Awesome stuff.

[winkingbishop]

There is plenty of WIN to see here.  You have great talent.

[VBWyrde]

Fantastic!  I can't even pick a favorite, they're all so great.  Thanks!

[Hodgson]

Thanks everyone! I'm blushing.

Hey I realise having been slack about updating this thread I never showed a couple of my personal fave b/w pieces. These are both from Dragon Warriors, Friends or Foes supplement.

[Hodgson]

Gosh it's been a long time! Thought I'd drop by and share some of the art I've made over the last 2 years for The One Ring.  An incredibly daunting project to work on, and it's always a toss up whether it's better to take these big things on and risk everything or just play it safe and pass it up.  But you know. Tolkien?  Those projects don't come along every day.

I'm hoping Imageshack pictures are ok once more, as all my other images seem to be showing up ok.

Playable races:
Barding:

So these fellows are broadly based around a hopefully credible mixture of late Romano British and vikings. All the mannish cultures within The One Ring have a hefty dose of first to eleventh century Northern European feel to them, as is appropriate to the material. You won't find any plate armour in what I produced for example.  Which I'm sure will upset as many as it delights. What can you do?

So given the nature of the Bardings as a wealthy and expanding trading culture, and that they are, within the scope of territory this first release, the foremost culture with the strongest bloodlines, it felt right to give them that slight feeling of distant Roman-ness. But it's limited to Romano Britain, rather than a truly mediterranean/classical feel. Their closeness to the dwarfs gives that norse feel, and whilst the two cultures don't ever really merge in this way in real history I felt it was something that could be pulled off. And this is about as fantastical as I allow myself to get in designing the mannish races. If I recall correctly the idea of using the Romano British influence came about due to the mail of the Bardings being noted for its strength, and using that shoulder reinforcement in the style of the Romano British seemed to fit, and then things flowed from there.

Dwarf:

So the dwarfs to me are almost straight vikings. Short, grumpy, especially rich vikings, but vikings. So this one is highly influenced by norse culture. Early on the game's designer Francesco sent me a little pen and ink illustration of a dwarf which he liked, which keyed pretty precisely into how I imagine the dwarves of Middle Earth. Which was nice.

Woodwoman of Mirkwood:

The woodmen were probably the culture we struggled with the most, and didn't gel until right at the end of the creation process, where we found a kind of Frankish, Merovingian feel for them, which seemed to suit. The point at which the character below was created we were still working to more directly Germanic themes, which do fit, but are not quite as fully developed as the ideas came to be later in the process. We also played with Welsh and Finnish influences.

These are a mighty tough people living within the shadow of Mirkwood. But I didn't want them to feel primitive.  For one that is more the domain of the Beornings, (in some sense, more chat about those when the art is released) and for two I tend to see a lot of simple sophistication in cultures that inhabit inhospitable places. And so whilst their resources are limited and under constant threat they are a proud and crafty people, able to use what comes to hand with great skill. Finding these kinds of strands of character was an essential part of the process. Whilst we shied away from massive stereotyping of each playable culture, you do need some hooks to hang a character on, whether your character is typical of their origins or atypical, you need something to grab onto. And it's the same for the visual look.

Monsters so far released:
Misty Mountain Goblin.

I chat about this design in a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s_bJmxdBCA

In short I was very keen to try and recreate some of the horror I felt as a little kid watching the Bakshi animation. Those rotoscoped orcs terrified me.  Orcs have lost their bite somewhat over the years.  Orcs/goblins in Tolkien are unique, often ancient, spiteful, merciless and cruel creatures. I really wanted the illustrations to reflect that.  This image received an Editor's Choice award over at cghub.com, a swanky site for illustrators, which was very nice.

Smaug

Like much of the art I have made for The One Ring, the design of Smaug is taken directly from Tolkien's own paintings, with a hopefully appropriate update to match the times and the style of the other game art I have made. It was very important to me that Smaug show his (highly dubious) character, and be clearly capable of speech. The idea of him somewhat gleefully hosing fire into Erebor through pursed lips seemed to fit that idea.

Places:
Dol Guldur:

This was an interesting one to tackle. The game as you may have read is set in a very specific time period, between the events of The Hobbit and before Lord of the Rings. So Dol Guldur lies broken.  This image was also intended to run across two pages, so needed two elements, each to be placed on one side of the spread. Showing those broken in doors seemed like a no brainer, but designing the main fortress itself was fraught with challenges. Working with Tolkien's material you really have to dig into the names of places and things to find the description, since that's where it's all hidden.  There has been some fan commentary on this one that Dol Guldur should be a single tower (though nowhere is that written).  But since two great armies embark from this place in a very short space of time I figured something grander was appropriate.  Personally I think the empty Dol Guldur could make an exceptionally spooky place to explore in the game - in some senses actually much more atmospheric than visiting it when The Necromancer's operations were in full swing.

So that's it so far. Hopefully some more art will get previewed soon and I will come back and post that. xox.