Luschek Illustration Blog: September 2015

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Barbarian Charge vs Barbarian Sneak

I was asked by Columbia Games to update a cover for one of their publications- Barbarians of Hârn. They wanted something featuring a lone warrior- something with a bit more action.
One of my big goals for this years production running up to the next Gen Con is get nice covers done for all the Kingdoms and the major cities. I think Hârn needs covers that will help sell the product to a new fan base. This was a good way to get the ball rolling on the cover situation for new products and to fancy up the current product like.
The original cover was done by Eric Hotz, the illustrator who set the gritty visual tone for Hârn and is one of the reasons I was drawn to this fantasy world in the first place.

The original cover is 30 years old (that does not seem possible!) and was due for an update. There is something quaint about this cover but I always thought the barbarians looked more like shy, fat Dwarves.
I decided to compose my cover after one of my favorite Hotz covers- Nasty Brutish and Short.

Imagine your players being attacked from the right by goblins when suddenly a barbarian tribesman charges out of the woods on your left.
I started with some very rough sketches to get approval.

I did about 10 or so, some on horses, but thought a closeup of the barbarian would be more interesting.
I chose the Equani tribesmen known for their rough facial branding and collecting of scalps.
After posing myself for some very manly reference photos (which you will never see), I started sketching it out. I had a sword initially but the axe is just too bad ass.

I tweaked it a bit, printed it out on 11x14 card-stock then coated the drawing with amber shellac. The oils in the paint will eat the paper, something is needed to protect the drawing.

I just started in painting in oil, working towards the big look of value and color on that first day.

Each day I refined the drawing, bringing it into focus.

Once the painting progresses problems start to emerge and you discover things you just don't like. I did not like the back arm and totally repainted it removing the leather guard. The sketched in brands were starting to take on a gross dimensional look.

After I fixed the back arm, the one in the front started to look terrible. Looking in the mirror, I found a pose I liked better and I took some new reference shots.

A bit more tweaking and I was basically done. I ended up adding a purple glaze over the whole figure to darken him down and give him a more swarthy look.
I shot a high-res photo of the painting. A bit of photoshop cleanup and it was ready for the title- which ended up covering more than I had hoped.
The cover was printed and added as a wrap around to the books in the warehouse. The interior text is all the same, so if this is already part of your collection, but you'd like to update with the new cover, contact Columbia Games for purchase.

The framed original painting is available for sale as well. Contact me if you are interested. If you have young children, this would look great hanging at the foot of their bed.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Cover Babe

I think we can all agree that Hârn has been in need of the stereotypical high-fantasy, hot chain-mail clad babe on a cover a long time. Well, I have finally made all your dreams come true -Sort of.

There has never been a Bestiary for Harn. We have a lot of separate beast articles but there has never been a starter product or a binder to hold them. I will admit the selection of articles in the current starter bundle needs work and will probably change (for one, Garguns are not in the bundle), but we got one ready for GenCon and sold all we had.
I wanted this cover to be similar to the HarnWorld and HarnDex covers. So I started with that as a base.
Of course a Bestiary needs a dragon on the front so I thought a St. George and the Dragon type image would be cool. I decided to not be sexist and go with a female knight. A knight from the Order of the Crimson Dancer located at Quimen in Orbaal was the obvious choice. I like the idea of an Agrikan being a hero of the story.

As these things tend to develop and change as I work them up, here is a very early version of the cover. I initially had a more typical, knight saving a damsel in distress thing going on but decided it would be more Agrikan like if the knight used a slave tied to a tree as bait for the heroic hunting of the beast. I imagine that slave will be abused and burned at the stake in celebration of the kill.
The HarnDex cover did have some beasts already though it needed some adjustments. The Kuboran warrior need to be changed, I tried adding a bear in that spot but thought it would be more cool to make the Kuboran undead. The Aklash was added in the top with the stinking breath decorating the corner. I adjusted the castle to look a bit more like Quimen and changed the shield to a generic Agrikan symbol.
I tend to shy away from true accuracy in these medieval manuscript images and make sure the image is pleasing and decorative. I find the mistakes and odd interpretations in medieval manuscripts fascinating.
On my To-Do list is to get all the beasts colored, at least the first page of every article. I did 10 for this release, including the Yelgri and the Old Ones.

It is not up yet, but for those of you who have all the articles already, the covers for this and the barbarians covers should be available for sale from Columbia Games soon. Or you could just ask for one now.