Making It Rain

Twighlight Rain, Marby Keep, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I got a chance to update some illustrations for the latest HarnQuest. If you game with Harn, and are not signed up for the subscription, do it now! What's wrong with you?

The first article was Marby, a minor port in the Kingdom of Orbaal on Hârn's northern coast. The old illustration by Hotz is pretty nice, but I decided for a different view and I usually prefer a view that players would actually see when approaching the place. The birds-eye views are nice for an overview, but not very realistic unless you are looking down from a cliff or the back of a giant bird. 

I believe this is the first wooden keep I've drawn, which is surprising. During my research I was looking at some historic reconstructions of old Russian wooden walled towns and they had these narrow slots rather than crenelations. That made the most sense to me in this situation. The old illustration did not really show this stuff, but its a distant view so I assumed it's there in spirit.

Hotz Marby Illustration , Copyright © 1992, Columbia Games, Inc. and Eric Hotz

As usual I made a quick Google Sketchup model of the place so I could pick the view. Here is a swing around animation of the place.


The other article was Geshtei, the capital of Gerium Province and a stronghold of the Gerium Legion, sits on the Thard River along the western border of the Thardic Republic. The old version, done almost 30 years ago, had a view and illustration I thought would be cool to just expand upon. Despite what I said above and birds-eye views, I did a higher view. It just looked too cool, so don't give me any crap about it.
I had a bit more room to play  with so I expanded the view and showed what is around around the castle. The two outer walls added some interest and power to the castle.
Here is the old illustration.

Hotz Geshtei Illustration , Copyright © 1987, Columbia Games, Inc. and Eric Hotz

Of course I made another model which got a bit more involved than it needed to be, but I had two locations on the map to illustrate for the article so Ill use that as an excuse.

Again, it's a testament to Hotz- on how he got these illustrations so damn accurate without this program. I'm not sure how he did it. I need a model, either digital or physical, to get this proportions and perspective to work out.
I settled on a view and did the illustration.  

Geshtei Keep, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

For the illustration of the Magistrate Borisir Wytel, I based him off a famous character in American politics. He popped into my head when I read the description.

Magistrate Borisir Wytel, pen and ink
Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Can you guess who it is? Can you?

Hmm, I wonder who?
Please do not discuss politics in the comment section or I will delete this entire blog. I mean it!