A few years after working on the block art for what I thought was all going into Victory in Europe- (Sometimes I don't know the plan. I just draw what they tell me to) all of that art is going into a new game, Combat Infantry now on Kickstarter.
I was asked last month to do the art for the box cover. I will paraphrase the request from Tom, "Something silhouettey, with soldiers in combat, and I am fond of orange".
Above is what happened from that request.
Here is a shot of the game block art I did a while ago. Of course it is all very much strongly based on lots of reference photos that I tried to clean up and turn into readable images that would only be around 3/4" square.
I decided I wanted the cover to have the feel of WWII poster art which have very strong and readable designs- though Columbia Games asked for something a bit more realistic, I feel I kept it pretty much in the middle of those ideas. In my research I found a few photos and images I liked for reference. The final image is based on a nice black and white photo of a single soldier charging. I sent these three sketches for Tom Dalgliesh to approve. As he said in his request, he said he likes orange- so he picked the first one. He had some suggestions, and I went from there.
First step is to a more detailed drawing. I used Google Sketchup to get the positioning of the tank which was a bit challenging to draw from that view rolling over the hill.
I ink the drawing and scan it into photoshop to color it.
I pushed the sky to orange and removed the competing tank explosion and replaced it with a trail of smoke to keep the focus on the charging soldier.
Once this gets laid out on the box slip cover it may go through a few more changes but I am pretty happy with the final image.
A quick blog about the March HarnQuest shipping as I type this. I just finished the last illustration less than a week ago. It is a pretty unified release, focusing on one location of Harn, the Plain of Towers. Included in this release is the map section of Chelna Gap.
"The Plain is named for the large
mortared cairns or standing stones, some more than 30 feet tall, that
mark the ancient barrows of the Jarin people. The Plain is within the range of the Chelni tribes and dotted with their burial sites.
The region's most prominent feature is Elkall-Anuz, the ruined city
that was once the center of the empire of Lothrim the Foulspawner, the
despot who ruled much of central Hârn from 110 to 120 TR. In addition to
the ruins of Lothrim's city and gargun (Hârnic orc) complexes, the site
includes one of best-preserved structures left by the Earthmasters."
Here is a Sketchup model I did for the Earthmaster sites.
I found a spot I liked and did a screenshot of the model. I often just throw the Sketchup dude in there for scale.
The Gazers Well is described as "sweet", so I figured it would be frequented by local wildlife visiting for a drink. A large hawk rests on a column.
My favorite illustration of this article is of a particularly vicious orc, named Kalgash one-eye who has taken up residence in a local ruin. I gave him an unusual hairdo having it tied up in natty horns on the sides of his head. A cute touch for a nasty dude.
Yeah, its been a while since the last post on this blog. I apologize, but give me a break, I've been busy.
So, what should I talk about? Anyone? Well, the October HarnQuest was my last topic, so lets discuss the December HarnQuest, which was a very cool Guthe Bridge article and the Orbaal town of Leriel. (links to the print versions, PDFs also available)
Guthe bridge is a very cool location that was a challenge to illustrate and to model. Here is the Sketchup model video I made on You tube. I am only making these models so I can really pick a cool viewpoint for my illustration and to make sure perspectives and sight lines are correct. These are not an end in and of themselves- they are a means to make the illustrations. If anyone complains they are too blocky I will drive to your house, knock on your door and slap who ever opens it. So don't.
From this model I move around until I find some good positions and save the view as a 2D image to work from. I throw in some clunky dudes to use for scale reference and get this. The sketchup warehouse has some ready-made models to use. Trees and roman soldiers, etc.
I very loosely use this image to do my sketch. Here is the final illustration.
The second article in the October HarnQuest is a the largest town in Orbaal with a very cool series of gates leading to the castle. The original illustration for Leriel was very distant view, so it was fun to get in there and really flesh it out. Here is the model. As with Guthe I could use the same model for multiple illustrations. I figured out how to add music to these videos. I am limited to copyright free music on youtube. Is it better or just annoying?
It was pretty easy to choose a view.
I thought the castle looked puny so I did adjust some things. I do a pencil drawing and then I ink it. When I am doing color I try to do very minimal inking so it doesn't get muddy.
I scan it in and digitally color it in photoshop after making any corrections to the drawing, for example make the giant seagulls a more reasonable size.
I will try to post more. I have finished the next HarnQuest coming out this month and also done a ton of FFF characters for the Guthe Bridge location. How about I peak one of the them now? I have not gotten to draw a lot of Dwarves, so this was quiet fun. Feel free to comment or make suggestions on topics or illustrations you like to see me discuss.
