I've Been Busy

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.

Visit from Zerhun, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Leriel gates, pen and ink
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

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.

Leriel gates, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

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.

Lord Esatol, pen and ink
Copyright © 2017, Kerry Mould and Richard Luschek