Finalist in The 2013 A.R.C. International Salon

For my first post of 2014 I promise to be a more active blogger. Not just on this blog but also on my painting blog- which you should be following. It has been a while since I posted, so in a very lazy move, I am basically just cutting and pasting a post from Verisimilitude.  Even this post about me being a ARC finalist is kind old news. I have been told blogs are done- pass'e- they are are "so 2009". Twitter is apparently not the hip new thing anymore either. Not sure what the newest online social media trend is now- maybe a site where you just post a guttural noise that expresses your feelings. Actually, that's a pretty good idea. Anyone want in invest in my new website- Gruntbook?

In a few days is the deadline for the next Art Renewal Center 2014 International Salon. I was very excited to be chosen for the second year in a row as a finalist. Last year I entered the first painting of a 3 part commission I am doing for the Demolay Internation organization in the Imaginative Realism category. I got the big glossy catalog in the mail the other day. Great to see your work featured along side so many great painters.


Here I am casually looking through the catalog on my fancy new desk (which will get a blog post of it's own soon) drinking my morning cappuccino (I know it is uncool to drink cappuccinos before 2 p.m., but that is how I roll). I will drink cappuccinos while I do all my blog posts from now on.
Here is a link to high res version of the painting on the ARC website.  CLICK ME!
If you want to own one of these catalogs for yourself CLICK HERE

A bit more Fairy action

The article on Harnic Fairies is finally online and available.
Download the PDF here for free.

Spirit Folk, Brownie, Bogaern, Cluricaune, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc., Rob Barnes and Richard Luschek

Above are the common domestic brownies.
"Hearth or domestic spirits are solitary faeries who seek out human
households to inhabit. Such spirits may gravitate toward a particular
feature of the home, some preferring the stables or gardens while others
take residence in houses. A spirit that cares for the poultry may encourage
chickens to lay more eggs, find eggs that are hidden, or protect the fowl
from predators. A house-dwelling spirit may guard the fire in the hearth,
keeping the embers hot overnight or food from burning in the pot. The
range of powers differs with each kind of hearth spirit. Most like humans as long as they are treated well."
After many a sleepless night trying to catch a photo of one of these creatures at work in my house, I decided I was going to have to pose myself for these little guys. I wrote about the dangers of having these reference photos on your camera in a previous post. I shoot the photos, pick the best ones and then use them as rough guidelines for the drawings. After a few sketches I do a final drawing, ink it and erase the pencil. I scan the ink drawing and color it in photoshop.

Spirit Folk, Brownie, Bogaern, Cluricaune, -Ink Drawing Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc., Rob Barnes and Richard Luschek

While I will spare everyone the reference photos for the two fine fairy gentlemen on the left, the one on the right is pretty funny and give you some idea of the excellent acting involved. Keep in mind I did this completely sober.

Spirit Folk, Cluricaune reference photo  Copyright © 2013, Richard Luschek and my Mom

At some point I should probably do an entire blog post about that mug I am holding. It is an amazing piece of kitch pottery that must be shared with the world.

Not A Very Nice Old Man

It turns out that Fairies can be jerks. Total, decapitating, soaking their hat in your blood kind of jerks.

I commented on the Redcap a few days ago in a post and just showed an early sketch. I ended up changing it a lot since that early rendering. For one he needed a creepy setting- the bowels of some castle seemed perfect. I also changed his proportions a bit to make him less human looking. I made his head bigger, shoved it down on his shoulders more. Here he is in all his naked glory. 

Spirit Folk, Redcap and Friend, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc., Rob Barnes and Richard Luschek

Viking versus A Pixie (Warning- nudity)

I just finished the new Fanon article on Spirit Folk. It will very shortly be available for free download online. Check here to see if it has been added.

Spirit Folk, Asiri and Ivinian, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc., Rob Barnes and Richard Luschek

 The above image is what happens when a Viking swats at a pixie, or what ever one does to piss off a faerie creature. Pixie dust is sprinkled and the mighty warrior becomes a toad- a toad with a mighty fine beard. This image was drawn in Pen and Ink, scanned into Photoshop and painted digitally.

I will write about more of these creatures soon.
Here is a peak at the Redcap- a scary fairy creature, which looks like an evil old man who must keep its cap soaked in human blood in order to survive. I decided he would be scarier if he were completely naked. I had a scary moment concerning this image. I had handed someone my camera to see some photos from another event and suddenly realized I had shot reference photos of myself for this image shortly before the other set of photos.  I use myself as a model a lot. Luckily they did not get to see the naked photos of me- also very scary. I need to delete some photos off my camera.

Spirit Folk, Red Cap and Victim, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc., Rob Barnes and Richard Luschek

This image posted is a very early version- the first color pass. I will post the finished version later which has a full background and is much darker in value and mood.

Shield painters Unite!

Just a quick peak into a day in my life. Here's a photo of a typical afternoon writing my blog, shown in a cafe just pouring my heart out to all my readers. My squire is getting pretty good at taking photos don't you think?

After having to catch up a bit after the 4 days at Gen Con I finally got the latest HarnQuest finished (can you believe I honestly thought I would get some drawing done while I was there?).
I was very happy with how it turned out. My deadline was end of August and I proudly sent off my last illustration at 11:45p.m. on August 31st. So, technically I made my deadline. Right?

I will do a few posts about a few of the illustrations I did for this very Laranian HarnQuest.
It contains Order of Hyvrik (Larani), Order of the Checkered Shield, Dyrisa Laranian Temple, and an updated Classic article Chyrefal Castle.

This was a fun HQ for me as I have always liked the Laranians. The articles did a good job of giving these guys some depth, with in-fighting and religious differences. It made them more believable and realistic.
One of my favorite pieces was in the Checkered Shield article.
I did a few versions that I thought I would show for fun, before settling on the final one.

To the Pits!,Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

There was some discussion about whether or not the shield should have the full heraldry of the order, or just be a checkered shield. While I tend to fight for what ever looks best, I think the end result made the most sense.
At first I drew a version with the full chapter symbol- which shows Mendiz- the red winged lion with the shield.

To the Pits II!,Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

While technically that is the chapter's symbol, they are called the Checkered Shield. We decided that while this symbol is the badge and may be sewn on the tunic of some or all the knights,  the shield, like the name, should just be checkered. Hotz had set this as canon on the Dead Winter cover years ago. I also did a look around on the web and found some fanon articles that showed the same opinion. So, the simple shield was used on the opening page.
Of course photoshop makes it very easy to make these changes and experiment with different looks. Something about the idea of a battle field full of checkered shields that just seemed more bad ass to me.
I suppose both work as long as the Agrikan is cast into the Pits!

1994 Plymouth Voyager with Harnic Shields

Of course the other reason for the decision was that I had just painted some some shields for decoration for the Gen Con booth and I was not going to change it.

Columbia Games at Gen Con

This year is the 30th anniversary for Hârn. Columbia Games celebrated by returning to Gen Con for the first time in ten years.

Tom of Columbia Games showing off one of their Historical Block Games

I have been to Gen Con twice in the past. The last time I attended was when it was in Milwaukee in 1993. I went with a company called TRI that some college friends had started. We made 3D game pieces for RPGs and wargames. Sculpted and cast in resin, we offered various models for the table top games, ranging from fantasy to sci fi to historic models. We were not around too much longer. 1993 was also the year that Magic cards were introduced. I thought it was a crazy then- kids playing Magic in every corner of the building and in all the hallways in between. Gen Con has since moved to Indianapolis and the attendance has doubled.
There were over 49,000 people packed in to this years Gen Con to collect, play and check out all the latest games.
Our booth was pretty modest in comparison, but we have a loyal fan base that came out to support us. A few even were dress up in costume from the Harnic fantasy world. They came in, roughed us up, stole our women and left.
But Seriously- there were no women.

A priest of the Fuming Gate and Knight of the Cooper Hook

A few Hârn Games were played at the Con. One was officially on the schedule. The other two were pick-up games, one of which I got to sit in on.
I dropped in on every game, handing out the fancy Hârn Maps to participants. A testament to the game and the GM's was that everyone that played in a Hârn game, and was new to it, came back to the booth to purchase something Hârnic.

Walt's Red Caravan Hârn adventure in action.

We ended up selling all the HarnMaster, HarnWorld, and all the kingdom modules we brought. Brent, the editor and I had brought our own personal kingdom modules with us with all the extra kingdom articles- we ended up selling those too. I would say most of the customers were familiar with our products, but it would be great to expand the fan base.
The block games also sold well. People were going crazy over the card game Slapshot. It sold out and we were taking orders for more. I got the iPhone app for Slapshot and finally won a game last night.
It was a great time and we were excited to be back. Next year we will have a bigger booth in a more visible location. Hopefully we can get more games and demos offered through out Gen Con in 2014.
Another view of the booth shows another fascinating part of the Con; Tons of people in costume. Here you can see the corner of our booth with Spock taking a photo of someone posing with Batman.
Seems Logical.

The Deadly, Cute and Fuzzy- Harnic Weasel

I primarily illustrate for the "Fantasy" RPG published by Columbia Games called Harn. It is a realistic fantasy world roughly modelled off medieval 12th century England. There are some Viking like elements, Kingdoms with Roman like political areas, and add a bit of fantasy creatures and monster reminiscent of Tolkien.
While most of the illustrations needed for Harn are realistic and mundane medieval images, I love it when I get to draw creatures. The bigger, uglier, and scarier the better. They should be covered in scales, bony protrusions, breathing fire and dripping with slime.
So, when I was asked to illustrate Weasels, I can't say I was terribly excited. But, it is a good article and has serious game play uses for the imaginative GM.
While I am not a writer, I like tell my own stories through the art in these articles. I try to not just illustrate, but enhance the article. You know what they say, "a picture is worth a 1000 words", which is a good thing- unless you are getting a text message from Anthony Weiner.
I thought I would offer some insight to the stories I drew for the Weasel article.

Stoat and Wolverine with Sarajin, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The above image is a winter scene, which I rarely if ever have done for Harn articles. This camouflaged stoat is scampering past an Ivinian stone illustrating the myth of Sarajin fighting a wolverine. I was thinking this beast could be one of the lesser known Pradeyalkri and may even have many myths associated with it. The Runic is translatable if you want to give it try. The runes at the top are some added graffiti, by some visiting warrior that wanted to leave his mark. 

Peoni Protects, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I was not familiar with the horrible blood sport of badger baiting. If you are not either, don't look it up-it is pretty terrible. It is a real "sport" and has been illegal since 1835, though it is apparently making a comeback.
Shown in the illustration is a young Peoni priestess smuggling away a badger to safety before it is thrown to the dogs. I could easily see this being a adventure hook for a GM. -The Lia-Kavair has hired the PC's to find out why their badgers keep disappearing. or-The fleeing, priestess runs into the arms of the PCs asking for assistance. or -A PC has trapped some Badgers and would like to sell them at the market, but is approached by a seedy underworld type with an offer. 
Maybe Harn even has it's own version of Weasel Stomping Day.
There are tons of possibilities. Throw in the fact that the badger itself may not make its rescue easy and you have the makings of an interesting game session.

I would love to hear some stories of GMs using these beasts in their game sessions.