The Art of Hârn

I am excited about the Kingdoms of Hârn being published as hardbacks in Columbia Games new Kickstarter. While I do think the loose-leaf format really lends itself to the publishing style for Hârn, the world constantly growing each year with published locations all over the island, it is nice to see the main kingdoms bound into slick hardbound books for our game shelves. The loose-leaf format will continue, so your binders of this fantasy world can continue to grow, in addition to CGI offering PDFs for all of the catalog.

The publishing schedule for Hârn has been steady and strong for years. Most of the kingdoms are finished and ready to go. In the coming Kickstarter Series for the Kingdom Hardbacks, we will be fleshing out and expanding the few that remain like Tharda and Azadmere- which is almost finished. I will be doing new art as needed and coloring some of the older publications.
Kaldor for example has been colored recently but I never got a chance to work on the page one illustration. It is a piece I did quite a while ago. I do like the theme, I would like to bring it up to the current standards. My work as improved since I did that image twenty years ago. I will be starting that image this week as the Kickstarter successfuly winds down.
Columbia Games asked me to discuss some of my favorite images Ive drawn for Hârn over the years. My answer to that question is usually "the project I just finished". So currently I am pretty proud of the work I did for the Dwarves in the Azadmere publications. There were not a lot of images for this Kingdom so I had free reign.

Enter Azadmere, pen and ink, digital,
Copyright © 2021, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

While I was a bit intimidated to do the cover images for the Hârnic Kingdoms, I am really happy with how they have come out. Kaldor was basically my interpretation of the scene that Eric Hotz had done for Kaldor almost 40 years ago. It has been an honor to work on this stuff as the work of Hotz was one of things that originally drew me Hârn in the first place.
One of the covers I am most proud of is the Chybisa Kingdom cover, which features the Royal Guard charging in to save a caravan on the Genin Trail from some troublesome barbarians.

Chybisan Charge, pen and ink, digital,
Copyright © 2021, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

Another favorite was the cover for Lokis. Of course this site is off Hârn, to the east in Ivinia. It was nice to feature powerful and important women in fantasy art who are not wearing chainmail bikinis.This image was fun to plan and design.

Path to the Oracle, pen and ink, digital,
Copyright © 2021, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

I do particularly enjoy drawing the pageantry and symbolism of the Hârnic religions. It's fun to expand on the parameters set by the original works to grow this world with new visual details in the architecture, items and clothing that is important and representative to each of its followers.
Often for the buildings I spend a lot of time turning the floor plans into 3D models using sketchup. I have a tendency to go overboard, as it is so fun to build these structures, but I usually turn the models into videos that I share on my YouTube channel.

Cundras, assembly of the troops, pen and ink, digital,
Copyright © 2021, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

This is Cundras, the primary keep for the religious order of The Lady of Paladins in the Kingdom of Melderyn. I often say I do not like drawing bird's eye view images as they are not typically what the players would see (unless they get a magic helicopter), I tend to like to draw the locations as they would appear to a player walking up the road, but I do like this image. More typical is what you see below.

Caleme, pen and ink, digital,
Copyright © 2021, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

Caleme is another religious site I very much enjoyed working on. I love the design and feel of grand medieval churches. To get to work out the art and details of these places is always a joy. The stain glass windows are strongly influenced by real world saint, that I changed to reflect specific saints in the Larnai Church. If you take the time to translate the Harnic text it will tell which ones are featured. 

In every major article I try to do primarily realistic images that will help set the stage for that location. I also like to draw at least one piece of art that looks like it was made on Hârn. So I will draw a medieval manuscript page or stained glass window that show how folks of this world see themselves and their myths. It is a great way to illustrate things that happened in the past or may not have actually happened. I like to sneak in inaccuracies. A monk may be illustrating a scene or creature that he has not seen but only heard about. So every manuscript image is often exaggerated or just plain wrong, which I think is fun for a Gm to show players, who's plan could be completely based on bad information: Hârnic fake news.
Finally, in each article I try to have a silhouette image. I really enjoy trying to tell a story with just B&W silhouettes. It is also a way to show violence without it being too gory. Adding color behind can really bring them to life- giving a moody feel as they are usually the extreme lighting of a sunrise or sunset.
This is one of my favorites. A scene in the orchards of Esenor in the Kingdome of Kaldor showing the peasantry collecting apples in the orchard and a beekeeper working on the hives of the aviary.

Esenor, morning in the Orchard, pen and ink, digital,
Copyright © 2021, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

Now I suppose I should get to work on the page one illustration for the Kaldor Hardbound book.
If you enjoy the work Im doing I suggest you follow my YouTube Channel
If you want some cool swag, check out my Redbubble account for t shirts and lots of other products.
You can also support me through my Patreon where I post 3 full color game character and creature images for your games.

Excessive Facial Hair and Carpel Tunnel Syndrome

I am very close to being finished with the next big Columbia Games Kingdom release- Orbaal. Should be completely done sometime in July.
My strict Catholic upbringing has instilled in me a constant need to demonstrate just how much I suffer for my art and hopefully will result in all of you feeling guilty about my crippled drawing hand.
Orbaal has been a bit more taxing due to all the hair, fur and gruff line work needed to illustrate 39 hairy Viking portraits.
Here is a sneak peak at a few of the characters which will be raping and pillaging their way across Hârn.

King Alegar II, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Above is the King of Orbaal.

Valhakar Caadern Sardosk of Thursa, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The next illustration is based off of a fanon article, I tried my best to get the basic look of the guy.

Felan Weymyss of Pethwys. Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

We do try to look at work done on settlements by Hârn fans that may have posted articles online. I think I was pretty successful.
Just so you know, after typing out this blog post my fingers are a bit sore.

Characters in Silhouette

A client for whom I  had recently drawn a few characters in his game saw the intro image I did for the Night People article.
The image was a silhouette with a colored back ground. He asked me to do a scene of the Knight, his squire and a pack animal  traveling through a cold and wintery scene late in the evening.

For these images I generally do a pencil sketch on drawing paper, draw the outline in pen and ink- filling in the big areas with a sharpie marker. I scan the work into photoshop. As is usually needed, I can select individual areas and move the shapes around to position them better in the space. The pen on paper can be a bit hairy so I clean it up digitally in photoshop going back and forth between digital brush and eraser. I have digital brushes that do a pretty good job of looking like pen and ink.

Sir Fulke and Squire, pen and ink and digital.
Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc., Richard Luschek

I then create a layer under the line art and paint the color under it. All the color is done in photoshop. I drop in some textures and collected images to layer it up for a deeper look.

Harnic Gypsies

I just finished the art for the article on Harnic Gypsies called the Night People. A great fanon project by Rob Barnes- with the help of many from the Harn Writers group. You can download the entire PDF by clicking here.

Night Parade, Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc., Richard Luschek, and Rob Barnes.

The above image riffed off one I did for the CGI release of Rethem. Of course that one was before the details of the Night People were worked out, so I went a bit crazy with the wagon which had a mule pulling the wagon. I made some adjustments to the wagon, added a Vardyr and all the dancing revelers and musicians.  After I finished the Silhouette part, I added the late evening sky with a big moon. To do the stars I dipped a tooth brush in ink and splattered in on paper (if you want to try this technique I suggest you use an old tooth brush or just use your spouse's toothbrush). The splatters are scanned into photoshop, selected and inverted from black to white spots and then laid on top of the sky.

The above image was my 4th attempt. I had tried a few other options that I thought I would show. The first one is obviously painfully boring, and does not feature the figures enough. The others are kind of interesting, but I think the forth attempt was the obvious winner.

Night Parade- Boring attempt #1
Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc., Richard Luschek, and Rob Barnes

Night Parade- Boring attempt #2
Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc., Richard Luschek, and Rob Barnes

Night Parade- Pukey Sky  attempt #3
Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc., Richard Luschek, and Rob Barnes

Harn Fan Commissions

I tend to get a lot of work from RPG fans. For a while I did more fan work than company illustration. It honestly was a great way to learn on the job and build a portfolio. I tend to do more work for companies these days, but I still do my fair share of fan work.

Often fan work is much more specific than the stuff I do for companies. You may think that it would be the other way around, that the companies would be more demanding. Generally I get the text of the article or book and just have to successfully fill in the blanks.
As a fan develops game, they are creating a story or world for the players from the published material. So often the person ordering has a very set idea for the look of the work.
Sometimes I am asked to illustrate a character using the photos of them or their fellow gamers- which can offer a challenge, especially when I am asked to draw the character to look the like the player, who may be 100 lbs heavier, 10 years older and not quite as handsome as the desired image of a dashing young knight. I am usually sweating the response to my first sketch. So far I have not offended anyone that I know of.
More often then not, I am asked to portray the character to look like a particular actor or historical figure. This is nice, since often I can find multiple references in varied light and poses. When I do use famous people as a model, I try to just get the general look and try to not have the character be too recognizable. For one thing I don't like it when the character looks like some actor. I also don't want to be sued.

I thought it would be interesting to show the type of info I get from a client. The below email is a good example of a typical request. I have gotten orders which are as simple as one sentence- "I need a Norman style knight with a sword and round shield." I have also gotten a 3 page description for one character.
Here is the email I got from the client:

"I think he should be holding the helm in one arm (use the helm style you did for Tourney p. 7), and his shield - a knight shield, not, definitely, not a kite shield, should be resting on a wall/furnishing behind him. His arms should be depicted on both the shield and the surcoat. The latter should be full, as in the Minarsas illo, not a little shield on his chest. He should have a bastard sword and dagger in scabbards, and some indication that he is wealthy. He should have a mail hauberk and leggings, but his head and face should be bare. In my campaign, I plan on using him as the Melderyni ambassador to Kaldor to give you some context.

I attached the coat of arms, a cut from Minarsas Hall illustrating the surcoat style I would like, and the Morgan of Darring illo. This guy is a bastard son of Morgan, and as I said below, shouldn't be quite as handsome. Beyond that I have no preconceptions on how he might look. Maybe this attached actor might work. The character's name is Sir Arren Lydel. Please let me know if you have any questions or issues."

 Now, I took a few liberties and put in outside a tent. I hung the shield in full view as asked.
Basically, looking at the illustrations I had done previously that related to this image, all the reference material I was sent, it was up to me gather all that into an image that included all that info.
Here is the resulting illustration. I was pretty happy with the design- and the client was thrilled, which is what it is all about in the end.

Sir Arren Lydel, Copyright © 2012, J. Matthew Roegner and Richard Luschek

If you are wanting a similar image for your game, feel free to contact me for prices.

Illustration Crush

An article I started illustrating for someone 5 years ago has finally been released. You can download Anyana’s Vale for free on Lythia.com.The article is a fan article set in the Harn world.
It was a fun project to work on as I got to be involved in the design process. Sometime when reading the articles, I suggest changes to the writing- usually so I can draw something cool. I was given maps of a mystical tree house. Often when  trying to realize the plans, a problem appears that either does not not quite work in 3D or could be improved upon. Below is my rough sketch to work out some of the ideas. I did  a draw-over  in photoshop.


















Next I did a rough side-view of the tree to figure out the shape, layout and various heights of the floors. As some sinks had been indicated in the maps, I thought it would be fun to have them work via a cistern inside the trunk that filled throuch a collection system when it rained. The piping is magically grown into the trunk of the tree, as are the chimneys for the small stoves.

After some back and forth between me, the mapper and the writer, we got a design everyone was happy with, I drew the fancy tree house.

Anyana’s Living Tree home, © copyright John Daniel and Richard Luschek 2012

I totally want one of these in my yard.
Of course a tree like this needs a beautiful resident. The elven lady was the first illustration I did. It was drawn 5 years ago. When John ordered the illustration, neither he nor I thought it would evolve into this article. Here she is, and I will admit, it is one of the first drawing I think I have a bit of a crush on. Don't tell my wife.

Anyana, © copyright John Daniel and Richard Luschek 2012