Barbarian Charge vs Barbarian Sneak

HarnWorld Barbarians, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I was asked by Columbia Games to update a cover for one of their publications- Barbarians of Hârn. They wanted something featuring a lone warrior- something with a bit more action.
One of my big goals for this years production running up to the next Gen Con is get nice covers done for all the Kingdoms and the major cities. I think Hârn needs covers that will help sell the product to a new fan base. This was a good way to get the ball rolling on the cover situation for new products and to fancy up the current product like.
The original cover was done by Eric Hotz, the illustrator who set the gritty visual tone for Hârn and is one of the reasons I was drawn to this fantasy world in the first place.

Barbarians cover by Eric Hotz, Copyright © 1984, Columbia Games, Inc. and Eric Hotz

The original cover is 30 years old (that does not seem possible!) and was due for an update. There is something quaint about this cover but I always thought the barbarians looked more like shy, fat Dwarves.
I decided to compose my cover after one of my favorite Hotz covers- Nasty Brutish and Short.

N, B, & S cover by Eric Hotz, Copyright © 1984, Columbia Games, Inc. and Eric Hotz

Imagine your players being attacked from the right by goblins when suddenly a barbarian tribesman charges out of the woods on your left.
I started with some very rough sketches to get approval.

I did about 10 or so, some on horses, but thought a closeup of the barbarian would be more interesting.
I chose the Equani tribesmen known for their rough facial branding and collecting of scalps.
After posing myself for some very manly reference photos (which you will never see), I started sketching it out. I had a sword initially but the axe is just too bad ass.

Barbarian Sketch, 11" x 9", Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I tweaked it a bit, printed it out on 11x14 card-stock then coated the drawing with amber shellac. The oils in the paint will eat the paper, something is needed to protect the drawing.

Barbarian drawing , 14" x 11", Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I just started in painting in oil, working towards the big look of value and color on that first day.

Barbarian Day one Lay-In , 14" x 11", Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Each day I refined the drawing, bringing it into focus.

Barbarian Day 4 , 14" x 11", Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Once the painting progresses problems start to emerge and you discover things you just don't like. I did not like the back arm and totally repainted it removing the leather guard. The sketched in brands were starting to take on  a gross dimensional look.

Barbarian Day 5 , 14" x 11", Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

After I fixed the back arm, the one in the front started to look terrible. Looking in the mirror, I found a pose I liked better and I took some new reference shots.

Barbarian Day 6 , 14" x 11", Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

A bit more tweaking and I was basically done. I ended up adding a purple glaze over the whole figure to darken him down and give him a more swarthy look.
I shot a high-res photo of the painting. A bit of photoshop cleanup and it was ready for the title- which ended up covering more than I had hoped.
The cover was printed and added as a wrap around to the books in the warehouse. The interior text is all the same, so if this is already part of your collection, but you'd like to update with the new cover, contact Columbia Games for purchase.


The framed original painting is available for sale as well. Contact me if you are interested. If you have young children, this would look great hanging at the foot of their bed.

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

Building a Better Mouse Trap

A while ago, about 3 years in fact, an article was written on the Small Mammals of Harn. It was to be released with the Hunting and Trapping article rules. Well, CGI decided it wanted the article expanded, and the groups of animals to be fleshed out a bit more.
I like drawing beasts and creatures, but usually prefer that they be snarling, nasty, and huge. Also, it would be nice if they are firebreathing.
So, with a list of animals that one would consider pretty mundane, my job was to come up with interesting images, that are useful for game play and are fun for me to do.
When it came to the intro page for Rodents, I got the idea that it would be fun to paint a medieval manuscript page image as it might appear in a Peoni illuminated manuscript on the saints. Just so you know, I will be doing these instead of the woodblock images I have done in the past for Harn articles.

St. Vusa and the Mice
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I chose a peaceful religious image of a saint dealing with a plague of rodents damaging crops (I know, it has been done). I got to thinking, this could be a miracle or even an example of a Peoni invocation at work. Maybe a prayer is said that will drive out pests from a field saving the villages crops. For the text I chose, "Saint Vusa of the Garden Drives out the Mice". We looked at the Harn Religion Team page for info on the Saints and I thought St. Vusa fit the best. Special thanks to  Rob Barnes, who I have do all my translating into Harnic. I  use the Harnic Font to type the text and then draw over, twist and pull it to give it a more natural look.
Fanon Opportunity!
(first a definition of Fanon for those that may not be sure what that means- Canon is the conceptual material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. Fanon is any material written that is not accepted as official, basically fan fiction based on canon)
 I want to offer this image up for use in any fanon Peoni invocation article that someone may want to write for this illustration. The image is a story all its own that could use a good imagination and some text to flesh out. Anyone? Comment or email me if you are interested in using this image in your fanon article. I thought a single page invocation on this, the saint and possibly the book it is found in would make a good little fanon addition. Could even be used for a Peoni temple article if the manuscript is in the library. Maybe this invocation is on a scroll found stored away that is found by the players. Anyway, someone do something with this image?

The other image in that article I was particularly proud of was the Harnic Squirrel. The text was changed after I drew the image to include info about them being 'pack rats' that collected shinny things. This little gray squirrel could result in an entire adventure hook. Say a player spotted a squirrel in a tree with something that looked like a gold coin. Or.... if a party buried a chest of coins in the woods only to come back to a dug up and nearly empty box, as a PC sees a squirrel scamper up a tree with coin in its mouth. What fun having to scour the woods for your hard earned treasure. What a great way for a game master to torture their players.

The Hoarder
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I hope you enjoy this article and can find some interesting ways to incorporate it into your game- even though rodents are not your typical fantasy game beasts.

Demolay Away!

I finally finished the first painting in the series I am doing for Demolay International. It has been framed and shipped off. I delivered it to a convention in Louisville after which it was shipped on to Kansas City where it will hang in their headquarters.

Join the Fight, 36"x24", oil on linen, © copyright Demolay Int. and Richard Luschek 2012

I had the painting scanned and was not very happy with the results. I had a lot of work to do in photoshop to get the image to look like the painting. I like to paint on canvas with some texture and the lights of the scanner picked up all of those causing a lot of glare. I also increased contrast and adjusted the color that I thought would look good for the posters they should be printing up soon.

 It has come a long way from my initial sketch.

Pencil sketch with Digital paint over.

The End of the Expedition

Khalkhikus is a dragon mentioned in the most recent HarnQuest release. I tried to keep one of the fabled Harnic creatures named in the article in mind when I was illustrating each of the the beasts in this HQ.
For the page one image I wanted a dragon shown proud on high mountain ledge having just exited it's lair. An unfortunate party of  soon to cooked adventurers is easing along a narrow shelf to "ambush" the creature.

End of the Expedition, (pen and Ink, Oil and Digital) Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

 I started by just doing a pen and ink image.

End of the Expedition, pen and ink, Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I printed this image on heavy water color paper, seal it with a clear fixative and then did a quick paint over in broad shapes in oil paint.

End of the Expedition, oil on paper, Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

It did not scan as well as I had hoped, but it got me started and gave a nice texture with which to play off of. I placed the scanned oil painting in photoshop under the scanned  ink image and set it to multiply- meaning the two images immediately above add up to equal the final image in the article. It did take some work to get the two images to line up. A few more layers were created under the ink and above the color layer. On these layers I painted digitally. These were also set to multiply so the texture of the scanned oil image would show through. The lines in the sky were distracting so those were erased. A few contrast adjustments, drawing refinements and the image was ready. The layers are flattened into one layer- the final image.

A brief word about the story, here. I chose this dragon which is rumored dwell somewhere among the southern Rayesha Mountains, in an abandoned salt mine near Rethem. I know the setting does not exactly scream salt mine, but really wanted the mountain top view. Is this is the entrance to a tunnel that eventually leads down to a salt mine? I would say that if you were running a salt mine and you tunneled into an opening that lead to a dragon lair....well, that would explain why it was abandoned. Is this lair located just above the salt mine? What a great thing for your players to find out.
The articles says "Both the Red Shadows of Herpa, an Agrikan fighting order, and the commander of the Imrium Cohort have offered a reward to any who can bring them proof of the dragon’s demise."

The group of men about to die, have obviously found the answer to that question. It's still alive.
The knight leading this quest has called a halt to the party....as if that will help. You can almost imagine hims saying,"Shhhhh." He is leading a few members of  the mercenary group, the Warriors of the Bloody Mace. Among them a Kuboran warrior is shown, spear ready. He was probably captured by the Agrikans and forced into service for this disastrous expedition.
I wanted the dragon to have the appearance that one could almost wonder if the dragon even sees the expedition below on the side of the mountain, but I will let you in on a secret- It totally sees them.  

Please let me know what you think of the updated article. Feel free to offer comments or let me know if you have any questions about this image.

Making Props

I am working on a job where I have to do three paintings of knights. Each painting will be 3' x 2'. They have asked for paintings in the style of 19th century romantic paintings. That is a tall order. I will talk about this and show process shots on this later.
So to get everything right; the poses, lighting and color, I will have to hire models and set up the scenes to paint from. I ordered costumes from a site online but I needed some shields.
I decided to make some of my own. I needed a few different styles from the later period of the knights Templar. With a limited budget I figured by making my own and would save at least $350. Plus I could customize them to my own liking. It also leaves open the possibility of mass producing a bunch of shields for assembling my own personal army- always a dream of mine.

I found a site online that had some great advice for crafting your own curved shields. Following the instruction on the site, I built my own shield press to make the curved shields I needed.

Above is the shield press. Two quarter inch sheets of plywood, each 2' x 4' can be glued back to back and clamped smoothy around this curve. I drew the designs of the shields on the top sheet. They were put in the press and clamped to the curve using ratchet straps. I will not go into detail here. As I said there is a great site to visit if you are interested. Check out Ye Olde Gaffers site if you want to read on the subject further.

Here is the plywood unclamped after a full day allowing the glue to dry. The two 1/4 sheets are now one 1/2 curved shape. I use a jig saw to cut the shape out.

The shield blank is sanded smooth the edges cleaned up with a belt sander. Next I glued a heavy fabric on the front, around the edges and to the back. This will add strength, smooth it out, and take paint better than the plywood.

I then got some old leather belts at the thrift store for straps on the back. The shields typically had a pad on the back to protect the arm. I used an old heavy blanket to make the pad and covered it with suede cut from one of Laura's old skirts. I tacked that on the back, drilled holes for the handled and bolted them on. They were typically riveted, but this was way easier.

Here are the finished shields painted and waiting for the crest to be added.

This is a the front of both shields. The one on the left is called a heater shield the one on the right a kite shield or cavalry shield.

The back showing the handles and arm pad. I will probably grind the bolts down a bit to make them look more like rivets. I still need to add a should strap which will just bolt on the top two bolts of each shield.

It may seem like over kill, but it was not too hard to do. Plus I love this kind of procrastinating project. 

Now I suppose I should paint the pictures.