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
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You can also support me through my Patreon where I post 3 full color game character and creature images for your games.

Freaking Magic- Melderyn Cover

It has been a while since my last blog. I've been doing some work that I feel like talking about, so you may see a few more of these pop up.

Please be nice, as I need to get my writing chops back.
I wanna talk about the recent cover I just finished for the Kingdom of Melderyn.

Bringer of Storms on the shores of Melderyn
pen and ink, digital, Copyright © 2019, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

Years ago, Tom Dalgliesh at Columbia Games asked for new covers for all the Hârn Kingdom Modules. This was a big job and the idea kinda frightened me. I worried I was not good enough to pull this off. I procrastinated. A few HârnQuests came up that were new or updated kingdoms and they needed covers: Orbaal,  Ivinia, Rogna and most recently Lokis. When forced into a corner, one at a time, I felt they were pretty successful. So, after this request from three years ago, I'm off an running on the rest.
The original kingdoms in the 80's all had cover images, mostly painted by Eric Hotz, but as Hârn moved to the binder model with constant expansion to the product, the images did not quite fit and a simple monochrome cover was used.
    


Almost makes you yawn doesn't it? Are you yawning?
My original plan was to use the inside, page one image on the cover. This idea worked with Kanday- after a lot of tweaking.
This time for Melderyn, I did a mock up with that image just to get a rough idea. You can see where it was a long panel and I had a lot to add to the top and bottom.

Melderyn cover rough layout

I decided there was a lot I didn't like about this image for the cover. The pose was boring, the hands were not great, the color is iffy, and the image does not pop. It needed more punch.
I like the idea, not the execution. The idea is based on the destruction of the Viking fleet at Cape Renda that is in the Hârnic histories. Though it could also be a new, similar event. The details of the story can be left up to the Game Master.

So, I was back to the drawing board. I did a rough sketch and then asked my neighbor to pose as the sorcerer. He came over, we got him dressed up in the approximate garb and I had him strike a bunch of poses. He really got into it and did a great job.

sketch and pose reference

I did a more detailed drawing and then inked over the pencils lines with Pigma Micron pens. I mostly used the small ones (005 and 01) as I like the fine lines and building up a tone slowly.

Bringer of Storms on the shores of Melderyn
pen and ink, Copyright © 2019, Richard Luschek and Columbia Games, Inc.

I knew I wanted lightning being summoned or at least the illusion of that. I got the idea that the lightning would be in a similar position as the magic user's right hand. Like he was directing the lightning, composing the storm. I played around in the mirror, moving my hand into a pose I thought looked lightningy.
I even played around with different colored lightning. Below you can see I started out drawing the blue lightning over his arm, following all the joints of the skeleton, enlarged it and moved it into position. I have labeled things to make it clear.

Lightning Arm

The white lightning looked better- a bit more subtle and the giant arm of lightning felt a bit too on-the-nose. A bit harsh honestly. I tried a few other things on this piece, like having the lead boat be on fire. Sometimes restraint works well too.
I did have fun on the standing stones- making up some magical type designs, including the Shek Pvar wheel at the top, and some map that could be a strange solar system or list of portals.

All the Hârn Kingdoms will have a similar treatment. Kanday is done, Rethem is started and I am finishing up a "redo" of the original Hotz painting from the 1984 Kaldor cover.
All should be done and available by Gen Con.

As to how these will be made available to customers with the old kingdoms, I do not know.  You will be able to get them somehow.
This image will probably appear on some products in my new swag shop at Redbubble. Visit now to purchase all your Luschek Swag.

Post your thoughts below or on the many social media site this will show up on.

Combat Infantry: World War II tactical block game

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.

Combat Infantry, Charge, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

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.

Combat Infantry, game block art, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

But I digress, back to the cover.

Combat Infantry, Sketches digital color
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

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.

Combat Infantry, Charge, pen and ink
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I played around a bit and at moment tried a bluish sky but Tom thought the orange sky with higher contrast had a stronger impact. I agree.

Combat Infantry, Charge variation, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2017, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

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.

Making It Rain

Twighlight Rain, Marby Keep, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I got a chance to update some illustrations for the latest HarnQuest. If you game with Harn, and are not signed up for the subscription, do it now! What's wrong with you?

The first article was Marby, a minor port in the Kingdom of Orbaal on Hârn's northern coast. The old illustration by Hotz is pretty nice, but I decided for a different view and I usually prefer a view that players would actually see when approaching the place. The birds-eye views are nice for an overview, but not very realistic unless you are looking down from a cliff or the back of a giant bird. 

I believe this is the first wooden keep I've drawn, which is surprising. During my research I was looking at some historic reconstructions of old Russian wooden walled towns and they had these narrow slots rather than crenelations. That made the most sense to me in this situation. The old illustration did not really show this stuff, but its a distant view so I assumed it's there in spirit.

Hotz Marby Illustration , Copyright © 1992, Columbia Games, Inc. and Eric Hotz

As usual I made a quick Google Sketchup model of the place so I could pick the view. Here is a swing around animation of the place.


The other article was Geshtei, the capital of Gerium Province and a stronghold of the Gerium Legion, sits on the Thard River along the western border of the Thardic Republic. The old version, done almost 30 years ago, had a view and illustration I thought would be cool to just expand upon. Despite what I said above and birds-eye views, I did a higher view. It just looked too cool, so don't give me any crap about it.
I had a bit more room to play  with so I expanded the view and showed what is around around the castle. The two outer walls added some interest and power to the castle.
Here is the old illustration.

Hotz Geshtei Illustration , Copyright © 1987, Columbia Games, Inc. and Eric Hotz

Of course I made another model which got a bit more involved than it needed to be, but I had two locations on the map to illustrate for the article so Ill use that as an excuse.

Again, it's a testament to Hotz- on how he got these illustrations so damn accurate without this program. I'm not sure how he did it. I need a model, either digital or physical, to get this proportions and perspective to work out.
I settled on a view and did the illustration.  

Geshtei Keep, pen and ink-digital color
Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

For the illustration of the Magistrate Borisir Wytel, I based him off a famous character in American politics. He popped into my head when I read the description.

Magistrate Borisir Wytel, pen and ink
Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Can you guess who it is? Can you?

Hmm, I wonder who?
Please do not discuss politics in the comment section or I will delete this entire blog. I mean it!

Oops. I made a mistake.

Turns out- I am not perfect.

The Mistake- Sherwyn, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The recent HarnQuest was recently released with articles on Sherwyn, Pled some Books and Scrolls and some maps I had nothing to do with.
While I decided to just color the Hotz drawing of the castle in Pled, I decided I wanted to redraw the castle for Sherwyn. It is a very complicated castle sitting on a series of rocky outcroppings off the shore of the town. As is often the case I build a quick Sketchup model so I could get the proportions correct.
Shortly after the release some eagle eyed Harniac was quick to point out a mistake that the drawbridge on the above image is too low.  Of course I thought "How dare you? Do you know who I am?!! Richard Luschek does not make mistakes!"

Then I checked it out and turns out I did make a mistake. I know! I could hardly believe it myself.
First, Here is the model after I corrected it. I did a video fly around so you can see the whole place.

While the product has shipped, I thought I would post the fixed image here. Feel free to print it out and use for your game.

Corrected Sherwyn Castle, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

 

 

It really just involved me moving the gate up about 15'.
Enjoy this corrected image- now get off my back!

Hot Models

Shipping now is the February HarnQuest made up of:  Arone Keep, Cherafir F5: The Wolves' Den, Coranan D2: Lia-Kavair Guildhall, Coranan D10: Gladiator School, Coranan H3: Palace of Pentacles, Atlas Hârnica F7

Below is a rough overview of some of the art for these articles.
First I will post an image of a creepy new aquatic Ivashu near an unfortunate pilgrim.

In the Brooder Pool, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

After reading the description I did a few sketches first to see what the writers liked best. They picked my favorite one.

Ormanoam, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The creature is near an old Ilvirian temple, Ormanoam. The temple is surrounded by standing stones and earthworks.
Here is my very rough model for this illustration. Each of the models below at some point will feature the view I ended up selecting to use as reference for the final art.

Nearby is Arone is a small seaport on the southeastern tip of Orbaal. Along with the nearby thrans, Arone is isolated from its neighbors to the west by the vast Arone Marshes that form the northern edge of the great Anoth Delta. The keep sits on a low basalt headland overlooking a fine natural harbor that offers refuge to seafarers from the stormy Sea of Ivae and the pirate-infested waters of the delta.

Arone Gate House, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

 Below is a view of the model to get a good idea of layout.

Finally, I did illustrated the fine palace in Coranan.
The hall of the Coranan chapter of the Mangai was built in the mid-5th century to house the Court of Pentacles, the economic advisory body to the Corani Imperium.

Palace of the Pentacles, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2016, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

It was fun to add more to the model I did for the updated Coranan article. In this fly around you can see the reference I used for the Chamber of the Red Domes.

I'm In Charge!

The title of this blog post is referring to a book I just illustrated and not my own proud declaration to the world. Though I do try to be in charge when ever I get a chance and think things are usually the better for it.
One of the writers for Hârn, a game I am the art director for, knew about an author- a friend of a friend, who was looking for an illustrator for a children's book he was working on (was that sentence  more confusing than it needed to be?).
Henry Vogel was working an series of stories based on old medieval folk tales. I have wanted to illustrated a book for kids for a while now, so I inquired. After a some back and forth emails, we agreed to work together on this project.

I'm In Charge cover, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

Henry had 6 stories, and we chose 3 to be in this first book: I'm in Charge, the Seven Silly Brothers and The Three questions.
I would tell you more, but I am going to have you read the description on the Amazon page for the book. Click Here to read and to order piles of books for your family! It is available in print and for the Kindle (PDF).


I worked on the cover and interior art pretty much at the same time. I wanted this book to have an old timey, classic look. I love Arthur Rackham's work and wanted emulate that style.
I sent Henry a quick sketch done in photo shop to see what he thought.

I'm In Charge, digital sketch, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

He gave me some notes, a few sketches went back and forth and I then assembled my reference. I like to use the best looking and most handsomest models I can find for the money.

I'm In Charge, reference photo, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

I did a pencil sketch and then inked the drawing.

I'm In Charge, ink drawing, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

This is scanned into Photoshop and then colored digitally. I usually start by adding some texture to the image- I set a photo of parchment on a multiply layer and did laid a tone in.

I'm In Charge, digital value scheme, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

I select all the parts out on different layers and start adding color. Using my initial color sketch to select colors from.

I'm In Charge, early color layers, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

I keep painting and pushing things around till I like it. I didnt like how the spear touched the edge, so I selected it and angled it out to match the shield. I added the Seven Silly Brothers walking by the castle outside on their way to some adventures. The princes hand was a bit too manly and the face too harsh. I made the crown bigger and finished the painting. The text was added and then tweaked a bit by hand, painting around it to give it a more natural look.

I'm In Charge, cover, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

For the interior art I decided a set of simple silhouettes would look nice.

I'm In Charge, Interior, pen and ink, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

Here we see the power hungry prince is ordering his friend's mother to jail for not letting them play together.

Seven Silly Brothers, Interior, Pen and Ink, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

The Seven Silly Brothers are not the brightest lot. They get themselves into all kinds of trouble.

3 Questions, Interior, Pen and Ink, © 2016, Henry Vogel and Richard Luschek

In Three Questions, the princess and her father the king, do not agree on the qualities that will make for a good husband and prince.

No spoilers here, you will have to find out how they end on your own by reading the book yourself or preferably aloud to your kids.
So, go get the book and write some glowing reviews.

HarnQuest- Geldeheim in the snow.

I am currently finishing up the December HarnQuest with only a few more illustrations to go. Till then, lets talk about the last issue. The royal city of Geldeheim in  Orbaal.

Geldeheim in the Snow, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

"Geldeheim is the seat of Alegar II, King of Orbaal. The castle is on the south shore of the Geldesfjord, the most populous region of the kingdom."

I had a lot of locations in the town to illustrate, so I went a bit overboard with the Sketchup model this time- but it was so much fun.
Here is a walk-thru of the model I posted on YouTube.

So, the various scenes are then used as reference for final illustration.

Used for the snowy view on page one.

The nice thing is that while a lot of the stuff done in sketchup is custom built, there is a nice online warehouse of prebuilt models, including a viking ship and a selection of medieval houses. You can also save components you build to use for later.

The Agrikan Temple had an exit below to the river that I wanted to show from the other bank. Getting things to scale without using this a model is challenging for me.

Agrikan Temple, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Not the exact view I used for the illustration, but this gives you an idea of the scale issues I needed to figure out.

Shipbuilder, pen and ink-digital color, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

This one didn't really need the model, but it doesn't hurt to double check things. Here is a distant view of that scene.

I did a separate model for the Annwyn ruins too. I was not too sure what I was going to draw so the model helps me get some ideas.