Birds Eye Views

I don't really like illustrating stuff with the bird's eye view in medieval period work. For one thing, I like the view to be more of  view that would be seen by those living in that world. I think it is more believable.
But, often this is a pretty cool view. Now that I am doing the Sketchup models, I can at least post a few of them on my blog for people to enjoy.

Minilaous Keep, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The first is Minilaous, a keep in Kanday on the cliffs overlooking the bay. The models are of course very roughly knocked out so I can get the drawing accurate to the maps.  I decided on a view on the cliffs looking east.

Another castle I had to render was Moleryn in the Thardic Republic. This one had a very old illustration from way back in 1987. I considered updating it, but decided I needed to redraw it as it had a few things that did not jive with the maps.
I rendered what I needed in a bit more detail, but spent about 10 minutes to trace out the rest of the castle.

This last view is pretty close to what I used as the model for the final illustration.
This HarnQuest should be shipping by the end of the week or so.

Something to Stand For!

In the past year or so, I have been  doing a lot more illustrations. It is great to have the work, but I have been finding myself sitting in a desk chair for hours at a time. Of course, a smart man would get up and stretch once a while- maybe even just move a little. As a result I was getting fat and out of shape, my legs were aching and as I worked at this very non-ergonomic desk my shoulders would hunch up and then my back would hurt.
See what I go through to do my work!
Anyway, instead of being a fat, crippled martyr for my work, I decided to switch to a stand up desk.
Here is some science on the subject. Click Here

After a bit of research and looking around for desk that would fix my dilemma, I decided to build my own. I found an online resource to determine the correct height. Click Here
I determined that my desk needed to be around 42 inches high. I could have probably just made the desk I had tall enough, but I don't do things that way.Thought I would post about this wonderful part of illustration process in case you wanted to stand up with me. Let's all stand up.

I was a cabinet maker for a while and am fairly handy, so I thought rather than build something ordinary, I should make a fine piece of furniture. A few years ago a friend sold his parent's house and was cleaning it out. He and his wife gave me a few things that were just going to get thrown away. Being a pack rat, I took it all and hauled it home.
Here is photo of my lovely wife after helping me get the prize out of my van. She immediately said, "Why the hell do you need a old Organ?" At the time I honestly did not have any idea, but I still needed it!
There is a reason I have never been able to park my van in the garage.

This beauty is an A.B. Chase pump organ from the 1880s. A close up view will show the rough shape it was in.

While the bulk of the wood was salvageable, all the innards were ruined by a combination of dry rot and being stored in a basement. So, I carefully pulled it apart and saved all the parts I could. Just taking this apart without doing damage was a chore. The inside organ parts had to be thrown away, but all the panels and decorative parts ended up being used in other places.

Of course the organ is not high enough for a stand up desk so I had to figure out how to make it about a foot taller. Raising it in a pleasing way took some time and a lot of sketches.
I finally realized the panels from the top were about the right size and would match the sides.



I used 2x4s to make the base for the panels. Using different woods was something I regretted later. Early on I thought it was in such bad shape I would have to paint it. If I had know it would finish up so well I would have found walnut for all the added parts.

The decorative foot on the front was removed and dropped down to the bottom. Now I needed to fill that space somehow. Those two spindles you see leaning at the bottom of the organ were off an old chair I found in the garbage, they were cut to fit, drilled for dowels and filled that space like they were meant to be there.

After I got the height issue fixed, I just needed to start putting a desk inside the box. I added a shelf at the bottom and the desk top. A drawer fit in the space where the keyboard used to be. I had a set of drawers from an old priest's wardrobe I got out of a abandoned convent.

Here it is with all the parts pretty much in place. I realized the shelf space at the top for the monitor would not work, so I had to cut the top of the organ so it would not be right in my face. I also wanted to fill in the bottom under that shelf and decided to reuse the parts where the organ pedals used to be. It would just be a shelf at the bottom (turns out it makes a good foot rest). There were also some decorations from those parts I wanted to use for the drawer.

With the top cut to make room for the monitor I need a header piece- it probably had one originally. I got a piece of walnut and sketched a few designs based on other organs I found online. I settled on the one above. I carved designs in the blocks that matched the simple designs in other areas.
You can see the drawer front now has two inlaid blocks I salvaged off the top of the foot pedal bracket that got cut off when I added it below the shelf. They added a nice design and also covered holes in the drawer front from old handles. The sheet music rest became the drawer pull (unfortunately while it is a pretty drawer pull, it also catches dust, eraser bits, crumbs and beard hair).
I had realized while building this that the old shellac finish came off pretty easily with scraping and sanding, so rather than paint it I could stain it. Since I used pine, birch, poplar in other areas I would have to do some creative staining to get it all even.

It stained up pretty well actually. The areas that were lighter got a brushed on tinted polyurethane to even it out.
Those weird looking things on the outside of the organ just to the left of the drawer were originally supposed to hold candles. While I will not be using candles I did use one of them to clamp a desk lamp to.
Here it is today in full use.  Keyboard and mouse on the top can be pushed back out of the way if needed. The computer and scanner/printer are on the lower shelf. You'll notice on the tablet screen that I am coloring the art I did for Rethem.

I mounted my digital tablet on a telescoping arm which allows it to be moved out of the way or be pulled over for drawing. I can use the monitor to display reference or for watching Netflix while I work.
One part I am still working on is the "analog" drawing desk. Currently I have a panel under monitor shelf that I can pull down for sketching and drawing. It works pretty well. I may move it above that shelf so it is a bit higher. I will then add flat file storage under that shelf. I will post an update when I figure it all out. Below you can see the board put away and pulled out. I'll stain it like the rest when I'm finished.

I am pretty happy with the desk. I will say for about two weeks after switching to standing I thought I had made a terrible mistake. My feet were killing me and it seriously wore me out. I eventually got used to it. Now I think my posture is improving, I have less knee issues and shoulder pain and it keeps me more alert.
My only regret is that I wish I had made the desk top a bit wider deeper so I had more room.

My set up is in the basement next to two south facing windows, so I get some good light during the day. I am glad I'm kind of hidden away since a stand up desk mixed with music can result in a dance party at any moment. Some New Order just started playing on the online station I am listening to and things got a little crazy.

New Creepy Studio Prop

I have really been wanting a Mannequin.
I don't mean the 80's movie starring Kim Cattrall, though it was pretty awesome. Honestly I think I liked the sequel a bit more- but I digress.
I have been looking for a poseable manikin for the studio to use for doing portrait work or to set up if I need to do fabric studies. It is tough to get any model to pose for long periods of time, so it is useful to have something to dress in the costume.

The full-sized wood ones sold at art supply warehouses are pretty expensive and can run up close to $1000. I figured I could make my own or find something cheaper that I could make work. Even an old department store mannequin could be used somehow.
There is a local fellow that has a great suite of warehouses full of antiques. He has some great stuff and I am often dropping in to look for still life objects or for stuff I need to fix my 100 year old house. I called him and told him if he didn't already have something to be on the lookout. He just called and said he had found me a creepy dude. It is an old medical mannequin, and was not really in great shape, but the price was right.  I spent a day and an evening getting it fixed up. I built a new hip, made a wooden foot and fixing up some of the joints. The other nice perk is that I can practice my CPR technique.

I still need to fill the chest and stomach areas somehow, the light patches on the arms and legs are spots where you can practice giving the doll injections. They were missing in a few places so I sprayed expandable foam then trimmed it smooth.

The fancy new wooden foot I made out of a piece of 2x4

My next order of business it try to make it so I can set a pose. The joints are pretty loose so I can't lock a pose yet.

As it stands he is just a creepy fixture sitting in a chair in our basement. It freaks my wife out every time she goes into the basement.
I will probably be dressing this fellow up like a Knight Templar for a painting I am working on. Look for more photos of my new creepy friend in the future.

Big Nasty Castle

I do enjoy drawing big nasty castles when I get the chance.
I got a great opportunity last year when I drew the Harnic castle Benedes.
This castle was built and run by the Agrikans- a religion that worships the evil, fiery, god of war.
The geography and mapping were quite complex, so I definitely was not going to be able to draw this one out of my head.
As is typically done, I was given the maps and a brief description to work from. Usually each floor is mapped out in a top down view. I also get a map of the land on which it is located. Of course all of this stuff goes into the article as well. The maps are always well done, easy to read and great to work from.

Copyright © 2011, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

In the olden times (5 years ago)  I would build a model out of foam core, balsa wood and cardboard. A pretty time intensive process, though I love building models from scratch. Once it was done, I would take it outside in the sun to get the lighting I wanted. I would shoot a ton of photos and do the drawing from the best view.

Nebulon Keep, article illustrated for Kerry Mould.

You can download the full article here- Lythia.com

Not only did building the models from scratch take a lot of time but they were not easy to change if you needed to fix something. Occasionally things will be rewritten or the may be an area that is just not possible if you follow the map.
Now I use a free online 3-D program called Google Sketchup.
Here is Benedes done in Sketch-up. Kerry Mould, one of the writers, helped model some of the mountain and part of the temple for me. I did the keep and added all the details needed to execute the drawing.

Copyright © 2011, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Copyright © 2011, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The nice thing is once you make the 3D model you can set the lighting, choose time of day and even pick an time of year. You can rotate all around the model to find the perfect view. Sketch-up is pretty easy to learn and there are a lot of stock models already online in user library called the Sketchup Warehouse. I occasionally grab another model and just adjust it to my needs. One problem is that if you are like me you can go a bit crazy on the model doing all kinds of detail that is just not needed for the illustration. It is a fun program to play with. There are a lot of good tutorials on You Tube to watch as well. In the image above you can see the catapult on the tower. I built that for another project. As you build, you can save parts as components which will be stored in a folder that you can choose from in other models. So, now I just select my catapult model and place it anywhere.

Copyright © 2011, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Above is the illustration I did using the digital model as a guide. With alchemical shops and lots of weapons being crafted there, I wanted it to look like a factory. So there is a lot of smoke billowing forth.
I added details to the image that I thought would fit the description of the religious group. The crenelation at the top of the wall is sharp and pointy like flames. In the article there was a description of the warriors having developed medieval alchemical weapons. These grenade-type devices are thrown from the walls at the attacking enemy. I designed an arrow loop that would work with the grenades. Actual arrow loops built into castle walls to allow maximum protection to the archers inside the castle, while allowing a good view of the attackers. You may have seen these arrow slots shaped like a cross with larger openings at the ends- for that full range- and of course it had the added benefit of looking like a crucifix. A powerful religious symbol.  Two of the symbols of the Agrikans are the  mace and the octagon. I was able to design a pretty simple shape that is both a cool symbol and is functional for dropping grenades. The shape has the look of an upside down mace shape the head of which is also an octagon- very clever huh?

Copyright © 2011, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The side diagram on the right was not in the article, but is something I sketched out for myself. I figured there would be some sort of stone carved trough  inside where the warrior could set the grenade and just let it roll out on to the attackers below. The head of the mace spits forth these fiery exploding weapons. It could also be used for arrows, but grenades are way cooler.
You can purchase Benedes from Columbia Games here.