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.

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.

Big Catch

The next HarnQuest is coming out very soon. I have all the art done (only about 2 months past due) but I had other Harn related stuff to do -so give me a freaking break will you!

Floating to Freedom, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Actually I will post about some of that other Harn / Gen Con related stuff next.
This issue of HarnQuest will contain Menekai, Patrel and the Salt route.
Menekai has never been illustrated. The rough looking Larga Gydsilen has been shown in Rethem, but the castle and its surroundings had not. I started with Sketchup model drawn over the maps by Oddgeir Drevdal.
Often things are found in modeling that helps us draw better maps. One discovery was that the north tower and walls are in mid construction. I had modeled them too high. Brent pointed this out and we realized the maps really should have scaffolding and some signs of construction. The corrections were made.
Here is the cool flyover animation I did of the model once I had something in mind.

Once the model is complete, I pick a view that I think will look best and gives a good flavor to the place. I wanted to show the metalworks, with the smelting furnaces going, and the charcoaler piles smoldering. I decided to show a boy fishing as a dead body floats by, probably from the slave quarters. I would imagine with the harsh conditions of this place, slaves don't last long. A lazy guard may just decide to toss the body in the river rather than deal with it. I use Sketchups rough 3d figures as stand-ins.

Menekai Sketchup screen shot

After I do a sketch, I ink it, scan the image in photoshop and start coloring. I usually create some layers for the major units of the image. The inked layer is on top set to multiply. I had a sky layer, a water layer, a town layer, foreground layer, boy/body layer, and a water reflection layer -which was the town layer selected, filled with a gradient, vertically flipped and set to multiply over the water layer.
All this gets painted in broad strokes, working towards detail. I often add some multiply layers to get darker and add some mood.
I thought I was done.

Floating to Freedom (minus mood), Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

One of the writers pointed out the image was not dark enough in mood, and possibly in value. That the place should feel dirtier. After my attempts to get that person fired failed, I thought maybe I should consider this criticism.
I do like contrast in subject matter. So a sunny scene of a kid fishing with a dead body floating by had a touch of that. I figured a bit more mood could help, plus I keep forgetting my promise to myself to do more rain scenes. Harn is a wet place. Adding a rain texture gave it the miserable mood that was needed. I had to darken some things, like the kids wet clothes, add some splashes resulting in the image you see at the top of the page.

Look for a few more posts soon. I will try to keep up on this blog more. Let me know if there are any topics you'd like to see covered.

Xerle Chapterhouse

The next HarnQuest will be printed this Tuesday with shipping beginning shortly after. This release has a nice variety of articles including Arathel Castle, Onden Keep, Ruins on the Silver Way, and Xerle Chapterhouse of the Checkered Shield (an expansion to the Dyrisa article).

I thought I would post about some of the work from Xerle.

"Xerle is a chapterhouse of the Order of the Checkered Shield. The order holds the manor from the Serekela (archbishop) of Kanday. Xerle is home to a commandery, or half-chapter, of five melana (knights) and 10 meken (common men-at-arms). The Xerle chapter is charged with patrolling the King’s Way."

Morning Patrol Gathering, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

First thing I do, after skimming the article of course, is to load the map into Google Sketchup and rough out a model of the complex. I do tend to get carried away on these models since it is kind of blast to do, but I am getting pretty fast and have a collection of components stored I can reuse. Sketchup has a cool animation feature which makes it very easy to do a quick fly around of the model.

The idea for the cover page image was to have the Larani soldiers gathering for the morning patrol. Of course "Chivalry, honor, and duty are characteristics of the Order of the Checkered Shield, a fighting order dedicated to the goddess Larani, the Shieldmaiden of the Worthy Cause", but that doesn't mean they are above stringing up some poor bastard in the woods to coax out some answers.
I did an image of the patrol questioning a suspect. At first drew him being strung up by the neck. I figured it was confusing and looks too much like they are administering frontier justice. 
 

A few questions, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I changed it to the having him being painfully hoisted with his arms behind his back. Also, it's probably easier to answer questions this way than with a rope around your neck.
As the process is sometimes in flux, writing and art happening together. That with my desire to cram art into every orifice of the article resulted in me drawing an image that would not fit into the latest article. So, I had to squeeze that tree down a bit to fit the space. 

Here is the final image with some color. Pretty sure this guy will talk.

A few questions, Copyright © 2015, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I also did a fly around of the image of Onden Castle for your enjoyment.

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.

Thay Jeweler

The next HarnQuest is done and should be shipping very soon. I thought I would post a few screen shots of the Sketchup models I made as reference for the articles, the first oddly was a model I ended up not even using. I was going to do an exterior view of the building, but ended up doing an interior personality shot instead.
But since I did the work, here are the models for the Jeweler [B9] located right outside the castle gates in Thay. 
Here is a view from the castle wall.

Thay sketchup model
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Here are two other views.

Thay sketchup model- Jeweler
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Thay sketchup model- Jeweler
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The illustration I ended up doing shows the assistants dumping out the blank coins from the mold and the other stamping the designs into the silver.

Thay Jeweler, the assistants, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Having read the article there are a few adventure hooks that could be taking in a few directions. I added a touch of emotion to the image. The assistant on the right seems a bit worried. What is that about? Well, let's leave that up to the game master.