Merry Christmas!

Well, another year is nearly gone here at Curmudgeons & Dragons. I want to thank everyone who visits here all those who have enjoyed my posts. I certainly have enjoyed posting my drawings for everyone and look forward to another big year.

I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season!

Steve

Sneaking one in there...

Some images are spawned by things you read, or something someone says or just the way someone holds their lunch in their hands. This one was inspired by needing an image of a thief that could only be an inch or so high on the page. I didn't want to make him tiny, and I didn't want to just do a head and shoulders type portrait. Thus, we get the thief crouched in front of a lock. I think it made him more "thiefy", especially having him hidden in heavy robes. Plus, I love to draw drapery.

Chemicals are our friends

Spent yesterday drawing, which was a treat since I felt good enough to do it. Some of you might be aware, I am undergoing chemotherapy for metastatic colon cancer. Treatments are going really well, though, so I get to take a week or two off for the holidays. Usually during treatments, I don't feel good enough to do anything but sleep. This week, I was awake and active and could actually get some things done. Don't know if it's the medicine or God's healing, but I'll take it!

Another excerpt from Labyrinth Lord Revised.

Tiger tiger..

This is one of the images appearing in Labyrinth Lord Revised, (soon available in a game store near you). Dan asked for a weretiger, and I couldn't make a "tigerman" drawing look interesting enough. I thought this was a better approach, though the urge to make the noses of the two faces line up was fairly overpowering.

Now that's a big frog..

Toad, actually. The last session of Labyrinth Lord I ran, my player ran into a giant toad. Her and her henchmen put up a valiant battle, but many of them were eaten. You wouldn't think a big amphibian would cause that much trouble, would you?

The rest of her henchmen were killed later by a giant leech. But, you'll excuse me if I don't draw one of those. They give me the creeps...Yick.

Maybe this will finally get it out of my system.....

Still getting it out of my system...

Some things get stuck in your head and you need to let them out. I've been doing a lot of thinking about Star Trek lately, mostly on the gaming side, and this is where I'm at today. Been tinkering with Federation Commander and rereading my old FASA Trek books, along with the TOS Last Unicorn version.

The thing that always annoyed me about the Enterprise was just the odd shapes the ship has. That saucer with it's odd curves and just tinkering with perspectives to get the nacelles to look right. I'm not saying I have, but this is the ship that showed up in my notebooks most often in grade school.

Happy Halloween!

Don't eat all your candy at once!

Getting it out of my system.

I've got lots of things I need to get drawn. This was not one of them, but I've had this Barsoom thing floating around in my head lately, and sometimes the best way to get rid of something is just to draw it.

So, here we are. You'll notice the gunner has interesting proportions; it might be the gravity on the Red Planet, or an overexposure to the 8th ray or something...

Relics of the Past

So I was reading Grognardia last night, and James is talking about maps and mapping. When I was a young pup (15 or 16 years old, which was awhile ago) I seemed to have endless patience for making dungeon maps; spending hours on them to the exclusion of homework or sleep.

This is, sadly, the only remaining artifact of my obsessive mapping days: a single level of a Martian Palace. This was put together using the tables from the Dragon magazine article " Deserted Cities of Mars" by Jim Ward, and you can spot some of the notes scrawled on the map confirming that this was supposed to have had four floors with 5 towers for egg incubation. I'm particularly fond of the ramp going to the next level in the center, with the secret passage to a ramp leading into the lower levels, obviously lit by eternal radium bulbs.

Obviously.

Bugbear with pants

I've always liked the somewhat comical bugbears that Erol Otus would draw, and I saw no reason not to follow suit. There are plenty of terrifying, horrific monsters in gaming; I can do a funny one.

This was inspired by Otherworlds Miniatures Bugbears, which are so awesome, but could use some pants.

Anyone here read Portugese?

I have a piece appearing in Old Dragon Fast Play Test, a free RPG in Portuguese by Antonio Sá Neto, Daniel Ramos and Fabiano Neme.

The book itself looks pretty cool, and I can figure out a few things here and there (things like "Paralisia ou petrificação" in the saving throw spots). I'm proud to be sort of in another language in another part of the world.

Some people will tell you the "Golden Age" of RPGs was in the late 70's and early 80's. I'm telling you, with the amazing variety of games and ideas from all over the world that surround us everyday, THIS is the Golden Age of the RPG. And it's really pretty cool.

I think I can post this now...

This year I came in 3rd in the B&W illustration section of Fight On's Erol Otus Challenge and won some cool minis. This was my entry, which I owe thanks not only to S. John Ross' Encounter Critical for not minding me dropping Thrazar's name, but also to one of my readers here.

I forget who, but someone commented that my stuff reminded them of comic panels, and asked if I did that kind of work. (I usually don't) This got me thinking of some of the cheap b&w sci-fi comics I used to read when I was a kid. In particular, this issue of this magazine.



I remember some fairly tacky stories in here, but very gritty and well drawn. And it did cast me back to do something about Thrazar, whom I believe could have appeared in this magazine without problem. Hence, our post today. Thanks, readers!

Emerging into the light....

Labyrinth Lord Revised is now available on Lulu, RPGNOW and will soon at YourGamesNow!
Go get yours!

Where I have been all this time.

Finally, the secret project can be revealed! Get all the scoop from Dan Procter here

My favorite goblin

This little guy is from the cover art for the upcoming Advanced Edition Characters for Labyrinth Lord. I don't know if it's the helmet, or the look on his face, but I think he's the best bit in there.

Lazy Saturday...Let's play in the sandbox...

There's been a lot of talk on old school blogs about "sandbox play", which I think is pretty cool to discuss, even though old school players were doing this all along and just didn't know there was a name for it. I've never been very good at creating game worlds whole cloth, but I can fill in a hexagon or two here and there...

Anyway, enough chatter: time to get back to work!

Delving the depths of busy!

If I haven't been posting in awhile, it's not for lack of doing anything! Things here have been thick between family and work and new projects (not to mention SECRET projects!) , but I will try to get a few more things posted in the near future.

Fight On! #5 is out!

Issue # 5 of Fight On! has been released and it's a cool looking one for sure! I have two little bits in this issue, and the quantity and quality of the art you see in FO (by all artists involved, not just me! ) just keeps getting better and better! This keeps raising the bar to which I feel I need to perform to, which is good for everyone involved.

Anyway, I'm proud to be involved with Fight On!, and you need to go buy a copy right now!

By Thrazar, Erol Otus gave me a prize!

Winners were announced for the Erol Otus Art Challenge, presented by Fight On!. There were a lot of really cool entries, and yours truly came in 3rd in the Black and White category! I have to admit, it was pretty cool to know that Erol Otus picked my drawing.

I can only show a smidgen of the image I submitted. To see this and all the winners in their full glory, you'll need to wait for Fight On #5 to be released! Congrats to all the winners and all those who submitted and made the contest a big success!

Back at it with Goblins..

I had a bit of a hiatus for awhile, but now I'm going to try to get more things posted again. The last thing I completed was for the Erol Otus Art Challenge, which I can't post without getting disqualified as per the rules of the contest. But this one, I think I'm safe with.

This is part of a project I'm working on with the Unstoppable Sham. These little guys look like trouble to me.

The Martians have landed!

I know I haven't been the best at posting lately, but life has been weird. These Martians, created out of bits of free figures by Patrick Crusiau, (except for the Grey "man" above, which I had to create whole-cloth) are what I've been doing for the past week. They were created to be used with Adamant Entertainment's Mars, which just has been released for use with Savage Worlds.

To use them, download them here, fold each figure along the center line, sandwich-fold and glue them, and trim them, leaving about a 1/8 of an inch of white space. Trim to the red line at the bottom of the figure. Then, go to One Monk's great figure site, download the "Mars" figure bases and use those to base them.

These aren't exactly "Old School", but they could find a use in a lot of old school games. (Warriors of Mars, anyone?) Anyway, feel free to use them!

Eat, drink and be Mary

A sneak peek at upcoming art for Fight On #4. Note that the wizard and the hobbit finally found some friends!

A brush with the past...

Back in college, it was the "thing" at the time to draw with a brush instead of a pen. It gives a nice flowing line and also helps when you can't get your damned tech pens unclogged. This was for an issue of Footprints from Dragonsfoot.

Failing my FART roll....

Is it just me, or does this guy have his chainmail tucked into his pants? Looks painful. Hopefully whatever is at the bottom of that pit will take his mind off of it.

Phase 4: Oh Crap...

In working on this drawing, I made one big error: not finding out more from the one who ordered it. When we last left off, I had thought this drawing was in the can and done. Then I find that I've made a big error: the chateau is supposed to be a ruin, not a nice looking building.

Parts of the second floor needed to be collapsed. Luckily, GIMP was there to rescue me and I didn't have to resort to anything drastic. Still, I thnk it turned out well.

Phase 3: Chateau!

After finishing the inks on the horses, it was time to add the Chatueu itself. Working from maps that James had given me, I figured what angle the building would be from this vantage and there you go! I had a lot of fun doing the clay tile roof, though I got off on my rows here and there.

But we're still not done!

Next time: Fables of the Deconstruction!

Phase 2: Go to Black

Next up: Inks! Using a #1 nib, I start inking in the sketch. You'll notice this is where the detail bits get thrown in. I never bother with those in the initial sketch. I like to block out angles and general shapes there and get down to the nitty gritty with the ink.

Two notes: These are hippocampuses, not hippogriffs as I posted last (At least I got hippo...) Also, I give hippocampuses hooves. I see a lot of drawings of them with these little, delicate flippers on the end of their giant, powerful legs. Looks like they wouldn't last long to me!

One more note: This was the first drawing I'd ever done with horses in it. Just never done it before. I had to do a lot of research on how horses are put together for this drawing. I'm happy with it, though!

Next time: We conquer the Chatuea!

Evolution of a drawing: Phase 1

Okay, so I haven't posted in a loooong time! I got stuck on a drawing awhile back, and then got busy, and you know how the rest!

I've decided to do a three part post on the evolution of a drawing. Today we start with an image I did for James
Maliszewski's "Cursed Chateau".

He had asked for a drawing of a three tiered fountain in a courtyard. He wanted the fountain to have hippogriffs on it somehow. I got the idea of having the hippogriffs supporting the tiers of the fountain with their tails. The drawing above is the rough I sent to James for approval.

Tomorrow: Inks!