Game of Thrones – The Archmaester’s key

About a year after I’ve worked on it, The Archmaester’s Key Game of Thrones chapter pack has finally been released, and as it always happens Fantasy Flight Games was so kind to send me a copy of the printed cards.

I’m quite chuffed that the illustration I made for this chapter pack was also on FFG’s store product page🙂

Working on games for so long means that I should be used to seeing my work being published ages after it’s been delivered.
Yet, so much stuff has been going on since then that I almost struggled to remember what this chapter pack was about.

Reading the old briefs I remembered this was the last job I did with FFG Art Director Deb Freytag (who left the company soon after), with whom I had some really pleasant work relationship over the years.

I also realized that I’m an idiot, as I think I lost the original file for the only piece of art I made for this Game of Thrones project, so I’ll be able to post just the lower res one.

On the good side, this realization (that I lost files a few months ago, not that I’m an idiot), eventually led me to the good practice of running multiple, automatic, redundant back-ups, so losing artwork will hopefully be a thing of the past.

More Game of Thrones art next time.

by Paolo Puggioni

Game of Thrones – Time of Plenty

Time of Plenty is the second illustration I made for Game of Thrones’ Lions of Casterly Rock.
If you want to have a look at the first one I posted, it’s right here.

The brief read: In a blood orange grove in Dorne, a pair of Dornish peasants (one male, one female) pick oranges from the trees. Each of the peasants carries a large basket full of oranges, and the trees in the grove are bursting with fruit.

So this is what I came up with:

I remember that when I read Game of Thrones, Dorne left me with images of Andalucia, or Southern Italy, maybe Sicily.
So that’s pretty much where I got my reference from.

I meant to add some Dornish city in the distance (as you can see from the sketch), but in the end it looked too cluttered so I decided against it.

Again, this was one of the first actual drawing I made with Krita, so I did struggle a bit to get the foliage right.
In fact, I had to make a whole new set of brushes specifically for this drawing.
As soon as I have some time I’ll make them all available for download, likely next week.

by Paolo Puggioni

Golden Tooth

Golden Tooth is the first illustration I made for Lions of Casterly Rock, the latest Game of Thrones game expansion by Fantasy Flight Games.

As I said in my previous post, the card is featured together with Lannisport Treasury on the product page, which, random an event as it may be, is still a small satisfaction:)

As it always happens, the expansion has seen its release quite a long time after the art had been produced for it, as – if I remember correctly – I worked on it almost exactly a year ago.
This was also the very first professional illustration I made with Krita, and I have to admit I was quite nervous about it.

Most of the workflow with Krita is no different to that of many other drawing programs, but still, most of one’s productivity relies on muscle memory, and using new tools and brushes when you are on a deadline tends to make you feel dizzy.
The fact that everything went smooth is what eventually convinced me to stick with Linux in general, and Krita in particular.

What really made me think “ok I’m sold”, however, was the natural feel of the sketch brushes.
The one I used for Golden Tooth has evolved a bit since this sketch was made.
Still, the feeling was already pretty close to that of an actual 5B pencil.

The real struggle started with the rendering.
Getting things to a state I was happy with did take some learning.

My usual procedure would normally imply dropping colours on the canvas very loosely, then using a series of mixing brushes to blend them together and drawing finer details in when needed, close to what you would do with wet-on-wet with oils or acrylics.
The mixing brushes that ship with Krita weren’t quite exactly what I needed, so I did spend some time to create my own.
You can see some of the blending brushwork in these spot.

Another hurdle was making custom brushes for the grass on the hills and the stones of the castle walls.
Still, somehow I managed.

These were admittedly a bit primitive, the ones I’m using now are a lot better, I’ll share them when I can.
Apparently there’s a bug in Krita that prevents bundles from including brush tips, so I have to look into that before I can share my own.

I’ll post the other cards I made for Lions of Casterly Rock next time.

by Paolo Puggioni

Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother

Ok, I will admit that “Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother” is not that catchy as a title.

It is, however, the official name by which this specific event in Beowulf’s saga goes by, so I’ll stick with it.
As a matter of fact, her name isn’t mentioned in the poem, and I did check:)
She’s just Grendel’s Mother, so there you go.

So, this is the second of the three illustrations I made for Legend’s Myths and Whiskey’s upcoming album.

In the story, after having defeated Grendel, Beowulf and his party of warriors pursuit the monster’s mother, who had come out of her lair to avenge the death of her son, and already wreaked havoc around the countryside.

Grendel’s mother also makes the mistake of killing one of Beowulf’s friends and chopping his head off, which gets Beowulf REALLY pissed off.

Following her to her lair under a murky lake, Beowulf and Grendel’s mother finally engage in a mighty battle. She, however, can’t pierce Beowulf’s armor with her claws, while it appears that Beowulf’s weapons have no effect on her though skin.

Luckily, Beowulf will find a magic short sword in the monster’s hoard, and wielding the relic he will eventually cut her head off.

’MID the battle-gear saw he a blade triumphant,
old-sword of Eotens, with edge of proof,
warriors’ heirloom, weapon unmatched,
— save only ’twas more than other men
to bandy-of-battle could bear at all —
as the giants had wrought it, ready and keen.
Seized then its chain-hilt the Scyldings’ chieftain,
bold and battle-grim, brandished the sword,
reckless of life, and so wrathfully smote
that it gripped her neck and grasped her hard,
her bone-rings breaking: the blade pierced through
that fated-one’s flesh: to floor she sank.

The bit I depicted is right after he has grabbed the magic sword and leaps to finish off the monster.
There’s also a passage that tells how the floor had caught fire during the battle, which gave me the chance to add some red glow from below.

Thanks, viking storytellers, that was a nice touch.

Anyway, Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother was the last epic battle of the hero’s prime.
For the rest of his life he will reign on his people as a powerful and wise king.
Until, as an old man, he will pick up his weapons again for a last battle with a giant dragon, which I’ll post about next week.

by paolo Puggioni

Pyromancer

After long thought, I ended up renaming what had been “New_Document1.psd” for more than a year, into the much catchier “Pyromancer”.

I was very happy about the new name.
I mean, it is very clever if you think about it.
I had discarded “Fire Queen”, “Fire Sorceress”, “Fireballs Juggler” and all the variations of those, when the genius finally struck me.
PYRO! Like, you now, FIRE. And MANCER! Like a Necromancer, but with flames!
PYROMANCER! I’m so brainy! It’s a new word! I made up a new word, and it’s not even my first language!

Then I checked on Google, and it looks like every game with even a little bit of Fantasy spin has a character called Pyromancer.
There are also several books with a pyromancer in it.
Hell, there’s an actual word in ancient Greek for it: Pyromancy – the art of divination by fire.
I’m sure there must be Zippo pyromancer-shaped lighters too.
Oh yes, and of course let’s not forget about Melisandre.
So well, I made up a word that’s been there for almost three thousands years.
Just, all by myself.

So there you go, behold what, unbeknownst to me, is one of the most overused cliches of Fantasy Art in general.
I just care to point out this is not a Darksouls, or a Heartstone or a Skyrim piece of fan art.

It’s just me being unimaginative.

Now, on top of that, I also have to say that this illustration has been a massive thorn in my side for more than a year and a half.

I had started it as a lunchbreak time-filler back when I was at Jagex.
I remember thinking that I could have tried making something nice and polished, for a change.
Something I had actually spent time on.

The days passed, the season changed, and I would work like 5 minutes at a time on this lunch-break project, between a peak at reddit and a bite at a sandwich.

Then I moved to another company, and to a new house, and a new town, and every now and then I would come across this 80% finished illustration and think “aw, I should finish this”, and I would add maybe another 1% to the final result.

Then I changed computer, worked on freelance assignments, start and finish several things, and still every now and then this thing would pop up, demanding a few minutes of my attention.

Long story short, this pyromancer has been sitting in my WIP folder for longer than I care to remember, so yesterday I thought “fuck it, I now declare you finished” and finally sent her on her way.

by Paolo Puggioni

Sacrifice to the Kraken

I’ve always had a thing for the myth of the Kraken.
I would almost go as far as saying that I’m obsessed by it, except it’s not like I think about it all the time, or that I daydream about it, or that I play with small action figures of a Kraken swallowing a tiny ship full of horrified little sailors.

So, I won’t. Let’s go back to my first statement: I’ve always had a thing for the myth of the Kraken.

It’s not difficult to imagine how it came into existence, is it?
I figure that the very first time puny humans ventured out to the unfamiliar sea, on a flimsy, floating chunk of wood, they stared nervously down to the dark depths and wondered “what if there’s a giant monster down there?”.

Hell, I wondered that myself when, scuba diving off the West coast of Sardinia, I suddenly found myself out of shallow waters, staring into a dark, impenetrable depth.
I imagined a giant mouth coming out of the dark, from below, big enough to fill my field of view. And then I swam back to the shore, because I am chicken.

And it’s not like the Mediterranean is deep and full of predators. The worst you can find is probably a school of tuna.

Anyway, I was having these thoughts the other day while doodling during my lunch break at work, and I came up with this.

Kraken aside, I figured this scene might have happened at some point, right?
Primitive people sacrificing some poor sod to keep the Kraken well fed, and prevent it from shifting its attention to the fishing fleets.

It may have happened multiple times, I dare say.
Imagine you’re a primitive guy, and you just sacrificed some other guy to the Gods of the Sea. Clearly since a Kraken didn’t actually show up you MUST have done something right!

Anyway, bonus content:

The single and only reason why I would really like to be a God is to have the chance to command someone to RELEASE THE KRAKEN.

by Paolo Puggioni

My Pathfinder Cards Have Arrived!

I normally disapprove of exclamation marks in post titles, but really, my Pathfinder cards have arrived!

This is, after all, the difference between working for something that you eventually get to play on a computer, and something that gets actually printed out and sent home: the exclamation marks when they arrive, and obviously the smell.

Whoa, I didn’t remember them being so many. I recall now how freakishly busy that month has been.
I had worked on these two Pathfinder modules quite some time ago. Last year, in fact, but they have been released only recently.

The first set is Tears at Bitters Manor: When retired adventurer Taergan Flinn doesn’t show up to meet with his old companions, the PCs are called upon to investigate, leading them into a swirling maelstrom of horror and tragedy. Can the PCs unmask and confront the malevolent entity behind the madness and restore hope to a tortured land?

All the artwork in the module has a grim sense of foreboding, which is definitely suitable for this slightly darker module.

The second Pathfinder module I got is the Emerald Spire, which is part of The Emerald Spire Superdungeon, and I’ve also just noticed that one of my images has been picked as a cover for the card set:)

For ages untold, a gemstone monolith has pierced the heart of the Echo Wood. Now, as civilization intrudes upon this enigmatic splinter, a strange life once again stirs in the depths—one with ties to undying evils and a might beyond time itself. The promise of wealth and power calls to glory-seekers from across the Inner Sea region, tempting them into a labyrinth of monster-haunted vaults, defiled tombs, arcane laboratories, and worse, as they seek to unveil the secrets locked below the legendary Emerald Spire.

So, in the next few days I’ll post part of the images I’ve made for these last cards sets. As I said, there’s a whole bunch of stuff still sitting on my hard drive that I’m planning to publish soon, so you’ll be seeing some more soon.

by Paolo Puggioni

More Pathfinder Artwork

This is another illustration I made for Pathfinder, again for the Player Companion: Dragonslayer’s Handbook.

Just like the last illustration I posted, the canvas aspect ratio was quite awkward, and I had a hard time figuring out how to pose the characters.

For some time I fiddled a bit with the idea of drawing the Angel further away in the distance, to show more of his wings. Then I thought “why the hell do you want to show ALL of his wings in a vertical canvas?”.
So I ended up stacking the figures on top of each other, which worked nicely in the end.

As far as the composition goes, I OBVIOUSLY strived to lead the viewer’s eye in a circular movement.
Hell, the next step would have been carving actual arrows on the Magus’ blade and maybe tattooed along his arm.
The thing is, the canvas is shaped in such a way that it’s easy to “get lost” and not know exactly where to look at. Which, in turn, would result in an uninteresting and ultimately unenjoyable image.

By the way, since I kept the sketch, here it is, because why not.

Now, as far as the colours go, I have to confess I had to cheat a bit.
The ambient lighting is obviously the directional light that comes from the setting sun, which should have resulted in high contrast surfaces with a very warm and a very cold side.

However, there was also the strong cold light created by the bolt of energy cast by the Magus, which in turn would have cooled down the lit surfaces and warmed up the shaded ones.

What to do? Simple, stop giving a crap! I used a just slightly warm diffuse light for both figures, and proceeded to scatter around almost unjustified highlights and rim lights as if they were ten a penny.

Not something I would bring to a convention about Science of Colour And Light Applied To Digital Painting. However, I’m under the impression that had I used a more scientific approach the result would have been messier, so in the end I don’t feel that guilty.

So there, this was another piece of artwork fished from my Pathfinder folder. More to come in the next few days.

by Paolo Puggioni