SMILE INTENSIFIES

• WTF GET ME OUTTA HERE

Heroes Feast

In this project I was asked to make several illustrations of an entire DnD party, portraying memorable moments of their adventures so far.One simple illustration and head-shot portrait per character + a refined group shot illustration. Being able to flesh the same characters in different scenes, and the fact that this one player of their group asked me to make such cool gift for his group, made this commission to be particularly pleasant to work with!

"After gauntlets of challenges, the party managed to come on top, even defeating an elder brain! For sure their tales won't be forgotten any time soon, nor will be the huge feast given in their honor for it hosted too many embarrassing memories, drunkard declarations and the finest food around to enjoy the show!"

The main course of the meal, the group shot! Even though it had the most straight forward briefing, it was by far the hardest execution. The group should be together feasting, in what might look like a family's party photo. The catch though was how big and detailed this picture needed to be, with each character being as big (if not bigger) than what I usually did for full-body character drawings. Challenging, but very fun to make them interacting like this bringing forth a bit of their personalities.

"They always had their issues, and one too many drinks later the animosity turned into a much more heated discussion than anyone could have ever expected, much less a father disintegrating his own son. Devian was killed just like that with his father looking down on him, but he kept true to the end as a cleric. He went not in what seemed defeat, but a final embrace of his god's light. "

Albeit the tragedy of the scene, this one should feel calm and regal. We tried other camera angles, but they ended up looking like he either was 'ascending' or being sacrificed. The way it is we managed to show there was a fight, that he was defeated, and yet accepting his fate and basking one final time in the light.

"We don't care who you are or how many of your goons corners us. To our friend, you gave anguish. To us, a loss that will be mourned 'till our last breath. To you though? I'll deliver tenfold and then some the suffering you caused ! "

They were not about to leave like that what happened to their friend, and so any mourning tears on Moira's face evaporated into scorching fury. Another very straight forward briefing asking to represent all the fury in her face, tense muscles and posture! Probably the simplest of the batch but also the most fun since I really like painting fire hehe

"His companions were either frozen or about to kick the bucket, so it was up to Ollie saving the group from what would have been a catastrophic encounter with an elder brain. A do or die moment, with a desperate determination and a guitar in his hands, he managed to blast away a miraculous fireball finishing the job his party so earnestly fought together to achieve, saving everyone by an inch."

Ollie is a fame-seeking bard, one very eccentric at that! As tense as the moment was, we wanted something glorious and flamboyant, so it was an easy decision going for a movie poster(ish) composition, with his back turned to us, posing and playing his guitar like nothing else matters in the world. It's his moment on the spotlight. This illustration precedes chronologically the dinner picture and it's the reason such commemoration was thrown in their honor on the first place!

"Back agains the wall, Arnen could barely stand. Alton surely was no foe to be faced alone, but what options did he have besides that? Certainly not death, for only a fool would choose that."

Separated from his group, alone against a boss NPC, Arnen was NOT supposed to come out alive... and yet, lucky blessed him. The client wanted his struggle represented in all its intensity. It was night, raining, barely lit by a single torch. In the light you see him trying to put up a fight, but going towards the shadows you can see the truth: his armor is coming undone, his clothes tattered, his left hand unusable. The cherry on the top was framing him using the enemy's hip and arm; we can only feel his menace, and Arnen is dwarfed in comparison.

"As a destiny's mockery, there he was again, in the same inn as him. Arnen could not believe, but a fight was inevitable... Although since both were without their armors, Arnen may stand a chance...? Either way he would try his best to turn this misfortune into a stroke of luck."

A second illustration for Arnen, he again faces the boss from the previous picture. Both of then fell by the end of it, but with incredible dice luck only Arnen survived. I thought about playing with their positions reversing the previous illustration and put Arnen on the left instead, but I felt it made him more imposing than it should. All the cards were against him, he was much weaker than the enemy in a volatile situation; feeling which we wanted to represent. Even if ever so slightly, I tried making the boss on the left a bit more imposing, his posture doesn't being as broken as Arnen's and he also had his lightning attack, but compared to the last time, this time he is visible in the frame within sword's reach. Arnen on the other hand has his clothes even more torn than the boss', the sword piercing his chest with more impact and blood gushing, his hands going limp; if someone were to bet on the winner after witnessing such fight, they'd bet on the boss to get up and survive. And yet, the lucky underdog won.
Arnen got 2 illustrations for him, but hey, Arnen's player was the one who commissioned all this! He deserves it!

Every character got their own illustration, so they could not leave their DM without a gift as well! I was asked to make head-shot portraits of them to use for icons and such, and the idea hit me to turn this into a poster with a representation of their DM. For sure, the last cherry on top!

Bellow you can check some of the skeches and process for these pieces! Sadly I lost a lot of the thumbs I made for them, but with everything together it should give a good idea of my process.

Rissé's Respite

A particular intimate moment to illustrate. Astana is a bard-dancer known for her enthusiasm and contagious smile, wearing the most intricate of face and body paintings. Behind closed doors though, she still dealt with the scars reminiscent of the fire that took so much from her.The client wanted a redesign and illustration for this character. At first we tried some gleeful and lively poses, but since he already had a happy drawing of Astana we decided it would be a nice contrast working on this very introspective moment of Astana taking care of her scars; away from the spotlights in silence.

_"A dancer, a bard, and a sisterly caretaker for the children.
Astana was one of the many children raised by the tender embrace of Mama Rissé at the orphanage. It's said to be impossible visiting any town around their orphanage without bumping into one of the children cared by Mama, all proudly adopted the 'Rissé' surname as they grew!
Sadly, tragedy struck. As a fire happened at the orphanage, Astana ran and struggled the best she could managing to save many of the children... but one can only do so much. Mama gave her life pushing Astana away, because even as her body scorched and burned, Astana had no intention of leaving their mother behind and would die trying._Astana took a long time before accepting what happened. A dancer, a bard and a mourner, her smile and energetic self slipped from her. We all learn how to get up, and eventually so did she; wearing a smile, doing intricate designs and paintings to cover her scars, she decided to keep on dancing to raise the funds to rebuild the orphanage, as well as traveling to let her siblings around the country know what happened and pay their respects to Mama."

Later on, I was asked to work again on this character. This time a clothing redesign and a head-shot.Her new clothes should be fitting for cold places and current developments.
She was now a cleric, so I was asked to both represent this in its appearance, create the symbol for her god based on an eye shape and roses, but yet feel somewhat mobile and flowing; she was still a bard after all. And lastly but not least, her dragon-slaying rapier needed to be designed.
I also got the chance to work on her face painting and new hairstyle in the head-shot!