+Damian Jankowski asked me if I could illustrate the cover art for his new DW playbook, The Prophet. Damian already has two excellent playbooks out for sale on DriveThruRPG called The Damned and The Cloak respectively. I didn't create the art for those playbooks, but I've been hired to work on The Prophet, and I'm really excited to be doing this piece!
Damian said he doesn't mind me sharing my WIPs, so I've been posting them on G+ as part of #dailycreative, and I wanted to share them again here.
Here are the first, preliminary thumbnails for the illustration.
07.15.14
07.16.14
07.17.14
As soon as I get the green light on the final thumbnail/direction, I'm going to get started on the large, 8.5x11" piece for the final illustration. The thumbnails are still pretty rough, but I'll fix all the details and clean it up for the final. This is already proving to be a fun journey, and I'm thrilled to have been given a chance to work on this.
07.18.14
One reason I love posting WIPs on G+ as part of #dailycreative is that other artists can offer critique, insight, and helpful suggestions such as trying out an orange background to help make the violet colors stand out more. I may not always follow other people's advice, but if it helps me, I certainly will.
+Adrian Thoen has been extremely helpful on G+ and I thank him greatly for it. He's also been sharing some awesome artwork as part of his #dailycreative exercises and posting videos of his process on his YouTube channel.
+Adrian Thoen has been extremely helpful on G+ and I thank him greatly for it. He's also been sharing some awesome artwork as part of his #dailycreative exercises and posting videos of his process on his YouTube channel.
Anyway, the final thumbnail has been greenlit, so I started sketching the large, 8.5 x 11" image out, but I really wasn't happy with the initial construction and composition.
07.21.14
I didn't get a chance to work on the piece over the weekend, but my sister was kind enough to pose as the Prophet so that I could take some reference photos with candlelight. Tonight, I redid the sketch from scratch, and I'm much happier with the result. I also added some really rough shadows to get a sense of the lighting. The next step is to clean the piece up, ink it, redo the shading, add color, and it should be done before the end of the week. I only have a few hours each day to work on it, but I seem to be getting more done in less time with each passing day. I definitely call that progress! More updates to come.
07.24.14
I didn't have much time to work on this the past few days, but I finally got most of the inking done tonight. Some elements still need work, and I'm working on redoing clean shading and highlights next, followed by some minimal color and adding the title bar in the end. I'm shooting to finish this piece by the end of the weekend.
I quickly added in the background, but I'll probably redo it as well. I'm including four versions here: one with the BG and energy lines, one with the BG and no energy lines, one without the BG but with energy lines, and one without the BG and without energy lines.
I quickly added in the background, but I'll probably redo it as well. I'm including four versions here: one with the BG and energy lines, one with the BG and no energy lines, one without the BG but with energy lines, and one without the BG and without energy lines.
07.26.14
I've been watching YouTube videos by Jonathan Rector, whose art and workflow has really inspired me. I first found out about him after backing the PbtA superhero RPG, Worlds in Peril, since he's working on art for that game.
Here, I took some workflow tips from Jonathan and started working on the shadows for this piece.
07.27.14
I continued working on the shadows with cross hatching for mid-tones, and I added some minimal color. Here are a few versions I did based on what was requested.
Damian was pretty happy, but he felt the background still distracted from the foreground, which I completely agreed with. He also felt that the piece was still lacking some energy and gave me a brilliant suggestion, so I took his advice and tried a lens blur effect with a Screen blending mode after darkening the background, reworking the hands, some of the hair, shadows, minute details, and adding a brighter candlelight coming out from under the card.
In the end, this is the final, completed piece, which I absolutely love. Damian's really happy with it too, and he's going to work on the layout for the rest of it (title bar, The Prophet title, illustration credits, etc.)
All in all, this has been an extremely fun and fairly challenging commission for not having worked on any commissions in a long while. I do need to work more on my speed and efficiency, but I've only been back into my art for a month now, and I learned a ton while making this piece which is what really matters.
Damian has been an awesome person to work with, and it's been a real pleasure creating this piece. I definitely look forward to doing more future commissions for him, whether it be DW playbooks or something else entirely, and I can't wait to see The Prophet playbook hit the digital shelves of DriveThruRPG in the near future!
If you play Dungeon World, and you're looking for some awesome playbooks, I highly suggest checking Damian's previous playbooks, The Damned and The Cloak. Both are on DriveThruRPG. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=6935
You can also find Damian's playbooks on his website, Semi Dark Arts.
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