Messing with Ink: Ningauble

So I've been meaning for a while now to play around with ink again, and last night I had a bit of extra time so started up this small drawing. I wasn't sure where to start since I haven't really used ink since school, but I had an extra piece of clay board lying around so I started with a quick pencil sketch on that. Then, I went in with a brush for the larger black areas, and detailed it out with Micron pen in some areas and scratched away with an x-acto (SO much better than those crap scratchboard nibs I had in school). I had a lot of fun messing around on this and I hope to continue to play with it in the future. The character is Ningauble of the Seven Eyes from the stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. 

5"x7" ink on clayboard

Princess of the Underworld Advanced

Last week I shared a new painting I had done for the app game Legend of the Cryptids. This week I'm sharing the second "advanced" version of the Princess of the Underworld. 

 In this version the princess went from being a more sympathetic non-threatening character to more powerful and intimidating. Her beloved skull from the "normal" version is also now incorporated into her staff, and she's brought all of hell to the fight. I definitely had a great time working on this one.

12"x16" Oil on illustration board

I'd also like to thank the AD, Misako, she was really a joy to work with. I think some American companies could take a cue from the Japanese. They really treat artists with respect and professionalism. 

Princess of the Underworld

It seems strange that lately I've been doing more and more work, and yet, I have less and less that I can share with you. 

Well, I guess something is better than nothing. 
I've just been informed that I can share some art I did for digital "card game" app, Legend of the Cryptids. Creating card art for a digital app game is somewhat of a new a thing lately, with quite a few similar games popping up over the past year or two. The idea of the game is that you collect various character cards through "quests" where you pit your characters against the computers, and earn rewards by defeating various levels of monsters and bosses. Now the interesting part for me as an artist is that each card is able to be evolved by combining two of the same character. Thus, it requires two pieces of art that start as a "normal" version of a character and somehow upgrade into an awesomer "advanced" version once it is evolved. I'll talk a little more about the evolution process in my next post.

But for now, lets talk about the "normal" version. Princess of the Underworld is her card name, but instead of having her be all dark and evil (which is probably where I would've went) they wanted her to be a bit more sympathetic. So outside of that, they didn't give much in the way of scene or character design direction, which was nice for a change. Anyway, here's what she ended up looking like.

12"x16" Oil on panel, digital additions

Next up, I'll share how she evolved in the "advanced" version.