New Paintings: Revival King

Here's another set of characters that was recently released for the Japanese game I've been working on "Rage of Bahamut." They wanted a mummified king in various stages of coming back to life and commanding an undead army. I liked that I was able to throw in some made-up Egyptian inspired costuming, and also paint lots of zombie-mummy dudes...I mean, you can't go wrong in my book. 

Stage 1  11" x 14" Oil on masonite.

Stage 2  11" x 14" Oil on masonite.

Stage 3  11" x 14" Oil on masonite.

Stage 4  11" x 14" Oil on masonite.

Mimir and Spectrum Live

Here's another set of guys I did for the game Rage of Bahamut last year. This character is based on the Norse god Mímir who resides near a well of knowledge. All who drink from his well must leave a gift as payment for a sip from his drinking horn. In this version I wanted to have him also be sort of a forest spirit who is friends with all of the animals. As usual, I've enjoyed doing these various stages of a character. I've left out one of the stages here because I really don't like it....Can't always win.

12" x 14.5" Oil on masonite.

12" x 14.5" Oil on masonite.

12" x 14.5" Oil on masonite.

In other news, I'll have a booth again at the upcoming Spectrum Live Convention in Kansas City next week. I'm bringing prints, some Magic artist proofs (hopefully more if they come in the mail), and original drawings and paintings. I'll be at booth 515 and just next to the Muddy Colors group so come stop by and say hey!

The Evolution of Grendel

Hey folks, today I'm happy to share a "new" set that I did over a year ago for Cygames' card app game: Rage of Bahamut. As with the Skull Soldiers I posted last year, the idea is to take a given character and sort of evolve them over a series of four stages. It's always a fun challenge to take an already somewhat over-the-top character and push them further with each step. For this one we have a guy named Grendel...I'm not sure if he's supposed to be related to the Beowulf Grendel, but in any case they just said that he was a large beast man with an axe that lives in the forest and his "skin" is more like exposed muscle. So off I went:

All of the paintings are 10"x12" Oil on masonite. 

The originals are available for purchase, please contact me at murphyillustration@gmail.com if interested. 

Skull Soldiers

My, how time flies when you're busy! 

Between school and general freelance work i've been running like a madman these past couple of months. Luckily, in all of the lack of time to post anything here, lots of things have become available for me to finally show you. So hopefully i'll have time to get those things up more regularly for you.

First off, back in the fall of last year I started working with mobile gaming company Cygames, creating art for a card game called Rage of Bahamut. Though I think my work only appears in the Japanese version so far. It's a free app, so check it out if you want.

Similar to work I have done in the past for the Legend of the Cryptids game, the idea is that the player starts with a basic version of each character. Then by combining versions of the same card, the character is upgraded to an advanced version. With Bahamut however, the character can upgrade four times. So four illustrations are needed. 

My character was a basic skull soldier called Hell Lord Skeleton in-game. As far as i'm concerned if I can get a skull or skeleton in an image, it can't get any better. But it can! They wanted a skeleton leading an army of skeletons! And they are all being controlled by some kind of necromancer. So the idea was to start with a normal version that didn't have too many frills and very basic armor for stage 1. With each additional stage the armor gets more detailed and there's a few more guys in the background. In the final stage, he should be the ultimate skull soldier! Well needless to say, these were a whole lot of fun to do. Here's how they progressed:

All of them are 10"x12" Oil on illustration board.