Tha Work Thang #20: Caves of the Crawling Lord

As promised, here is the cover art for Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure,"Caves of the Crawling Lord". You can see here the initial sketch as well.

Image is the copyright of Goodman Games 2010.

Tha Work Thang #19: Tzzzzzzzt.... computer online

Bzzzzzt.....hypersleep reanimation sequence initiated.......subject now online.......resuming normal service....bzzzt.

Wow! Has it really been that long? A blog with no blogging, disgraceful I tell you!

Well contrary to popular opinion I have not fallen off the face of the planet and have indeed been working away on this and that. So a little update is in order.

For Fantasy Flight Games I have been doing interior art for the new "Deathwatch R.P.G.", also,"Winds of Magic" for the Warhammer Fantasy R.P.G.

Some space ship profiles for "Lure of the Expanse", a supplement for the Rogue Trader R.P.G.

and some equipment pieces for "Ascension", a supplement for the Dark Heresy R.P.G.

As well as work on a couple more unannounced books.

For Goodman Games I have some pieces in the latest "Level Up" magazine, Issue 3.

And my cover art for, "Caves of the Crawling Lord" a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure, has just been previewed on their site. ( I will upload a proper picture of it, need to get it off my old hard-drive.)Cheerio for now!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas Everybody!

Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everyone!

Here is a backdrop I was volunteered to paint for my kids school Christmas Fair. It was displayed behind Santa when the little ones went to visit him in his grotto. It was fun to do but I had little time to do it due to other commitments.

Tha Work Thang #18: Skeletons and Radicals.

Just a quick update on what I have been up to. Below is the skeletal cyclops for D&D miniatures.

This guy turned out pretty nifty if you ask me, good job the sculptor! I never know why the sculptor isn't credited anywhere?

I also have a few pieces in "The Radicals Handbook" a Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy book published by Fantasy Flight Games.

Da Life Ting #10: Cobalt Troll

So, following hot on the heels of the silver dragon, here is my next foray into the world of sculpting. I wanted to do a monster this time and fished about for some things I could use as a base.

I found a cap for washing liquid which had a good shape for a neck and shoulders. To this I attached a polystyrene ball, ( I found these in the local craft shop and thought they would be good to model heads around.) I used a plastic lolly stick held on by a lump of super sculpey to hold the head in place. You can see these stages in the process shots.

I had no idea how this would all react in the oven, I was hoping that once covered in the clay and packing the inside of the model with aluminium foil would do the trick.

The monster evolved quite organically, I just went with what seemed troll like to me.

When he was sculpted I took him off to the oven. All was ok, no noxious fumes or anything. However, the polystyrene ball had completely vanished, leaving a hollow head. At least I could also dispense with the lolly stick now.

Onto painting, I was originally going for more of a stone colour for him, but quite liked the blue. I decided to name him a Cobalt troll because of the blue colour. So, there you have it...The Cobalt Troll!

Da Life Ting #9: Silver Dragon Update.

So here is the Silver Dragon after painting so far. I used mostly metallic acrylic paints on him.

It's nearly at the stage I envisioned him in my head.

Da Life Ting #8: Sculpting a Silver Dragon

This weekend I eventually got to try something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time....having a go at sculpting my own figures. Almost a year ago to this very day I had the pleasure of sitting next to Mr. Sean Green, sculptor extraordinaire at Game'08 in Manchester. I saw at first hand his fantastic models and he gave me a few great tips on modelling. Anyway, this week I bought some SuperSculpey and decided to give it a go.

Without giving it too much thought I decided to do a Silver dragons head and dived straight in, I scrunched up some silver foil into a rough dragons head and neck shape and started applying the sculpey clay on top. I got to the stage seen in the first two pictures and left it there for the night.

The next morning I was faced with the problem of the crests on the dragons head, neck and cheeks. I decided to use a card base, which i would then cover in sculpey. I had no idea if this would work or would even survive being baked in the oven.

But, eager to crack on, I threw caution to the wind and went ahead with the modelling.

I bulked up his rather skinny neck, worked on the horns, started applying ridges to the neck piece, inserted small ballbearings as eyes.

Next, I added on the cheek crests that I had sculpted seperately and went about applying all the fun detail, like eyelids and pock marks and the scales ( I rather rushed the scales, but was enjoying myself so much I just wanted to get him baked and painted up!) So below is how I decided he was finished, I thought it was pretty cool for a first go and can't wait to try another one (maybe a Red Dragon next time.)

There are plenty of things I would take more time over next time, the scales, the thickness of the neck spikes for example. With trepidation I put him in the oven and hoped for the best, and lo and behold he came out fine. Nothing broke off or burned, so well happy.

I will post again to show how he came out after being painted, and I will see if I can mount him on a little stand for presentation.