Scrumptious curry, my good chap!

I'm posting these since the book is available in the C7 eshop.
(These illustrations are for the Victoriana RPG, specifically for their book on India. Go buy it. :) Also these were the very first illustrations I did for Jon, yay! In june 2010, so they're quite old.)

The Ladies

Here's an art update, yaaay! :)
They're illustrations for Draci Doupe II - a halfling druid and a lady spy - Žira. (Zheerah - for our English speaking friends)

Enjoy the prese...eeech Christmas! :D

The Last Days teaser

Here's a video I and Vlad Zivanovic made as an intro for our game modification. Who did what is in the Youtube video description. :)

And happy holidays, dear readers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n4JZEtpipg

Stop Motion Epicness

Old Czech Legends

It's been made in 1953 by Jiří Trnka, with whose work some of you may be familiar. He was a brilliant illustrator and a stop motion animator.

Wikipedia article about Trnka
IMDB entry on Old Czech Legends

I have a strong memory of this film. I especially remember this one scene which I put up on Youtube, for you to watch. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgZWSQ8EwEE

Read the description if you want to know what's going on. I'll just tell you it's epic and sad. Trnka made a battle scene with puppets, and it's not silly, it looks amazing. The warriors are wearing very plausible (yet stylized) gear - the battle is a legendary version of a real conflict from the early 10th century.
I clearly remember being confused and sad as a kid, watching Čestmír fall, struck with all the arrows. And I remember the eyes of the Lučan slave. The scary, freaky eyes. Watching it now though, the way he finds his fallen master in the end, that's another kind of sad. :(

What else? Watch the video, tell me what you think. If you feel like it. ;)

ArtRage thanksgiving

I love ArtRage. And I don't say it just because it seems to be cool and hip to like ArtRage lately.
It's a great piece of software - if you're thinking about doing some digital painting and don't have the moniez to buy Photoshop or Painter, take a look at AR.

http://www.artrage.com/

People usually suggest trying Gimp or another open source or free painting application. ArtRage is a bit different - it's more like Painter in the way it works.

I do almost all my drawing and painting in ArtRage nowadays. At first it felt really stiff and hard to control, being used to precision of other software, the element of traditional randomness was more a flaw rather than a wonderful feature.

But I got used to the interface and controls - now I can't use anything else as easily.
It also has a couple of things other software doesn't - like hotkeys for horizontal and vertical flip of the canvas!
This is incredibly useful and it happens instantly - the layers aren't really transformed, so it's quick and handy.

I am also very thankful for the rotation tool in ArtRage! I have a bit of a neck spine defect and lean my head to the right, so my compositions often end up toppling over that way. Flipping also helps me to notice that problem.

As I said - ArtRage is picking up popularity, so they don't really need me spreading the love on my blog read by ten friends of mine.
But after an evening spent painting in it, I felt I should do this post, to express my thanks properly.

So, there. Try ArtrAge! :)

Horse + bow = kickass

New arts! An illustration for Draci Doupe 2 - this is the Scout class. Awesome horsemen, capable of all kinds of dangerous stunts and acrobatic stuff while riding a horse. Also horse archery. (they do the whole spy thing too, masks, disguise, sneaking, hidden daggers and so on.)

The Slav Epic - for a good cry

If you know of Alphonse Mucha, you probably know his art nouveau posters with the outlined ladies and plants and stuff.

Do you also know the Slav Epic?
Read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slav_Epic


It's just masterful stuff. I love the fading dark values, the colour palettes, they both remind me a bit of Frazetta. And it's epic and posed and massive. :)