Era Of Kingdom Card layouts

 These are the first steps in the process in finalizing the designs for the card front and back layout. This process is much more complicated than any I have done in the past because there are so many different icons and text. The initial idea was to make each card like a small page from an illuminated manuscript but yet make them similar enough so they seemed like a cohesive set.  

This is just the first stage the second addition will be done in indesign where interchangeable parts will be added to the layout to give them all there own unique game characteristics. Hopefully this process should work smoothly as most of the geometry is already laid out from starting the overall design off very simple and doing months of play-testing to get feedback.

Below are the steps to creating the card backs from the initial sketches to the final polished art. I wanted there to be a similarity and a sense of improvement in the quality of the card as you progressed in the game.  

Latest Era of Kingdoms Art

Era of Kingdoms Update

 I wanted to do a quick update on the Four Kingdoms now known as Era of Kingdoms.

Things are progressing we are getting a lot of feedback on the game mechanics and I am slowly getting the art done in between jobs. Below are the three most recent cards and I thought it might be cool to included some of the photo reference imagery I used.

 I  bought this expensive Japanese posable horse model, which I broke right away during this shoot.
 For the infantry man this is one of the true type dolls that I own and love. They are 1/6 scale life like figures. They fill in really well when you don’t have time to find a model.

I got to use my remote controlled multi colored led light for this one and hands free digital SLR timer.

For lost artifact this is another true type doll it also makes a good Halloween decoration.

Recruits Convention: Forgotten Knowledge card demo

Had a great time at Recruits this weekend, I just wish I had more time to play some games. This is one of the many customized game tables, this one for the battle of Stalingrad.

Here are the final results of the art demo for the card Forgotten Knowledge, from this weekend. I almost got it done in time, I just had a few details to touch up. 

Last Stand of Ferrus Manus

   The Iron hands make their landing on 5^th planet of the Isstvan system, in an attempt to bring to account the traitorous followers of the Warmaster Horus Lupercal.  Ferrus Manus finds his brother Fulgrim in the midst of the chaotic melee to settle a score, and bring him to account for his treachery.

   This is a giant digital painting I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. I really wanted to try and push myself to do much more detail than I normally do, while still trying to make the Primarchs the center of attention.. I liked the idea of having a pile of Space Marines casualties from both sides laying around in the foreground to show the carnage of the Drop Site Massacre.

Below is a step-by-step animation of the work in progress

Zoo Sketching

Recently I took a trip to the zoo to get back to nature and relax a little bit. These were done using water color pencils and a water brush in a watercolor sketchbook.

Last Stand of Ferrus Manus (Drawing stage)

On the rocky slopes of Isstvan 5 defensive positions held by the Emperors Children are being bombarded by loyalist legions from orbit. The Iron hands attempt to over run the battlements of the traitor marines, only to have their chapters worst nightmares realized.

This is giant drawing I am currently working on painting it digitally. It measures 35x30 inches, one of the biggest illustrations  in the last few years, its going to take forever to paint. I did this on Strathmore sketch paper, which I really like most of Strathmore's papers, but I have to say I really dislike the sketch paper. The pencil kept making grooves in the paper no matter how light I drew and it showed in the final image, it might be ok for charcoal or something. Below are the preliminary thumbnails.

The Four Kingdoms

 

I wanted to show some thumbnails for a new project I am working on called the Four Kingdoms. This will be a game available on Kickstarter coming in early 2018. The premise of the game is kingdom building where you compete against up to four other players to advance your kingdoms military and technological achievements. The game starts out in the era of Middle Ages Europe and as the game progresses you gain victory points for growth of culture, social advancements, and military conquest. As players progress their kingdoms the game culminates in the end of the era and birth of the renaissance. 

The game is similar to Settlers of Catan but does not rely on dice rolling mechanics for resources and expanding their domain. We tried to work in lots of historical significance that let to advancements of western civilization, so it has that aspect too. It also vaguely reminded me of the Warcraft games where you construct building and upgrade them to get better benefits, but without the orks, ogres, and elves.

These are some preliminary sketches that are done for almost all projects I work on just to get an idea of the different visual interpretations of the concept. I try to come up with at least three unique concepts for each idea just to give more options to choose from.

There were four basic visual formats I utilized for this, the top down isometric perspective for the buildings, character portraits, event scenes, and the illuminated manuscript style.

Below are some of the mock-ups for card layout ideas and icons, which is a complete job in itself.   I want to try something very unique for these but its going to take a lot of  precise geometry.

 I will be posting more on this project as it evolves over the coming months.