Armor Sets - Full Body

Here are the final armor designs and illustrations I worked on for Iron Wind Studios. Working on the final set of armor was a lot more fun since it was futuristic and didn't involve as much research and allowed more creative freedom.

Everything was done in Photoshop CS5.

Armor Sets - Torso

Here are some more armor designs and illustrations I worked on last year for Iron Wind Studios.

And here are the illustrations.

All Photoshop. I have one last set to post.

Armor Sets - Helmet

Hello!

Long time no post. I've been focusing a ton of time on a contract lately that should be wrapping up soon which will come with a ton of sketches. For now, I realized I never posted the sketches/illustrations for some freelancing I did with Iron Wind Studios last spring/summer. They produce rule books and miniatures for an original table top wargame system/setting. I worked on illustrations for their armor sets.

To start with, here are the three helmets' designs.

I had to do much more research to create these designs than usual, because I was very unfamiliar with military equipment in general. In the end, they turned out pretty believable even with my inexperience. Here are the illustrations.

Everything was done in Photoshop CS5. I'll post again soon with the other armor sets!

Craftmen Race

Back with another custom Pathfinder race for the game I'm currently a part of. These guys are called the Craftmen. Unlike the previous race sketch I posted, this race is very much tied to the GM's lore of the world. Every year a varying amount of Craftmen just appear on the new year and while they have different appearences, they all have looks that are tied to a calendar theme prediction created by a wizard far in the past. Other than their yearly specific traits, they are made from metals, stones, wood, and gems. The Craftmen (Craftman?) I drew was one born during a year of great forest and natural growth. I have some other ideas I'd like to try, because the look of this race can very so much.

Created in Photoshop.

The Elkin

I'm back with another quick sketch. This one explores the facial design of a custom race called the "Elkin" created by the GM of a Pathfinder game I'm playing in right now.

I have to say, the eyes were the hardest part to work with, because my first instinct was to go with a very humanistic look. That looked incredibly creepy. Anyway, it was fun to make the distinction between the two genders of the race as well.

Done in Photoshop.

Syndral Sketches

A couple weeks ago I finished another card illustration for HeroCraft. This monster, the Syndral, was slightly more alien and strange. The core anatomical components I had to keep in mind while designing it were it's hard top shell, a softer or jelly-like underbelly, and long tentacles. Functionally, the Syndral is docile and floats around absorbing magic from the world around it. Here is my first set of concepts:

Design 4 ended up being the best overall embodiment of the creature, as it looked the least intimidating and was generally more passive. There were a few components from 3 and 5 that we wanted to include still, enter design set number two:

I usually don't like to make such differing designs in my second round...because I should be narrowing down our options rather than making the decision process more difficult! Either way, it was narrowed down to 1 and 4 as the main source for the final design, with the included tentacles from 2.

These were all created in Sketchbook Pro 12.
Collectively these probably took around 3 hours.

Varg Sketches

It's been too long since my last post. I've been working on numerous illustrations lately, so I have concept/design sketches and WIPs I want to show! Below are some design process sketches for a wolf-like monster illustration I recently completed for my friend's, Andrew Maul, board game. This, and future illustrations I'll be posting about, will be displayed on the cards in his game. He's been doing some fantastic work that you should check out on his Design Blog!

The look we were going for with the Varg was decidedly canine but with a higher intelligence and a definite evil. In my first set of sketches, the overall look of #3 ended up embodying those traits the best, but there were still elements from other designs we wanted to experiment with. Enter sketch set two - I took the vanilla #3 almost directly into the first sketch, but then gave the second design the elements we really liked from #1 out of my first set, and a more demonic look for the third.

With some slight alterations, we chose design #2 from my second set. Here is a WIP of the Varg illustration:

My concept sketches were created in Sketchbook Pro '12, and the illustration in Photoshop.

I will post the final illustration soon!