Monday, October 13, 2014

Elthos Book Art - Toad Attack

Another bit of side-page art for the Elthos Core Rules Book ...

Somewhere in a cavern deep and dim... a monster toad lashes out a tongue of slime faster than the eye can see.  With a tremendous Thud our hero loses his sword and in an instant is gone. 

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Dragonflies in Aerial Combat - Elthos Book Art

One more bit of artwork for tonight. I hope this will do for a corner or edge of the page, perhaps.

Three Dragonflies in aerial combat, possibly with invisible Fey Knights on their backs. Possibly. Quite possibly!

I'm not sure I dare attempt to make the Fey Knights visible! If I do try and it works, I'll re-post this later. For now it may simply do as is. The thing is, Fey Knights tend to prefer to remain unseen by mortal eyes.  They may object to my attempts to draw them... in which case they will come out looking more like goblins than knights, and that wouldn't do at all.  Not at all.

Western Style - More Artwork

Damn Jack Blain
Another possible entry for the Elthos RPG Rules Book.  Western Genre.

Damn Jack Blain was a Desperado who lived out on the fringes of the Black Sands Desert.  He made his living rustling cattle and robbing stage coaches with the Kestler Gang, until became their leader when he put Robert Kestler in his grave with a single shot through the right eye.  He ranged the desert country causing trouble for a while until he was gunned down by Kestler's sister, Jane.  She put a hole through his head, left him to be eaten by coyotes. 

Elthos Rules Book - The Philosophers

Another possible addition to the Elthos RPG Rules Book artwork... this one is intended to go along a left or right side border of a page.

I chose for this one a medieval theme to balance to the other themes that lately have tilted towards Space Genre. This drawing was inspired by a glance at a leaf decoration in The Book of Kells. It's intended to mimic the concept without attempting to duplicate the exact details of the style. I like the subject matter, which is the debate between Heaven and Hell, and raises questions therefore of morality and alignment.

Not everyone is all that interested in playing with alignment these days, but I think this is because the Alignment system as originally given was somewhat flawed in design, and lead a lot of games into something of a bog. I've worked out a system to handle alignment in Elthos, and I do think it works fairly well.

In any case, the purpose of this post is to show the illustration, not debate alignment systems. So there you have it. I think the next drawing will be one of plants, vines and fanciful insects, perhaps. We'll see. I never know exactly what is going to happen when I begin a drawing. I usually have an idea, and then wind up a bit surprised in the end at the results. This one is a classic case of that. I don't mind that method, by the way. Some artists know exactly... I don't. I like to be a bit surprised, too. I think its more fun in a way.

Monday, October 06, 2014

Space-Ranger X

Another Space-Genre drawing for the Elthos RPG Rules Book...



Somewhere beyond the edge of the Galaxy, Space-Ranger X is collecting samples of deep space artifacts that might lead Dr. Greenstone's team of Super Scientists to unravel the strange happenings near Oswaldia in the year 150NK... and determine the best course for the Elthos World's migration through the Cosmos...

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Elthos RPG Rules Book Drawings

A few drawings that I made for the Elthos RPG Rules Book. We're working on final layout now.



What I really love about this hobby is how many different arts it brings together. Between the story writing, improvisational acting, history and science study, map making and artwork, well, its just a fabulously creative endeavor.