Duel of Ages 2 Artwork

[Radthorne]

As announced in my News thread, I've been commissioned by a role playing game company to produce a quantity of art for a new edition of their game, called Duel of Ages 2. The artwork will be printed on game cards included with the set, and potentially at a larger size in a character book at a later date.

For each image the publisher has provided an outline of the character, including a small story snippet, to assist each of the artists involved in the project in coming up with the scene. This first one I've posted is called The Scarlet Vixen. She is described as "a downright naughty and brash burglar. She uses a red fox as her calling card." Her time period is medieval. There are rich men who hide wealth behind guards and castle walls, but neither armed men nor walls protect against the predations of The Scarlet Vixen...

[Hereford Eye]

...a downright naughty and brash burglar

You caught that aspect of her character very nicely, Rad. Both the body language and the facial expression are expressions of challenge. Well done!
Congratulations on the assignment and on the success of this instance.

[Radthorne]

You caught that aspect of her character very nicely, Rad. Both the body language and the facial expression are expressions of challenge. Well done!
Congratulations on the assignment and on the success of this instance.

Thank you, sir!

Here's another one, called "Princess Sunglow." The brief on this one was basically to do a character like the princess from the movie Enchanted. However, the publisher was very taken with my recent picture "Dragonkeeper" which I believe you all saw over in my Computer Art thread. He liked the background and the outfit, but wanted the face from one of my other pictures (the one called I Thought You'd Never Ask, which I think I may have posted here but might only have been at the art sites...). In any case, I gradually evolved a new version of the picture to his liking:

[KatG]

Those are really nice, Kev. They're going to pop on cards.

[Radthorne]

Thank you! This has been quite fun so far.

[Radthorne]

Here is another of the game images, called Nimsea. This was for a mischievous fairy who is accompanied by a bevy of sprite-like attendants. The publisher had a particular background that he was interested in, which I was able to track down. While the green plant life would not have been my first choice as backdrop, it fit the vision he had, so I built the rest of the scene up to mesh with that, including the leafy fairy wings and the leaf-like dress.

[Radthorne]

This character was described as being a beautiful, classy, Eastern European spy from about ten years in the future, smiling but with piercing eyes. The story snippet set her in restaurant, so that's where I put her as well.

[KatG]

Also very good. Are they having you do only women, or are you going to get to do some male characters too?

[Radthorne]

Thanks!

There's probably around a hundred or so characters in total, more or less equally divided among male and female. The company had each artist come up with an initial short list from the character descriptions of ones they felt they could do. I started all with females on my list, picking about 15 or 16 of them, and focusing on the ones I was pretty certain I could do. I figured I'd see how well what I was coming up with fit their criteria, and if they turned out okay I could start trying for some of the harder ones, as well as the men.

So far the four I've delivered have been very well received, so I think I'm on the right track. Some of the other characters are actual historial people, or have very specific period costume needs, which I may not be able to satisfy. And as always with the 3D models, there is a dirth of adequate/quality clothes for the men. But I do want to try some of them.

Right now I have four more characters from my initial list that have been definitely assigned to me, for a total of eight. Since I'm able to turn these around fairly quickly, I'm hoping to get more after that.

[Radthorne]

Two more to share.

The first is Dr. Marla Ulf, a brilliant, beautiful, diabolical, Scandinavian scientist. In the story snippet she had developed a device that created a replica of her in another location, visible on a small hand held device. As the hand held thing wouldn't work as well in a picture, I devised a variation of that here:

And Lianka the Gazer is a nasty gypsy who holds the power of the future over others, and is not too nice about it in the process. This picture is a variation of one I did previously, updated to use a different character, who is also more prominently featured in the scene.

[KatG]

I like the scientist's pants. The Gazer scares me. Kind of sorry to see the Roma once again cast as bad guys, though. But nice job on these.

[Radthorne]

I like the scientist's pants. The Gazer scares me. Kind of sorry to see the Roma once again cast as bad guys, though. But nice job on these.

Thanks! I think he wanted the Gazer to be scary; she's apparently quite nasty. There are a number of "classic" stereotypes throughout the character set. But then again, I think that's pretty much what role playing gamers expect to see, since in the midst of game play I imagine they want to grasp the nature of the character very quickly. So it's easier to fall back on archetypes, whether they're accurate or not. That's all just my supposition, though.

[Hereford Eye]

Classy European spy is very nice save for one complaint: frosted layer looks like a cap instead of integrated hair.
Scientist person has a split personality. OTOH, she is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge as evidenced by her double, her lab coat, and her denims. Only truly dedicated science persons wear denims anymore. OTOH, she is wearing a see-through blouse which indicates she is not averse to playing with the minds and hearts of her co-workers whioh is definitely not Dr. Brennan-like.
Gazer-person appears to be a serious bad-ass. TSOTNW obviously posed for this one. Save for the apparent buck tooth.

[Radthorne]

TSOTNW can be bad, but not that bad!

Here is another one, whom the publisher calls Flicker. She is a thief who prowls the rooftops at night. You may recognize the origin of this picture as one I did some time back, which used the same setting and pose, but with a fellow dressed in a red ninja-like outfit. For this version I swapped him out for her, and updated a number of details. He actually liked this picture the best of all the ones I've completed so far.

[Radthorne]

Next up, Erin Shrike, a recon specialist, who has just reported in on a fleet of advancing enemy starcraft that have landed in the valley below her.