Process Video: 1993

As an exclusive perk for our paid subscribers, we present this video showing the step by step creation of Stan!'s cartoon homage to "Book of Artifacts."

While talking to Douglas Niles during Episode 21 of the show, I began working on a cartoon homage to Fred Fields’s cover painting for the 1993 hardcover Book of Artifacts. It was a fun conversation with a rarely heard voice from D&D’s early days—Doug was on staff from 1984–1990, and was a key player in the history of Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer, Battlesystem, Maztica, and many more settings and core products. He wrote the very first FR novel, and has written more DL novels than anyone outside of Weis & Hickman.

The cover painting this time is definitely a D&D classic, centering on one of my favorite fantasy tropes: the mystical hand that reaches up from some unknown dimension, holding aloft an item of great power. Also, after several weeks in a row with covers that featured complex, detailed vignettes, it was nice to have an image that was set in a relatively straightforward cavern-filled-with-treasure. Of course, capturing the sense of depth—not to mention the ominous glow of the orb—provided its own unique challenge.

Subscribers to this newsletter got to see this drawing early, whereas the general public are only just getting their first glimpses of it today. But there’s still something left that’s JUST for the paid subscribers—a process video showing the step-by-step creation of this cartoon homage. (If you’re currently a free subscriber, now would be a great time to upgrade.)