Process Video: 2005

As an exclusive benefit for paid subscribers, we present this process video of the cartoon homage from Episode 35.

As I said when I originally posted this homage to Todd Lockwood’s cover for the 2006 Forgotten Realms adventure, Sons of Gruumsh, the most basic challenge in doing this piece was converting the panoramic wrap-around image into a square cartoon. Todd’s painting was a wrap-around cover, where the orc’s filled the half on the front cover, and the adventurers dominated the back. This really drove home the feeling that the adventurers were busting their way into the orcs’ stronghold. As different as my version is, I think I successfully captured the overall feeling of the original piece.

There have been a lot of great artists associated with D&D over the years, and I feel passionately about many of them. To me, Todd Lockwood may well be the artist whose work best encapsulates the fantastical world in which the game exists (and yes, I realize that there are MANY published worlds, and nearly an infinite number of homebrewed worlds where D&D “happens” … I’m talking about a non-specific, Platonic ideal of “THE D&D World”).

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.)