Fantasy illustrator: Wizards of the Coast, Orbit Books, Tor Books, Penguin Books, Darrington Press, Baldur's Gate 3, etc. || he/him 🇨🇦 || wingbuffet
@gmail
.com
Good morning
#PortfolioDay
:D
I'm Mike, still painting Fantasy Characters doing Fantasy Things (often in Fantasy Places), and having a blast doing it! Last year I got to do my first book covers, and this year I've got some rad stuff in the oven that should be publishing soon 😊
@Peter_Wartman
I used to teach drawing to Industrial Designers, and every class there were a handful of students who'd been convinced that it was a 'talent' they didn't have.
It was always heart-warming to see them discover that it's mostly just guidelines + muscle memory
A painting I did for WotC's new Planescape book, of the 'Smoldering Corpse' tavern in Sigil! I loved getting to paint all these little stories for the various patrons :D
Oh, and a weird little easter egg:
When sketching the orc in front, I based the design of their greataxe off of one of my fav old Wayne Reynolds D&D illos (from 3.5's 'Complete Warrior'), which showed half-orcs fighting a hag.
Maybe an obscure pull, so I wanted to share :D
AD: Emi Tanji
With Orcs' relatively short lifespan as fantasy races go, I really wanted to emphasize the multi-generational nature of a hunting party – kids and teens learning alongside the older folks.
They're hunting with Harris's Hawks, if you're curious :D
My first novel cover illustration with
@orbitbooks
! When I tell you I had a good time with these :y
Author:
@KimberlyLemming
Design: Alexia Mazis
AD: Patrick Carpenter
AD: Emi Tanji
I think I watched about a dozen hours of video on blacksmithing to figure out the processes/tasks/layout of a shop, so now I know those things forever
Cover launch! THAT TIME I GOT DRUNK AND YEETED A LOVE POTION AT A WEREWOLF by
@KimberlyLemming
is available in paperback February 2024. We hope you 💖 the cover for Mead Mishaps book two.
Pre-order now:
Design by Alexia Mazis
Illustration by
@WingBuffet
The idea that younger elves are still figuring out their inborn magical abilities (often by observing others) was something I made sure to sneak in there 😊
Working on cards for Queen By Midnight was great fun, but I'm kinda blown away that Darrington makes a point of mentioning the artists by name in their announcements. It's rare to find companies who value creative this much! :D
Our very first State of the Press is here! 📜 🪶
Join
@matthewmercer
and
@MicaBurton
for all the latest from Darrington Press, including Queen By Midnight, not one but TWO new RPG systems, project updates, and much more!
Watch Now ➡️
The character is Maren, a D&D character ('Wild Magic' Barbarian) of
@unwritable_girl
's, who commissioned the work!
The idea was to show her in two states — her default shy & anxious personality, and the more confident & capable persona that emerges when she's in danger.
@belllmonts
Thank you! My partner hunted down the other name and saw she's the graphic designer for the book & responsible for the typography on the cover, so it might just be that :D
Here's the full Druid art for
@BaldursGate3
's new 'Nature's Power' patch, which is live!
We wanted to show the Druid's spellcasting — channeling the natural elements, calm but a little intense. The details here were tons of fun to paint, and working with Larian was a pleasure!
Art of Willoughby from the new 'Mistletoe' campaign, played by
@Tomato_Gaming
!
In search of an audience with one of the Norse pantheon, this crotchety old tree-folk got to spend a good chunk of the first session answering the party's questions about his peculiar physiology 🪴
@halphelt
dad: that kid is set to be my favorite tree in the school play, I need video evidence that he stole your lunch
kid: but everyone in the cafeteria saw it happen
dad: I guess you all want attention huh
~~ Process thread for how I went about making this painting ~~
Teysa was a pretty challenging painting project that I started a few weeks ago, with the express intention of making a Magic: The Gathering style (and hopefully M:tG quality) image.
'Artists, let me see your improvement over 5 years!'
I was just getting back into art 5 years ago after quitting for a while (undergrad burned me out pretty bad), and I've been practicing & developing my process ever since :v
Artists, let me see your improvement over 5 years!
5 years ago, I associated polished rendering with pro art, so I tried to emulate the style the best I could. But w/o strong skills in art fundamentals, I burned out. I had to go back to the basics & unlearn a lot of bad habits.
I was asked about D&D Party commissions recently, and just want to tell/remind newer commission artists: Painting a picture meant to satisfy a x number of people is a lot harder than painting something for one person. The logistics alone is very time-consuming. 1/4
Art of Juno from the new 'Mistletoe' campaign, played by
@sherlock_hulmes
!
An inquisitive thinker — so far she's the 'responsible' one, doing her best to keep the party from getting into trouble with fickle demigods😅
Art of Leyna from the new 'Mistletoe' campaign, played by
@OldLady_Gamer
!
She has an awful lot of daggers for someone so suspiciously 'plain', so 'perfectly average', hmm 🤔
AD: Emi Tanji
The main focus this time was on the elves' innate magic and their artistic inclinations as a long-lived species – playing music, doing some gardening, painting, or just observing others!
To do this, I planned two overlaid poses with distinct body language: One slouched over, scrunched shoulders — the other with her head up, shoulders pulled back, axe at the ready.
The first would have a dull and grey palette, while the other would be vibrant with wild colours.
on my spare time I've been making cute little isometric maps/tokens to support a mini-D&D-campaign we've been running on Roll20, which has been a fun little departure from full paintings!
(new paintings soon though, my long NDA limbo is almost over)
Once the two characters were drawn up, I masked one off so I could draw different patterns until I could see both personas well enough.
Lots of little decisions here, like how much of an expression is needed, what could be cut off, and making sure the poses were still legible!
@Goblinkatie
The number of folks I see saying "well I don't believe it because I read a thread", and then you check and the thread is by someone who has /literally no idea what they're talking about/
This sucks
someone on tumblr noticed that the hemispherical window in the background is a globe and the clouds are landmasses, which reminded me of how much fun this painting was
Howdy to all the new follows! Just a note that many of my recently-posted works (including the 'Wild Magic' piece) are private commissions :D
I have a comm mailing list for when availability opens up, linked below!
@Mettatrack
The idea was to depict a dwarf workshop as a central hub of their communities/living spaces, which is why there's folks working, learning, and relaxing all in a single spot 😊
Art of Eldrid from the new 'Mistletoe' campaign, played by
@BrizzyVoices
!
Vying for the title of 'most unnerving PC', her communion with spirits leaves quite the impression💀
I'd put off D&D for a year and a half after the pandemic started, but am glad that I finally got into playing via Discord 5 months ago rather than stubbornly waiting for in-person games to become viable again. Took some getting used to, but it's much better than no D&D at all! 😀
Welcome to all the new folks, and bi-yearly reminder that I've got prints of my work available if you like 'em! There's a big sale right now too I guess :D
Just received a few copies of cards that I produced alt-M:tG art for, printed in foil by
@ImKyle4815
!
Working with M:tG has been a long-term goal, so even if it's not official it's really heartening to see my work in card format. Here's to more in the future :D
High-quality prints of the cover illustrations I made the re-release of
@KimberlyLemming
's 'Mead Mishaps' series are now available, and inPrnt is having a big sale this weekend!
My third romance novel cover with
@orbitbooks
and author
@KimberlyLemming
!
That's a wrap for this first batch, but I may have more penciled into my schedule in the not-to-distant future 😊
To commemorate our FINAL Episode of Meteorian Corps LIVE we're offering a LIMITED number of these AMAZING fine art prints by
@WingBuffet
for LOCAL pick up at GCX Event this weekend!
Not Here? Don't fret, US domestic shipping is also available. Go to now!
@sherlock_hulmes
I know people want to blame the overworked ADs or pretend executives decided this, but it's mostly on the techbro artist for not telling the AD that he's trying dubious new barely-legal tech
Finally moving on from years of teaching technical illustration to doing fantasy illo full time!
Shifting careers was a long process, but I'm glad to finally be doing my dream job :D
To all who've been supportive and written kind things about my work over the years, thank you!!
One of the PCs I DM for wanted to play a Warlock, but didn't have a solid idea for his patron and wanted to give me creative license to make up something neat for him :D
Anyway his patron is a flock of birds that lives in his skin
This is especially important in industries with mostly-fixed rates, like TTRPG publishing — if a rate doesn't make sense for the number of hours you'd put into the work, reconsider how many hours you're allotting it!
ILLUSTRATOR PRICING: Always remember you're a skilled tradesman and price accordingly. The average cost of a plumber ranges from $45 to $200 per hour, with a call-out fee. Make sure you're getting paid for your time, drawing is work and you should be paid fairly for it
From there, it was just lots of rendering and tweaking. The paintings had to be similar closer to the lower body/hand, and could be much more divergent towards the head and rear arm.
Anyway, thanks for reading! :D
finally got to play this hot boy today in a one-shot; he fell unconscious almost immediately and remained so for the rest of the session, waking up in an alley with a note from the other PCs saying "sorry, we didn't know where you lived so we hid you in this garbage, sorry again"
@littlebird428
It is the goddess Waukeen, and she's about to smite a golden dracolich who's trying to usurp her! Part of an adventure for the 'Uncaged Goddesses' supplement on DMsGuild.
@CHofferCBus
Thanks so much, glad you like it! Orcs in the campaigns I've DM'd over the past few decades have always tended to be very family-centric, so I was thrilled when I got this art brief😊
This isn't to warn you against offering these sorts of popular commissions for TTRPG parties, but more to prepare you for how much added time/work is involved to coordinate a group-client. Consider it, and set your rates accordingly! 4/4
In my D&D game there's a recurring NPC — our jock PC's dad — who has the most wholesome, I-wear-shirts-with-my-son's-name-on-them kind of awkwardly supportive dad energy, and knowing that I get to play him tomorrow has made my day significantly better