A boring title, I know – but this is just updates so tough!

I’m working on a Shadow World Players Guide which will have a lot of Vue landscape renders as well as some drawings. As it’s still in progress, I can’t add any images here so I have a couple of other things to show.

A Vue render trying out a technique for ‘hyperterrains’ – the name given to the creation of the unusual shaped terrains which aren’t possible in the traditional terrain creation process.

An old-school Vector in Adobe Illustrator. Some subtle object blends but mostly a line work. Michelle is the woman featured and she has a gallery here.

That’s it for now.

It’s that time of the month again – it’s ICE’s map contest! This time it’s a lair for Kobolds (a lesser goblin type creature).

I was going to enter the old-school hand drawn map that I uploaded here – old-school map but after I added a little bit of texture to it, I just had to carry on!

Here is the opening spread describing the tactics the kobold’s would use to defend their lair and a larger map view is below that.

And here’s a close up of the textures so you can see it at it’s actual size

This is the cover illustration used for the PDF depicting the nasty trap the Kobold’s have in store for unsuspecting adventurers!

Click those images for a larger version!

Finally, I’ve added an image gallery of some of my work!

Check it out – Craig’s Sketchpad Gallery

…and ironically, this post has no pictures.

I’ll also be adding a gallery at Craig John (the Blog) which will include more of the ‘design’ projects covering both web and print work but I’ll let you know when that happens.

After deciding to leave it as an old school style map, I couldn’t help myself and I had to colour it in and add some textures.

The story so far, the initial colour and textures have been added and now I need to colour in the other elements (the wood has just been started as a sold colour but needs more textures, highlights and shadows)…

And a close up of the textures.

As usual, click on the image for a larger version.

This is something else I’ve been wanting to continue for a while…

I used to love space images as a child and I’m constantly scribbling spaceships and making little animations so I thought I’d throw some of these up here. …more to follow in the coming months.

Click the image for a larger version!

Something I started a long time ago and never managed to finish it. This is an A2 (594x420mm) image that I was going to have on my flat’s livingroom wall. I moved and there wasn’t a suitable place to put it so I never finished it.

I’m going to re-do this as far as the dragon’s concerned – I really like the fire I did so I’m keeping that! (I used many different images of explosions and I comp’ed them together to make the fire)

In the meantime, I thought I’d stick it here.

Here’s a closer image. The textures I used for the leathery Dragon’s Wing was a scan of my hand print.

Click away for the larger images!

For a closer look, click on one of the 4 sections to enlarge them.

I thought I’d show you the Map on it’s own which makes it easier to see.

Click for that larger version.

This is a map of the continent that my current campaign is set. This is the actual whole continent for my purposes but the Characters don’t know how vast it is as all ‘good’ races were forced down to the South a millennia ago.

There was a Great Demon rallying the Forces of Darkness, pushing the races of Light further and further south until the great battle at Tear’s Field where the forces of Light vanquished the Great Demon finally. The forces of Darkness lost cohesion and were dispatched with ease. The Forces of Light were too demoralised at this time to press onwards to the North and take back their lands.

Time went by and all became complacent until now; The forces of Darkness have become bolder and after all this time have stepped up their general skirmishes pushing further and further South.

(Original? No! I’m only creative with images – not stories)

I’ve created a map showing the boundaries for the main races in the type of map a studious character would have access to (which is basically anyone who’s bothers to go to the halls of knowledge to pick one up at the gift store).

As you can see, the main kingdoms are limited to the south of the continent leaving many ruined cities of times gone by further north. Plenty of adventure hooks and thoroughly evil denizens. There’s a lot more surprises in store as well!

As always, click for the larger versions.

Both of these were created entirely in Photoshop and the mountains used a combination of custom brushes and layer styles.

After a very long time, I’ve picked up the old paint brush again (or Wacom tablet to be precise).

This is the first of many hopefully and will form the basis of my art portfolio site (not to be confused with my graphic design portfolio site – CJ Productions)

What do you think?

Warrior Mage.
click to view the whole thing