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Dave's Fantasy Art

Among other things, the Web has turned out to be a collection of everyone's amateur art, and I see no reason why my home site should be any exception. I've been drawing for quite a few years, primarily art associated with the various RPGs I play -- invitations, usually. It is a sign that there were times in my life when I had way too much free time on my hands (and/or far too great a desire to stay up way too late) that I have drawn as much as I have, since, generally speaking, I lack the discipline to stick to projects for any great length of time, including artwork.

Anyway, here's a bunch of it, warts and all. Were I a "real" artist, I'd be inclined to do some serious editing (culling) of the collection here, but if I started weeding out all the pieces that I see significant flaws in, I'd end up with -- well, not a whole heck of a lot. I hope you get some enjoyment from it, or at least a degree of amusement.

All the images can be clicked on for larger renditions. I also have much larger versions if you're really interested.

TrueQuest

This was actually a game that Dave Sutherland, best man and long-time friend, ran during our golden college years. I wangled the opportunity to draw one of the invites (since we were both the sort who sat in our rooms and drew invitations to D&D games, rather than study or go to keggers), and that led to the following short collection.

TQ was actually a couple of years of adventures, one of which was the "Quest for the True One," or some such thing.

The TrueQuest Invite - Ironically, or annoyingly enough, this is one of my favorite pieces. The bellowing lizard-fellow (gabattu) in the background is Opála, played with chaotic abandon by John Todd. Going clockwise from there, we have Dáphinas the cleric (Mary Oswell), Yomishoto the ninja (Mark Chen), Grinthorn the half-elven bard (yours truly), and Cresphontes the cleric/mage (Margie Kleerup). Note the two "chartuses" (the serrated weapons that Opála is bearing in the background), as they play into the next invite. (1984)

"What's Wrong with This Picture?" - I don't recall if we were specifically in bad trouble (probably so, since it was an invite for the last game of the year), or if this just struck me as a nice way to throw a scare into people. Another of my favorites. (1984)

The Wedding - Dave got married, a number of years (and a couple of countries) later to a wonderful lady named Jen. This was my wedding present (alas, my photocopies are trimmed off at an annoying spot, the disadvantage of trying to make a copy at a small hotel in Helena, MT). (1987)

Dark Dáphinas - I enjoyed Dave's world so much, I absconded with it and wrote a novel. Well, nearly wrote a novel. It's been in the "if I could just muster up about a week's worth of time and finish the damned thing, everyone would be happy" stage for about ten years. Anyway, this drawing goes with that effort. Not quite sure what's going on with the hair, though. (1988)

The Justice Squad

I'm a big comic book fan from way back, so one of my gaming campaigns was the ongoing adventure of the Justice Squad, which managed to rip off about every comic book plotline you can imagine except the Dark Phoenix saga (and that's only because I ran out of time).

Since I've started running this campaign again, the art for it is all on another page, here.

Amber

The last big burst of art I did was for games running in Roger Zelazny's Amber universe. I did a fair amount of art for this, for both player contributions and for my own invites.

For those unfamiliar with Amber, one of the magical Powers is that of the Trump, which are basically Tarot cards which can be used to communicate with people and places. The major characters all have Trumps drawn of them, and here are some I did. Because of their Tarot nature, I've tended to make them more metaphorical than photo-realistic, at least in the backgrounds. Also in keeping with the Tarot, I made the early ones all "royalty."

For the first two sets, I started off with monochrome and zip-tone. Eventually I experimented with both water colors and colored pencils (and revisited some of the ones I had done before -- the dates shown are for the original drawing).

Kurt's World

Morrigan - My character in Kurt's world, the strong, angsty, warrior woman sort. She keeps popping up as a character or NPC in various other campaigns I'm in. (1992)

[Lance's PC] - Can't recall the character name -- an elegant, dragon-riding wizard with one of those funky Dune daggers, son of Eric, and a frequent visitor to Cah-bo-sahn-loo-cas -- but he was played by Lance Beauregard. (1992)

Dmitri - The Knight of Amber, son of Gérard, quite a noble chap. I don't recall the name of the gent who played him. That horse's mane is a tad too stylized. (1993)

Robin - The Bard of Amber, played by Joshua Susser. A very nice guy with a very thorough spy network. Robin, that is, not Joshua. (1992)

[Monk] - All I remember of the player is that he objected to having his tonsure turned into baldness. (1992)

Mask of Chaos (California)

Callie - Still one of my favorite drawings. Played by Cheryl (Joy) Hill (and it, amazingly enough, bears a slight resemblance to her, which wasn't intentional, since my ability to draw pictures of actual people is fairly limited). An archaeologist/cryptographer, and a member of the "Sneakers" team, her true origin and relationship to the Pattern (as well as the missing Martin) was a mystery. (1993)

Brigid - Played by Mary Oswell, Brigid was a film noir detective type, daughter of Caine. Her home Shadow was all in sepia tones, so I painted this with coffee (which ran a bit yellowish in the color Xerox™ I made, but I had to give her the original). (1993)

René - Played by Margie Kleerup in my campaign in California and again in my campaign in Colorado. A Trump Artist, geneticist, and something of a bon vivant, he really is that gaunt and near-vampiric in appearance. (1993)

Mask of Chaos (Colorado)

Bleys - When I started my most recent game, I decided I would draw a Trump of one of the non-player characters for each invite, along with a quote from that character. That decision lasted exactly three invites (where does all the time go?), but I had fun with it. Part of what made it both simple and difficult is that Zelazny describes some of the Elders' Trumps in detail (but not others). That makes it partly easy (having a model), but the hard part is that it means that everyone and their brother has done a rendition of the same picture, and while I don't mind ripping people off -- er, doing an homage, I like to be relatively subtle about it.
I'm not really happy with how this turned out. I did it only in pencil, trying for a rough, sketchy look and instead got (once photocopied) a rough, ugly look. The real Bleys would not approve. Ah, well. (1996)

Fiona - One of my favorite NPCs, I'm glad I did this drawing of her. A tip o' the hat to Alphonse Mucha. (1996)

Caine - Another one Zelazny described in detail, though I've never seen him portrayed just like this. Zelazny's description of his swarthy skin is rarely emphasized like this, either, but I took it a step beyond the usual healthy sea tan. (1996)

Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth

Aladris - Not a Trump, actually, but still kind of metaphorical. A tip o' the hat to Tim Sale, the gent who drew the Thieves World comic books. (1998)

Tales of the Gryphon Guard

This was the last FRPG I ran (if you don't count Amber in that category). The GG were one of a set of elite trouble-shooters answering to the King of Shelar. Think of the Musketeers and the Impossible Mission Force combined.

Book 1 - A Covey of Rescues

Chapter 1 - Full of all sorts of in-jokes, including a bottle of Shelari Demon Sweat, the only drink worth drinking in my world ....

Chapter 2 - Standard posed shot of the GG, including (L-R) Chill the elvish warrior (Mary Oswell), Thax the shape-shifting wizard (Lance Beauregard), Silk the thief (Cheryl Hill), Gurruf the barbarian (John Hill), and Edge the cavalier fighter.
This invite started the trend of a standard dress for the invites and an appropriately ominous quotation.

Chapter 3- Off through the swamp on a secret mission. Thax (in his panther form) is none too pleased by the development.

Book 2 - Something Evil This Way Comes

Chapter 1 - Dave goes for quick and easy. Though it was still fun and effective.

Chapter 2 - An OOC Christmas invite. Edge taunts with mistletoe (and has an interesting gift waiting for him), Silk wears one of Cheryl's robes (and drinks from a telling coffee cup), Thax scratches his head over a Thundercats Panthro action toy, Gurruf hits the egg nog, and Chill (who probably got the grip exerciser) relaxes in appropriate clothing and footwear.

Chapter 3 - Showdown with the Grendel. Trade dress gets more standardized.

Book 3 - Bolt from the Blue

Chapter 1 - High Elven elder? Meet the Blue. So much for that bodyguard mission.

Chapter 2 - Gryphon Guard? Meet the Assassins Guild (another Paul Smith homage), run by a gent known as The Blue.

Chapter 3 - The Ruling Council of Midpoint. Which, you'll note, includes the head of the Assassin's Guild, as well as a ghostly mage named Draem.

Chapter 4 - See what happens when you manage to torque off everyone in town? Or at least their bosses?

Chapter 5 - Obviously something interfered with holding the original game.

Chapter 6 - Meanwhile, off in Limbo, we meet Aladris, Elden, and Tone. Only one of these has any future.

Book 4 - Hares & Hounds

Chapter 1 - Things take a turn for the worse for the Gryphon Guard. Variation on Book 1, Chapter 1, of course.

Chapter 2 - Fun with the Tarot. Probably as close as I'll ever get to doing my own deck. Every one, of course, had some meaning for the game, mostly as foreshadowing.

Book 5 - Wings of Chaos (in color!)

Chapter 1 - No longer welcome in Shelar, the GG heads east on a new quest. There were a few membership shifts, including Margie Kleerup joining as Aladris the assassin -- er, thief -- and, I think, Tracy Clavin as the High Elven cleric whose name I can't remember.
I'm actually proud of this one.

Chapter 2 - Undead. Bummer. At least I got a shot of Thax using his flame vision spell (which he knew so well he could even use it in frickin' panther form).

Chapter 3 - Life was getting ... complicated right about then (suffice it to say), so this one never got fully inked (and it was the last episode, as it turned out). The Guard finds an apparent paradise to hang out in. "Apparent" being the key word, of course.

Brokedown Palace

This was a very short-lived PbEM, ahem, by one of my favorite GMs, ahem. Not that he should feel guilty about that, or anything, ahem.

Selene - Her memories begin with her being summoned up in some Satanic ritual. Though she can change into a more human form, she can never forget her monstrous nature. Think Angel with fur, I guess. I'll have to resurrect her some day (if only to be able to make use of the drawing I worked so hard on, ahem).