A little art preview from my upcoming adventure...

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
The image below is a preview of the illustration that will accompany the climactic battle in my upcoming adventure, Curse of the Emperor's Stone, for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game from Paizo. This is the finished "pencils", which is in the process of being inked, then colored. It was done by James Sinclair, a 14-year veteran artist that has worked with companies including DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

The encounter is a battle in three parts - with the PCs and their allies, the Sifeng ("Four Winds") monks, on one side and their enemies, the Lushou (the "Green Hand", a notorious crime organization in Haibianr) and its allies, on the other. The illustration depicts the opening scene of the fight, taking place outside the gates of the House of the Four Winds, high in the hills above Haibianr. Later the battle spills into the walls of the monastery itself, as the PCs rush to save the leader of the Sifeng order and then encounter the Lushou lieutenant heading the attack (he is pictured at the front-right of the illustration). Oh, yeah, the battle takes place during a heavy monsoon rainstorm.

I haven't posted this on my site yet (going to wait for the final, colored version next week or so before I do much promotion) but I wanted to share it with you guys first. Since you're all artists I figure you'll be able to appreciate where the piece is going. I think little will change with the inking. Color will bring bright red and blue lighting to the spell effects from the PCs and a lot of mood. Hopefully you like it. I think it's rather epic...and matches the feel of the encounter quite nicely.
M

[Aval Penworth]

Well the good guys certainly seem on top of things!

[tilt]

looks cool Mearrin - congrats on it all

[torstan]

Looks great! That's going to be a lovely piece.

[Steel General]

Very nice!

Love the fact that you don't use the pig-nosed version of orcs, that's how I more or less picture them as well (without the Asian-themed armor of course )

[mearrin69]

Thanks, guys. I'm pretty excited about the piece. I can't wait to see it finished and get some of the others he's putting together as well. When I started this project I would not have pegged this style (i.e. comic book-ish) as something I'd have wanted for my products - but James' work is really stellar.

One of the things I like most about this piece is how much the PCs and their allies are kicking the crap out of the horde that's arrayed against them. The monks are doing some serious kung fu fightin' - and the dwarf axe cleaving the guy's helm and the swashbuckler sticking her rapier through the dude in front of her are pretty awesome. Yeah, of course, the mage and cleric are roasting some cats too, but you expect that in a fantasy shot.

Funny you mention that about the orcs, SG. I think he's made them rather ape-ish. Looking at them in that armor (which comes more or less from a ref photo I sent him of Chinese armor in a museum) I realize how much inspiration the designers of the new Planet of the Apes movie took from Asian style. That dude on the right could be straight out of that movie.
M

[Ramah]

Looks lovely. I hope you will post the finished piece up so we can compare?

[mearrin69]

I certainly will.
M

[ExMachina]

I definitely want to see this when it's fully colored and fleshed out.

Right now it's looking pretty awesome, I wish I could draw like that!

[Terraformer_Author]

I like it - reminds me a little bit of the art in the old AD&D booklets and manuals. would look good both colored and in a b/w version.