Maps & Illustrations Together - A Personal Journey

**Ashenvale** · 08-21-2009, 12:35 PM

This map of the cathedral ruin’s lower level works much better than the upper level map works. My skills were improving. The warm greens pull a bit away from the overall sense of cold I wanted the illustrations and maps to convey, but added a sinister quality of corruption or decay hard to achieve with blues and purples alone.

**Ashenvale** · 08-21-2009, 12:36 PM

The main southeastern section of the lower level contains the rubble of the portions of the cathedral’s upper level that have collapsed, some wall and arch segments still bound together by ancient magics. I wanted this tiny little painting to give the players a sense of wonder their PCs wonder emerging into this landscape. Soon enough they’ll start stumbling across the body parts frozen into the towering rubble. The wereleopards release humanoids they’ve captured into this warren-like maze to stalk and terrorize.

**Ashenvale** · 08-21-2009, 12:37 PM

Wereleopards.

This particular image ended up on the cover of a fantasy short-story anthology called “Hear Them Roar!” I showed the original painting to author C.J. Henderson at a gaming conference. He said he liked it so much could write a story about these two wereleopards and put the illustration on a book cover. I said, pull that off, and I’ll give you the damned painting. A year later, I had my first book cover and a story about wereleopards I’d inspired. The painting now hangs in C.J.’s study.

**Ashenvale** · 08-21-2009, 12:37 PM

Finally, here’s the illustration for the adventure’s big finale, the night hag returning to collect her Sinner’s Stone. This is an oil painting, but I subsequently improved it so much in Photoshop that it isn’t really should call it a digital illustration.

**Ashenvale** · 08-21-2009, 12:42 PM

I sent Paizo an adventure query for this whole project in 2002. They liked the proposal and greenlit the project for a manuscript. When I finished the manuscript, I sent it and the original illustrations to Paizo all in one, big package. This spurred one of the funniest threads I've seen on Paizo's boards:

http://paizo.com/dungeon/news/v5748eaic9js7

**AslanC** · 08-21-2009, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by Ashenvale

Wereleopards.

This particular image ended up on the cover of a fantasy short-story anthology called “Hear Them Roar!” I showed the original painting to author C.J. Henderson at a gaming conference. He said he liked it so much could write a story about these two wereleopards and put the illustration on a book cover. I said, pull that off, and I’ll give you the damned painting. A year later, I had my first book cover and a story about wereleopards I’d inspired. The painting now hangs in C.J.’s study.

I love this piece!

And the story as well, very cool stuff my friend