Academy of Wonder

I made Academy of Wonder quite a long time ago for Lost Spheres Publishing, as part of an expansion for the Pathfinder campaign setting.

Since I’ve been posting mostly Sci-Fi/Star Wars related images for a while, I thought it was a good moment to break the trend and slip some Fantasy in the middle.

I made this back in 2017, so I have to confess that I have no more details about how the project looked like eventually.

This was the product’s Kickstarter page, where Academy of Wonder was first published.

And this is the product’s page on DrivethruRPG, in case anyone is interested.

Despite the fact that it sat on my HD for almost four years, I’m quite fond of this artwork. It was the very first thing I did as a freelance Illustrator when I got back from the UK.

I had left SUMO Digital only a week prior, half of my bags were still to unpack, my Cintiq had a nasty crack on a corner due to careless movers, and my skin was still olive-grey due to the prolonged lack of sun.

Luckily I had quite a lot of work lined up, and this was first on the list.

Between some concerned thoughts about the new lifestyle, the chores and paperwork of moving from one country to another, and daily visit to the local beach, this was the first thing I made as part of a my new life.

Now that I think of it, my desk at the time was still in the darkest room of the house, right next to my bed.

If there’s one advice I can give to whomever is planning to work from home, it’s that you should never have your work station in the same room where you sleep. For some reason, moving from the bed to the chair doesn’t quite convey to your brain that it’s now time to do stuff.

Even if you go to the trouble of putting clothes on, the lack of a dedicated workplace makes things a lot more difficult, and I had to move all my gear elsewhere almost immediately.

Anyway, I remember that people at Lost Spheres Publishing were gracious about the little time I needed adjusting to new new situation, and the project went smoothly enough.

I meant to post the sketches too, but I just found out that in my Academy of Wonder folder, all files named Sketch01 to Sketch04 are the same version of a colour rough. So well, it looks like I wasn’t quite there yet with organizational skills.

I’ve made improvements since then.

By Paolo Puggioni

Coinspinner

Late last year I had the pleasure to do some works for Lost Spheres Publishing, and the illustration below, called the Coinspinner, is one of them.

The Coinspinner was made for City of the Seven Seraph, a Pathfinder campaign now fully funded and I believe already available.

I made this right in the middle of my move from the UK back to Italy, on top of all the work that I had left building up due to the move, so I remember this being quite a hectic period.
Nonetheless, I’m quite happy about the result: I found out that I LOVE drawing water.

Incidentally I’m about post another illustration that I made about the same time, with a lot more prominent ocean.

Also, the brief needed the ship to look organic and not too far away from H.R.Giger’s aesthetics, which was a nice plus for me.
Anyway, I’m not sure I’m allowed to publish the other work I made for Lost Spheres Publishing but I’ll double check.

In the meantime I’ll probably post some more artwork with raging oceans, now that I got a taste for it:)

Also, oddly enough I didn’t throw away the sketch for the Coinspinner, so here you go.

by Paolo Puggioni

Wardens of the Reborn Forge

I didn’t do much stuff for Wardens of the Reborn Forge, but for what it’s worth, here it is.

Wardens of the Reborn Forge is a deluxe super-adventure for 12th-level characters, and includes 64 action-packed pages of adventure filled with mechanical machinations, new monsters, a beautiful double-sided and full-color poster map of Alkenstar, and an important miniatures-scale battleground!

Alkenstar, City of Smog, is a bastion of civilization in the magic-warped region known as the Mana Wastes. Its ingenious citizens survive in the treacherous Spellscar Desert with the help of canny inventions like guns and clockwork automatons, but now their construct protectors have begun to run amok within the city. It falls to the PCs to venture beyond the city walls to find the source of their strange behavior. Will they uncover the mastermind behind the plot and put an end to this madness, or will they instead fall victim to the primal magic and savage tribes of Mana Wastes mutants that beleaguer the city?

The module can be purchased here.

Lord Armorer Narda-Hufftwood

Once again, a guy with dark skin.
Since, apparently, practice makes you better, this time it didn’t take as long as usual to get the colours right:)

According to the brief he was supposed to look noble, and also one who could clearly manufacture stuff with his hands.
The solution: gloves. And a tool belt.

Evidence of Treason

Not much to say here. A folder with documents on a desk. Nailed it.

The Alchemist’s Addiction

I didn’t know much about this card a part from the objects described (a vial and a knife).
In an effort to make it visually interesting, I took as a reference two photos of an ancient vial and an ancient sacrificial knife I took myself at a museum.

Since I’m normally too lazy to tag my own images, I’m afraid we’ll never know what museum in particular they come from. Oh well.

This is all from Wardens of the Reborn Forge. And from the bunch of Pathfinder cards I’m allowed to publish, sadly.

Legacy of Pharaohs part II

This is the second (and last) bunch of illustrations I made for Pathfinder’s Campaign Setting Legacy of Pharaohs.

As I said before, the assignment was pretty much all about characters, so here they are.

Nixinox

Nixinox is part of a race called Girtablilu, and according to the brief she is an oracle, hence her milky white eyes.

Too bad the characters in Legacy of Pharaohs required only the upper torso to be drawn.
Nixinox – like all her people – is half scorpion and half human, and despite this being a super well-known combination, I never happened to draw any of the like.

Asuulek

Asuulek is a dragon. Not much to say here, it has wings, and teeth, and he breathes fire. The usual dragon package.

Commander Sefir Etis

Right, this is my least favourite character from Legacy of Pharaohs.
Well, he did nothing wrong, I did.

He’s supposed to have an armour made out of giant scarab carapace. And to a degree I got there.

For some reason though, in hindsight, his face is all wrong, he has barely any neck, and every time I look at him I’d like to delete it and start from scratch.
The art director was happy with it, so I guess he was god enough.
However, I decided to post it as a reminder of what I wouldn’t do next time.

Azghaad

Azghaad is one of the first characters I made for the set, and I think at that point I hadn’t knocked out the North African skin tone yet.
He’s not supposed to be dark skinned, but not white either.
I got maybe pretty close, but I would go back and tweak him a bit, if I could.

Oh well.

So, this is it for Legacy for Pharaohs.
I still have another small folder with Pathfinder artwork I’m allowed to publish, so I’ll get back to it next time.

Legacy of Pharaohs

Osirion, Legacy of Pharaohs, is another Pathfinder Campaign Setting I’ve worked on in 2013.
Since these projects are released several months after they’re actually finished, I’ve had it sitting on my hard drive for quite some time, before I realized I could actually publish it.

In the heart of the Inner Sea region stretches one of the oldest human empires still standing today: the mighty and mysterious land of pharaohs and pyramids known as Osirion. Hosting as many accursed tombs and treasure-filled ruins beneath its shifting sands as above, Osirion offers no shortage of adventure for characters of all sorts. From the cosmopolitan capital city of Sothis, seat of the Ruby Prince, to the desolate wastelands of the Osirian Desert, discover the might and majesty that lifted humanity out of the Age of Darkness and could potentially usher in a new golden age if unearthed from the past.

As the name suggests, (and well, the description above), Legacy of Pharaohs has a strong Egyptian flavour. Pyramids, lots of sand, and North-African looking characters.

Like many of the assignments I had from Paizo, this one was mostly focused on characters and I enjoyed it quite a lot.
All characters had to look either North-African or Middle Eastern, both of which have in general a dark skin tone I rarely have the chance to practice with.
A part from rare occurrences.

The Lady of the Canal, right below, is my favourite one from Legacy of Pharaohs.
She’s the first one I made (always the most difficult first!).
Thanks to her I remembered that, when painting black skin, some blue strokes on the up-facing surfaces are kind of “the secret”.

Wali Sarita Senbi and Jira Odan below, had to look Persian instead, and since I’m not too familiar with those particular facial traits I had to make quite some research before I committed to a design.

The only two non-characters I made for the set are an environment and a small object, both below.

Hor Aha

Osirian Scarab Symbol

There are still a few pieces left from Legacy of Pharaohs, which I will post next time!

My Pathfinder Cards Have Arrived!

I normally disapprove of exclamation marks in post titles, but really, my Pathfinder cards have arrived!

This is, after all, the difference between working for something that you eventually get to play on a computer, and something that gets actually printed out and sent home: the exclamation marks when they arrive, and obviously the smell.

Whoa, I didn’t remember them being so many. I recall now how freakishly busy that month has been.
I had worked on these two Pathfinder modules quite some time ago. Last year, in fact, but they have been released only recently.

The first set is Tears at Bitters Manor: When retired adventurer Taergan Flinn doesn’t show up to meet with his old companions, the PCs are called upon to investigate, leading them into a swirling maelstrom of horror and tragedy. Can the PCs unmask and confront the malevolent entity behind the madness and restore hope to a tortured land?

All the artwork in the module has a grim sense of foreboding, which is definitely suitable for this slightly darker module.

The second Pathfinder module I got is the Emerald Spire, which is part of The Emerald Spire Superdungeon, and I’ve also just noticed that one of my images has been picked as a cover for the card set:)

For ages untold, a gemstone monolith has pierced the heart of the Echo Wood. Now, as civilization intrudes upon this enigmatic splinter, a strange life once again stirs in the depths—one with ties to undying evils and a might beyond time itself. The promise of wealth and power calls to glory-seekers from across the Inner Sea region, tempting them into a labyrinth of monster-haunted vaults, defiled tombs, arcane laboratories, and worse, as they seek to unveil the secrets locked below the legendary Emerald Spire.

So, in the next few days I’ll post part of the images I’ve made for these last cards sets. As I said, there’s a whole bunch of stuff still sitting on my hard drive that I’m planning to publish soon, so you’ll be seeing some more soon.

by Paolo Puggioni

Towns of The Inners Sea part II

Here’s the rest of the illustrations I made for Paizo’s Towns of The Inners Sea.
As I said in my previous post, they were mostly portraits, which was both good fun and good practice.

This is the one I’m maybe the happiest with. Her name is Uzmilla and she’s obviously a witch. She was supposed to have wrinkly skin that looks like leather – check; one green eye and one red eye – check; a nasty look but not too evil – check?

I’m particularly satisfied of her hand. Practicing on greys really paid off, the way they make her skin sickly and thin on her bones really works there, I think.
Looking back at it, her neck could do with some more work, and the edges of her silhouette are way too sharp, but hey.

This, on the other hand, is the one I like the least.
It came out a lot more “oh look I’m such a good chap” than I meant to. For some reason I feel like I should do something mean to him, just to spoil his day:(

This one, her name is Salodri, is intriguing. The brief didn’t explain why she is wearing an elaborate eye patch.
I like to think she has a perfectly good eye underneath, she only does that because it’s her way to be a hipster.

And this is Zundrunga. He was supposed to look strong (check) and trustworthy (check).
Fun fact, after I finished working on Towns of The Inner Sea, I realised that I made him exactly like an old friend of mine at school.
He was strong as a bull, but with a kind and gentle heart. For some reason, the moment we met he decided we had to be friends, and that his mission in life from then on was to beat the crap out of everyone who even thought about bullying me.

High school was a walk in the park for me. I hope you’re doing fine buddy.

Lord Hazic Kel Kalaar here, is the one who gave me more problems. I struggled to fit his banner in the frame, his face really wouldn’t work and I made like five versions before I decided this was was good enough.

Either way, this is it for Towns of the Inner Sea.
They are printed at a fairly small size, so the large areas with relatively flat colours should work fine (I haven’t see the prints yet).

More stuff to come shortly!

by Paolo Puggioni

More Pathfinder Artwork

This is another illustration I made for Pathfinder, again for the Player Companion: Dragonslayer’s Handbook.

Just like the last illustration I posted, the canvas aspect ratio was quite awkward, and I had a hard time figuring out how to pose the characters.

For some time I fiddled a bit with the idea of drawing the Angel further away in the distance, to show more of his wings. Then I thought “why the hell do you want to show ALL of his wings in a vertical canvas?”.
So I ended up stacking the figures on top of each other, which worked nicely in the end.

As far as the composition goes, I OBVIOUSLY strived to lead the viewer’s eye in a circular movement.
Hell, the next step would have been carving actual arrows on the Magus’ blade and maybe tattooed along his arm.
The thing is, the canvas is shaped in such a way that it’s easy to “get lost” and not know exactly where to look at. Which, in turn, would result in an uninteresting and ultimately unenjoyable image.

By the way, since I kept the sketch, here it is, because why not.

Now, as far as the colours go, I have to confess I had to cheat a bit.
The ambient lighting is obviously the directional light that comes from the setting sun, which should have resulted in high contrast surfaces with a very warm and a very cold side.

However, there was also the strong cold light created by the bolt of energy cast by the Magus, which in turn would have cooled down the lit surfaces and warmed up the shaded ones.

What to do? Simple, stop giving a crap! I used a just slightly warm diffuse light for both figures, and proceeded to scatter around almost unjustified highlights and rim lights as if they were ten a penny.

Not something I would bring to a convention about Science of Colour And Light Applied To Digital Painting. However, I’m under the impression that had I used a more scientific approach the result would have been messier, so in the end I don’t feel that guilty.

So there, this was another piece of artwork fished from my Pathfinder folder. More to come in the next few days.

by Paolo Puggioni

Pathfinder – Ranger vs Dragon

This is an illustration I made for one of Paizo‘s Pathfinder books, the Player Companion: Dragonslayer’s Handbook .
As a matter of fact, I’ve been lucky enough to have worked quite extensively for the people at Paizo during the past few months.
Which, by the way, is the reason why I haven’t been posting on this blog as often as last year: between these and other freelance assignments I’ve been unbelievably busy!

So, in theory there would be a whole lot of new stuff I could pick from my hard drive and brag about.
In practice, very little of it has been published, so I’m afraid most of it will have to wait to see the light of day.

This is for what I believe was the second assignment I got from Paizo. Which, by the way, is one of the clients I recently enjoyed working with the most .
The setting is still Fantasy enough for me to be in my comfort zone (I keep being asked to draw Fantasy stuff, have you noticed?).
However, both the visual style and the game itself have a strong personality on their own that makes it both challenging and enjoyable to draw for.

Moreover, I must add that the requested revisions are always minimal and the process admiringly smooth, which again makes my work for Pathfinder even more pleasant.

But I digress, back to my dwarf.
This is one of Pathfinder’s iconic characters. If you want to know more about him have a look here!
When I got the assignment I had to read the brief a few times, as I thought the aspect ratio of the canvas was some kind of typo.
It wasn’t.
I had never drawn anything on a canvas that tall and narrow, which made the composition of the first few sketches quite awkward.
I eventually settled with these.

I would have personally picked the first from the left, as the head and neck of the dragon had in my opinion a more interesting shape.
However, I must admit the big mass of the dragon and the smaller one of the hero have a better balance in the final one, so I’m quite happy with it too.

It looks like I’m good to post some more Pathfinder illustrations from the bunch I’ve already done.
So well, you’ll see more in the next few days.

by Paolo Puggioni