Saturday, September 27, 2008

Róak-Aradûn

My brother and I decided to try our hand at entrepreneurship and are making a Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition supplement book. If you're into D&D and want to try an experimental online gaming forum, check out the website at www.roak-aradun.com. Email my brother Aaron for if you want to be a part of it.

Róak-Aradûn, in my opinion, is the epitome of what role-playing should be. My brother is a genius at it, and truly loves the wholesome benefits of role-playing--a creative pasttime that in my opinion is exceedingly valuable and can be very, very entertaining. I played D&D extensively in high school, and while I eventually realized my true passion was drawing and writing, I will never doubt that the talents I have largely came from being involved in role-playing as a youth. If you don't know what old school paper and pencil role-playing is then you should look into it. It's probably on Wikipedia.

I have been doing a lot of artwork for it the last couple weeks. Some of it I am pleased with and some of it I'm really not, but here is the better stuff. As usual nothing is finished.

I hope that with publication the goal I will have enough of a sharpening stone to encourage me to get competitive in the art world...but with Caveman on my shoulders (I will finish it I tell you!!!) I can only pray that my art will improve enough in the time that I have.



A silhouette study of the city skyline.









A lighting study. Hence, try to look at the colors more than anything else.







A dragon.




















A character thumbnail for the forum.













The silent forest.




















A character thumbnail for the forum.

8 comments:

Anthony Holden said...

Mike,
Really nice warmth and colors in the bottom portrait. Nicely done.

JAKE WYATT said...

That environment sketch with the upward thrust- I want to be there.

Aaron Ludwig said...

Great concept art! You put the "ron" back into environments... and I have no idea what that means. Nice work.

Ty Carter said...

That's a strong silhouette Mike. I like your composition in the painting as well.

Wyatt Stevens Miles said...

I love these paintings. Your colors are really working.

Kory Lynn Hubbell said...

These are looking really nice. I love the one with the city in slight silhouette. The lighting is very believable.

Steve said...

Hey what are the actual mechanics of the game? In more particular how do you play? Is it all online and you sit in a virtual room with a virtual DA?
I've looked in the site and there really isn't anything about how the game play works.

steve

p.s. Your dragon is currently my desktop wallpaper

Ellis said...

It's been a while since I've seen your blog. You're even better now (which is what you would hope to happen). Great work. That color test looks awesome with the silhouette of the city. Way to jump into the market, that's a great way to get better.