Example Cover Painting for a TTRPG – About this fantasy commission painting.
The brief: Create a cover painting for a TTRPG called ‘The Woods’.
I was commissioned to create a painting using water-mixable oils. A medium that is incredibly versatile, vibrant, and forgiving! As an artist, it allows me to take many technical liberties that my humble acrylics would never allow. From slower drying times to glazing, layering, and retaining much of its punchy colour and hues, water-mixable oils are a great traditional medium.
At least that is my opinion.
This is an example of what water-soluble oils can do.
This was also one of my first commissions using this medium.
I have since created other pieces of artwork, which have been sold as certified Giclee ( ZHE CLAY) prints. I’m keen to see where this medium can take me in the future.
In the post, I wanted to share some of my artistic processes as well as a bit about the picture itself.
I was granted this commission by Oakbound Studios, A legend in the old guard aesthetic of tabletop gaming! Thanks, Geoff, it was a blast!
Fantasy Commission Painting | The Theme
To create a piece of cover art which was to be used in the fantasy TTRPG ‘The Woods. I employed not only my brushstrokes and pencil, but also the use of my imagination and character design to help convey a narrative.
The theme and setting – ‘The Woods’
Fantasy Bronze Age era! Filled with pixies, moor critters, Fae, and arcane magic and infinity more, which I only have a shallow understanding of.
Visually, Oakbound Studios, follows a traditional aesthetic that harks back to the golden era of the 80s era of tabletop gaming. The miniatures are sculpted by hand, and much of the artwork is created with traditional mediums. The tone, style, and even the miniatures transport you straight back in the best possible way!
I hoped my artwork would help to build upon the classic aesthetic.
Stage 1 – The Brief For Creating The Fantasy Cover
Without boring you about the administrative stages of the project, here is how the project was started.
Myself and the owner at Oakbound Studios ( Cheers Geoff ) set a brief. In this stage, we established the core aims and goals for the artwork; it was open enough to allow me creative freedom while adhering to the rules and lore of ‘The Woods’.
Stage 2 – Example Cover Painting for a TTRPG | The First Sketches
The sketches, the stage before paint is applied to canvas!
Once drawn, I labelled the selection of sketches ‘A, B, C’ so both I and the client could reference the artwork and decide which illustration would be best suited to their cover work.
I wasn’t passive in this process. I tried to steer in the same direction as what may best excite and win the viewer’s eye, and also tell a story.
A drawing was selected.
Stage 3: Rough Line Work and Underpainting
Once the sketch was selected, I translated this onto the canvas, adding certain details here and there before applying oil-mixable paint as a thin colour wash.
I then moved on to an ‘underpainting’ stage. The underpainting acted as a general tone-setter that covered my line work. Offering an idea of depth and warmth to certain areas of the picture.
I needed to give time for the paint to dry before moving to the next stage, especially as a large amount of water had been applied to the water-mixable oil.
Watching paint dry…
Unlike working in digital mediums or working with a pencil or pen, I had to wait for the paint to dry!
If you are reading this to see a piece of example artwork using water-soluble oils, please take into consideration that the paint needs to dry.
There are some simple methods for speeding up the drying process… such as placing the wet canvas near heat or using a hair dryer.
At the time when working on this fantasy commission painting, it was not uncommon to see paintings draped over radiators or propped around various areas of the flat when I lived in Wimbledon – and was drawing there too!
Stage 4 – Paint. Dry. Paint… Dry. Wait…
Never watch paint dry as they do!
That is what makes this type of project challenging to budget. As another example of working with water-soluble oils, they take a while to dry compared to working digitally.
Tea breaks would most likely have filled the gaps, and I would have worked on some of my other sketches.
Although you don’t have to watch paint dry, you can look at some of my sketch work here :
Once the underpainting had dried and the gloss had dulled to a matte finish, I then sent a WIP ( Work In Progress ) to my client.
For the curious, no, I didn’t scan a slightly wet painting into my computer; it was a simple photo!
Dried water-soluble oils
Drying Water-Soluble Oils
With my water-soluble oils now dried and beaming with client approval, I set about adding the top layers and blocking in main colours.
Large volumes of green for the meadows, bluish sky hues, Grey brown rocks, the grey-white goat, ORANGE!
When painting with water-soluble oils, I prefer not to use the wet-on-wet method, as it can create a muddy, swampy, and uncontrollable mess. Although it can have some brilliant benefits when blending colours!
Here is an illustrated example of processes taking form!
Stage 5 – Fantasy Commission Painting | Detailing
The final phase of the painting involved refining and refining the smaller details. This detailing stage consisted of adding extra layers of shine to the artwork, adding eyes, cutting in some already existing details, and more visual enhancements to the piece.
This was the final polishing stage of the artwork. After adding these touches, I would send a draft to the client for final approval.
Stage 6 – Complete Artwork – Cover handover
In the final stages, I then created a high-res scan of the artwork to send to my client to add to the cover of the TTRPG.
That is, in essence, the process in painting this commission from start to finish. From conversation to terms. From terms to ideas, and then from ideas to applying paint to canvas. And the payments that come before and after.
That concludes the ‘literal process’, here is some of the thought process for creating the cover artwork using water-mixable oils.
Fantasy Commission Painting: The Narrative
Set in a mythical Bronze Age where ancient beasts roam and the Fae dwell, I wanted my painting to contribute to this fantastical world.
Geoff, the owner of Oakbound Studios, gave me a general overview of what could be included in the painting. For reference, I looked at his miniatures as source material and created an action scene based on some of these characters!
Oakbound Studios: Credits & Thank You
I would like to say a big thank you to Geoff over at Oakbound Studios. I had a blast creating the painting to be adorned on the cover of his books!
Here is a link to Oakbound Studios!
Example Cover Painting for a TTRPG – Other works
Thank you for reading my showcase and post about example cover painting for a TTRPG
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