Viktor Fetsch

No words this time. Hopefully the cover will speak for itself.

Rough Cover Progress – Viktor Fetsch

A couple days ago, we took a peek at the preliminary sketch Viktor Fetsch produced for the cover of Legends & Labyrinths. Here we see the cover as a work-in-progress, as it reaches roughly the 75% point of its completion.

One of the things I like about this piece is that the dragon feels traditional at first glance, but has a uniquely fiendish cast to his features upon closer inspection. There is a depth of both physical and conceptual space which draws my eye into the work and makes me want to step (or charge) into that world.

Preliminary Cover Sketch – Viktor Fetsch

Getting the art I need for Legends & Labyrinths continues to be a struggle. It’s a project that has been a monkey on my back for a long time; and as Zeno’s Paradox seems to invoke itself as I get closer and closer to its final completion, it feels like that monkey has been chowing down on neutronium.

But the process has not been without its joys. And watching Viktor Fetsch’s beautiful illustration for the cover slowly evolve and emerge has been a particular high point. Over the next week, I’m hoping to share a (rapidly accelerated) version of that experience with you.

We start today with the preliminary sketch Viktor gave me for approval before launching into the final piece. Prior to this, I had given him an art order which looked like this:

3 CORE ELEMENTS: 3 iconic heroes; fighting a dragon; in an evocative ruin.

DRAGON: Dead or alive. (Or both.)

RUINS: A sense of preternatural age. The majestic contours of long-lost civilizations. Whisper the suggestive echoes of a thousand, limitless stories.

HEROES: Three major fantasy archetypes — Fighter, Wizard, Rogue/Assassin. There should be no sense of these characters as “posing dramatically”, but rather being captured in a real moment. We want realistic armor. At least one of the heroes should be female. Consider having the heroes facing “away” from the camera: I don’t know if that’s necessarily right, but I am struck by how it invites the viewer to either identify with the characters or think of themselves as “the fourth member of the party”. Not a passive viewer, but a participant sharing in the same experience/vista.

3 KEY NOTES: A depth of field which invites the viewer into the sense of a wider world. The heroes and dragon interacting with the environment (dragon gripping a piece of ruin; flame washing around a rocky protuberance; one of the heroes hiding behind a wall; something like that). A “wow” element that’s not immediately apparent, but makes the image more than just a generic scenario.

If you had to describe the perfect cover for a fantasy RPG, what would it be?

Things have been quiet around here lately because I’ve been frittering away on a number of projects. One is a lengthy series of essays that I’ll be posting here once they’re done… but they’re not done yet, so you’ll have to wait a little longer.

And one of the reasons they’re not done is because I’ve been working hard to finish up Legends & Labyrinths.

Basically, the current status of L&L is pretty easy to sum up: Flaking artists.

This was to be anticipated. Unfortunately, some of the outstanding pieces are actually crucial: The cartography for the Tomb of the Crypt Spiders bonus; the character sheet; and one of the pieces I’m contractually bound to include in the printed book as a sponsor reward. The character sheet is probably not 100% essential, but I literally can’t print the book without providing that last one. I probably should have pulled the plug sooner and moved onto a different artist.

Expect more preview stuff in the near future. And for those of you who missed the 8-Bit sponsorship but have been hammering my e-mail to know when the book will be available for general sale: You have been heard. There will be a pre-order system set-up, but it will probably not be made available until the book is ready to go.

Forest Encounter – Alex Drummond

I like fantasy architecture. I stud my worlds with impossible structures weaved out of dream-stuff and fancy. And the cyclopean trees of elven forests are among my favorites. It would have been almost unthinkable for Legends & Labyrinths not to include an illustration like this… and, thankfully, Alex Drummond delivers something that is both fanciful and feyish; beautiful and mysterious.