Z is for Zafira

Whew, I made it! To round up this series, here's Zafira, a feyblooded pirate heiress of an influential captain... ok, OK, a princess, shees. Yep, she's supposed to be standing partially on a stair, I just never got to drawing that. But hey, feet!

Y is for Yet Another Heroine

Not much to say about this one, except perhaps a bit odd choice of weaponry for someone fighting mainly undead. Well, maybe they were mostly the fleshy types.

X is for Cross of Providence

A depiction of a small pendant from Myrskynlintu - Stormcrow. Four arrow points converging.

W is for Wolfmaid

A vignette drawing made for a short story.

V is for Vampire couple

At the time I drew this, I was looking for some vampire miniatures, and all I could find were either tuxedo-and-cape traditionalists or fully armoured battle monsters if male, and scantily-clad seductresses/Dracula's brides, if female. I wanted something different. Something that would not straight away scream 'vampire', but blend in at least somewhat to the common populace, and drew these two before realizing that a right kind of paint job on an ordinary figure would probably be the most optimal choice.

Since then, I've found some decent, non-traditional fantasy vampire miniatures, so that part is covered, as well.

U is for Unnatural cravings

Part of the Myrskynlintu - Stromcrow -storyline, Deleana here has snuck away for a light midnight snack. No, she's not crazy, just a bit - um, pregnant.

Disclaimer: No rats were physically harmed in the production of this drawing.

T is for Tiger tattoo

Nothing fancy here, just a drawing of a tiger's head for a friend, to be used as a tattoo design.

S is for Saria and Ramir

Saria, the Stormcrow, you've met before. Here she is with Ramir, who until just a few moments ago was your ordinary, run-of-the-mill dashing young nobleman with far more sense of valor that was good for him. Now, having literally confronted his inner demons, he's a man changed - and not a bit happy about it.

R is for Rinliddi

Another illustration I did for Heroquest, the foreshortenings on this one still fill me with dread

Q is for Questing paladin

Last one of Iris, I swear! I only included this one, because I really like the suffering look of the warhorse. Iris never was the brightest candle in the bunch, And since her horse was a blessed being, he was probably way smarter than Iris.

Otherwise, there's a lot a bit off in this pic, both anatomically and gear-wise. If there's one drawing among these April ones that would benefit from a redraw, it would be this one.

P is for Phargentes

This one was a commission for Unspoken Word 'zine. I wonder if I knew much about the anatomy of swords at this point, but it seems that the sword could have a full tang with  a peened pommel. At least the Lunar rune is positioned right for that. Yay me.

Yeah, the legs. What did I say on the previous post? Well, at least they are cropped at mid-shin this time.

O is for Other shot of Iris

Other shot of Iris, the paladin. Her bastardsword was modeled after a Scottish claymore, although the quillons are straight. And a sword that size really should have a fuller.
I always intended her to have a sort of South-Italian/Sophia Loren vibe, and I think here her face conveys that quite nicely.

Oh, and a person should never be cropped at the joints. I guess here I was not planning ahead, and just ran out of paper. One of my cardinal sins.

N is for Neeb-neeb, the thrall

For once, there's not much story or game behind this pic. The main motivation was that while I had always liked the Skaven of Warhammer a lot, painted a lot of miniatures and even tried my hand at sculpting a Rat-ogre or two, at that time I had not yet tried to draw one. This one started out just as a doodle, and for that, turned out quite nicely. It's a bit too hairy, perhaps, but I got the pose and demeanor right.

M is for Musca Domestica

A T-shirt design from way back.

L is for Lily

One of the few pics that does not have a story behind it. Inspired by the Kate Bush song of the same name, this was more a technical exercise than anything else.

K is for Kara the raven

Okay, here's a redeemer for the yesterday's raven pic. Of course, this one's drawn from photographic references. I don't know why a part of me still considers that to be kind of cheating.

J is for Jorgen Umas

For a chance, an RPG character that was not mine. Jorgen was a drawing made for a friend. I've never been much good with animals, but somehow this time the horse more or less just happened, and pretty much like I has intended it, too.

The same cannot be said for the crow/raven, though...

I is fo Iris with tattoo

Iris, the wayward paladin, was a RPG character that more or less wrote itself. A lowly camp follower, she first was drafted as a replacement 'mascot' for the army she was following when her predecessor, a lady of noble birth and upbringing, met an untimely demise. And soon after, she was given some heavy-handed divine inspiration by a war-goddess she was not even following when the army was facing insurmountable odds. The game fizzled quite soon, but her (mis)adventures have gone on, in some form or another.

H is for Hell-hounds

It took a lot of references to get the poses right. Originally intended as a small vignette, so the shading might seem a tad heavy-handed.

G is for Gang of Mercenaries

Another one of the Myrskynlintu - Stormcrow project. The armour is getting better, although.. is that supposed to be studded leather? *sighs*. Oh well, can't win them all.

F is for Float-fortress Sneak-sinker

Here's a little vignette I made for a homebrew adventure for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Still Waters Run Deep. The insidious Skaven are preparing a test of their newest secret weapon. Inspired by the Turtle submersible of the American Revolutionary War, I could not help but think that there was a scheme that would totally fit the modus operandi of the ratmen. I also ended up making a model of the submersible, and later a surface support vessel for it.

E is for Enna the Seeress

Another drawing from Myrskynlintu - Stormcrow: Saria, the plucky heroine of the tale, is getting her fortunes told by a wisewoman. Probably one of the first drawings I made for the project.

D is for Demons in the Snow

I wanted to illustrate a story. Or novel. But I was not comfortable in doing someone else's world or characters, and so decided that the easy way was to write a novel myself, and do the illustrations - and the whole lay-outo f course - for it. Thus began my on-off project Myrskynlintu (Stormcrow). The main problem was that I never really knew whether I should have concentrated on the writing or the images, and eventually I lost steam. I usually had these quite vivid images of the different, key scenes, and translating those to prose was quite awkward at times.

Well, at least I have a bunch of images to remember it by.

C is for Comet Seers

One of my few forays in the world on RPG publishing was a brief stint I did for Hero Wars/Heroquest by Greg Stafford. On the whole, it was a learning experience in many ways. Mostly, it taught me that I'm not so great with paint-by-numbers -commissions, especially since I have never been a huge 'fan' of Glorantha, and did not know much about it before I signed up, so I was never very comfortable about what I should - and could draw.

Well, it did fulfill one of my childhood dreams, having my drawings in a published RPG. Nowadays, I'd rather do layouts and such.

B is for Brinda Shelck

'Brinda, of the Shelck Family. Vermin eradicator exraordinaire'. A drawing of my Neverwinter Nights I character from the Escape form Underdark - Persistant World I used to frequent. Rat-catcher by trade, loner by nature, Brinda was a fun character to play. And of course, the gear she sports in the illustration shows only a fraction of the stuff she had in her inventory. I just couldn't get a longbow - or a tower shield - to fit comfortably, for example.

A is for Ambra

Ambra was a major character in a Sci-Fi story   I was planning some time ago, a feline-featured zero-gravity gladiator on a run-down space-station visited by asteroid miners and freighter pilots. The origin of the character started as a thought exercise about how to create a plausible 'cat-girl', and the story just sort of grew from that.

The drawing was going to be coloured afterwards, and therefore the shading and other features are quite minimal. Ambra is supposed to be a blue-creme mackerel tabby, after all.