January 15, 2015

D&D Dungeon Master's Screen

Last year when WotC approached me to illustrate the Dungeon Master's Screen, I was in disbelief, and double checked the recipient address to make sure they hadn't accidentally sent an email that was meant for someone else. Once I realized that, yes, they did actually want me for this assignment I jumped up and down and squealed. Then I peed my pants a little bit.

It is the largest and most time consuming (digital) piece I've ever done, about 45 days. Due to advertising needs, I had to do the image in layers, each character, environmental element, and effect had to be on a separate layer. It also had to read as four separate panels, integrated into a single wide horizontal foldable format. In the end it was around 20 layers (and I painted on the wrong layer at least a dozen times throughout the process).

Thumbnails



Grayscale

They liked thumbnail #1, and we collectively decided to flip the image so it read from left to right. I also wanted to increase the size of the dragon so it's wings spread across all four panels.



Color Process

A number of elements were revised, mostly the Kobolds surrounding the adventure party. I painted those changes in color instead of my usual grayscale to color method.



Final Color



individual Panel Details



all images © Wizards of the Coast

14 comments:

  1. Holy crap, I love this so much!!! I peed my pants little looking at this. It's always a treat reading your new post and seeing new work from you.

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  2. I kid you not, I just bought this screen yesterday. It is gorgeous. ;) Nice work!!

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  3. Thanks Tora! I just received copies today, and was surprised how chunky they are, like a four panel hardback book cover. Really nice printing and binding.

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  4. Hey Craig, some damn fine work. I totally dig this iconic scene and think that your piece of art counts among the best seen on DM screens to date. Hope to see more of you in the future. Take care!

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  5. Holy crap, I love this so much!!! I peed my pants little looking at this. It's always a treat reading your new post and seeing new work from you.
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  6. SO GOOD! Congrats on the assignment, you grabbed it by the horns :D

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