Category: Art

Contains my commissions, art supplies, illustrations, and processes. All the things that I consider a part of my artist side.

Paper Mini’s Set A

I said that I would do something when I hit 800 followers and Twitter, and so here it is! Here is a free set of printable paper miniatures for wargaming.

Click here for the 13 page PDF.

I made these for use with Lion’s Rampant from Osprey, but as they are generic they could be used with anything probably. These were made for Lion’s Rampant (which is why you’ll notice the weapon combinations for the minis are similar to the choices present in the Lion’s Rampant rulebook).

Because regular miniatures are expensive, not just money but in time (assembly, painting, tools to paint etc), that is why I decided to make my own paper miniatures. Not because their weren’t options present online that I could have downloaded, printed, and used but because I wanted to play with minis that were of my own making/artstyle. So a little more cartoony, but not super cartoony. I just wanted minis that looked like they came out of the old school fantasy rpgs whose art style I like.

That is how I got to making these. I expect that once I have made even more paper minis, I may put them together into a zine with maybe my own house rules to be used with them when printed and assembled. But for that to happen, I would need to create paper terrain, do some more gaming and writing for wargames type stuff.

Until then, the most you will read about paper miniatures on this blog will be my own play reports from using these at my own table for solo gaming.

Horror Photoshop Brushes

Hey, this is just a quick post. But I promised that I would release my brushes I made for drawing monster in photoshop on my blog for free if I got to 700 followers on Twitter.

This has occured!

So here are the brushes (for free).

(Feel free to use this brush pack for commercial purposes, no attribution needed)

If you want to give me money for them, go buy stuff from my games page (I even have more brushes there).

Here are some pics I drew using them:

What will I do at 800? Probably finish my architecture skyship brushes and post them too. Or maybe I’ll make something else that I have made free. idk. Maybe I’ll release the paper minis I have been making on my blog?

Upcoming Projects!

Did you enjoy Runaway Hirelings, a 30-ish page tabletop role-playing game from whenever time ago? (It was 1 year Thomas omg.) Well, do you also want to know what I am working on getting shoved out the door with kisses and a packed lunch?

Here it is! This is the blog post for you. The one that has some descriptions and pitches of games and products that I have coming out in the near future. Including a game zine filled with shorter games that I have worked on, a Runaway Hirelings hack/reskin, and my artbook for 2018!

Office Murder Party

Day One: Drink coffee, gossip about packages delivered inside the office. Day Two: CEO starts rambling over the intercom at odd intervals about “Armor plating over the windows so that the drones who work in this office building can’t escape when I take it over.”

No one is certain what this means. Then, all of a sudden the windows go dark and the speakers crackle alive with a command, “Create a Civilization.” Now, as interns are trying to escape a wild mailroom boy, fuelled by panic and potentially drugs filtered in through the vents, you must make it to the first floor lobby. That is where freedom is.

Will you draw the Watercooler desert location from the Office deck? Or an Executive Challenge, where you are punished for not jousting in the portable escalators? In Office Murder Party, the Office deck is a deck of cards that brings forth areas to explore, emergency situations to intrude on whatever is going on, and Executive Challenges. This deck is assembled at the beginning of play by the players and determines what challenges come up during the game session, while the players control their office workers and introduce strange and troubled NPCs to this lockdown mega tower in downtown Desert Vista.

Office Murder Party is a role-playing game that is inspired partially by: The Belko Experiment, The Office, and Sunset Overdrive, injected with the default silliness of Runaway Hirelings.

Game Specs:

  • Single session game
  • 1.5 to 2.5 hour game session
  • 3-6 Players recommended
  • Original Game System

2018 Artbook

At the end of the year 2017, a book came out in paperback with a plain white cover with a little doodle in the center. This was a collection of my 2017 sketchbook pages and zines that I had put together in a paperback form.

Well, here we are, it’s 2019, and I have my 2018 artbook coming out. But this time it will be hardcover, 6 in. x 9 in., and it will have a ton of creative captions. Almost all of them have nothing to do with what the art is inside. These captions are just descriptions of some of the images in the book, not from when the image was created, but of what I see in them now as I am assembling this artbook.

At over 185 pages of words and black and white drawings, you can flip through stranger and more rubbery drawings that I have done, stripped from my personal sketchbooks, a lot of which have not been shared online. So prepare for some weirdness and check out this new artbook.

Page Spread from the 2018 Artbook.

Book Specs:

  • Artbook containing sketchbook art from 2018
  • With unrelated caption text littered about
  • 185+ page black and white hardcover book

My Assorted Art 2017 book can be purchased in print here and digitally overhere . My 2018 Artbook will be coming out on lulu for the print copy, and itch.io as well (did you know that you can follow creators on itch.io? Well you can! Follow me for notifications!).

Game Sack vol. 1

Here are some of the zine sized publications that I have previously put out. Game Sack is bigger than all of them.

I have written a few smaller games, some super short games, and others are of a sort of interesting length that I wouldn’t just publish on their own. So this is what I am going to do with them: give them layout and a little bit of art, then print out a bunch of them on a laser printer and make them into a zine.

It’s a zine of small games! Games about pancake dates, and tree spirits talking about whether they should reveal themselves to humans! A game where magic items make the adventurer! A game where you rush out the kitchen at the inn trying to get ingredients, so you don’t disappoint the master chef of the Whisper Willow Inn and Rest Stop.

Be prepared for a zine of small games of varying silliness and length. Some of which have been previously released through my Patreon, but here they are rewritten and with a little more polish!

Book Specs:

  • Short Game Collection
  • Zine (size and production)
  • Assorted Genres

This game will be coming out in PDF over here on itch.io and also drivethrurpg when it comes out. To make sure that you don’t miss it and get notified of its release, may I recommend subscribing to my mailing list? There is a form at the bottom of the page.

The Magic Hour

Brie Beau Sheldon (designer of Let Me Take a Selfie and the TTRPG Turn!) and Thomas Novosel (fantasy illustrator and designer of Runaway Hirelings) team up to create a fantasy adventure that takes place in an incredibly small town at the edge of the oldest segments of the forest…

People have been going missing at dusk. Surrounded by forests on the outskirts of the county, and just beyond the fingertips of the capital guards reach, something has been coming and taking people. Not a single glimpse has been caught of the perpetrators, but something needs to happen. A gang has moved in to investigate, but it is taking too long; everyone is worried and unsure of what to do. There aren’t a lot of lives to spare in a small town, and soon it won’t even be occupied by ghosts.

In this fantasy role-playing game adventure, players form a party and investigate the recent disappearances. Meet a wide variety of characters, each having things to say about what is going on. You will encounter the strangeness of a quiet forest, and soon understand that silence should always be concerning – especially when your ears are looking for a sound to hear from between the old trees. Listen carefully for something… anything. But dread what you suspect you may hear, a scuffle at dusk, followed by a buffeted wind.

The Magic Hour is an system agnostic fantasy adventure meant to either kickoff a new campaign or be one night of investigations and adventure.

Adventure Specs:

  • System Agnostic
  • Fantasy Adventure
  • One Session length

Follow me for updates and release information!

So that’s what’s next up from me and you can keep up with these projects and more by signing up for my newsletter and following me at itch.io. If you enjoy anything I’m releasing, please let me know! I love to support podcasts and blogs that feature my work and work by other awesome designers.

I am also always available through DM’s on Twitter, if anyone has any questions for me, or media inquiries.

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YouTube Videos to Learn With (and more)

Most of my drawing skills have come from YouTube tutorials and copying from art books (not specifics, just details and lessons I think is the best way to describe it). Thanks to this education I have seen so many videos that I would consider “okay”, bad, and some were just highly useful and inspirational. Just so important to alter how I draw and how I look at a piece of paper when I am drawing.

For a playlist to just go through and learn to draw with the videos that helped me, take a look at this YouTube link and watch forever (or however long the playlist is at the moment that you check it out).


YouTube Channels

Here are links to some YouTube channels that I watch very often for instructional material:

moderndayjames – often fantasy drawing instruction, breaking down cloth and perspective in short bits. Hit premium instructional videos are also worth it if you are willing to throw a couple dollars towards him.

Proko – tons of anatomy drawing videos which are realllyyyy good and easy to get through. His series on drawing hands is one that I would highly recommend going through.

James Gurney – excellent water color videos, sometimes it helps to see a master fantasy painter doing their studies in real life with gouache. A lot to learn just about colors from this guy, and plein-air and painting setups when you are on the go.

Marco Bucci – ten minutes to a better painting is a very good series, going over quick tidbits that’ll make your paintings better.

Scott Robertson – master teacher, just seeing his sketchbook flip through’s make me want to think differently about sketching with pens and markers. If you want to see the best example of what drawing each day does check out Scott Robertson’s flip through and chat with Chris Ayers of the “Daily Zoo”.

Drawing Tutorials Online – it is exactly what it says. High quality drawing tutorials, but what is actually the huge inspiration for me is the video playlist he has which is flip-throughs of his college students sketchbooks. 


Art Books I like

I have a fair number of art books on my book shelf but here are the big ones that I reference quite often for information and some explanations on how to draw things:

How to Draw by Scott Robertson – just wow, this guy knows how to teach perspective. I mentioned his youtube channel in the other tab, but this book is excellent and I would highly recommend it. The exercises within it really build your skill level up.

Bridgmans Drawing from Life – a classic for a reason, I know it can be a good learning tool but I think it is a much stronger tool if you have google nearby so you can look up more detailed pictures of muscle, so that your working off more than the sketches in the book as reference. This book focuses on drawing the body and getting the proportions burned into your skull.

Rebus by James Jean – sometimes I get too stiff in my drawings, so I look at some james jean art and try to grab at the curves he has perfected in his lines. Just google search his work or follow his instagram and you may like what he does. His book isn’t so much instructional but inspirational.

The Art of Ian Miller – Miller is one of my major influences, it is clear by what I started drawing with (technical pens) and what I started drawing in fantasy (towers and castles). This is more of an example of what I do, I keep my influences within reach. That way if I need to remind myself of what gets me really jazzed for my lines I can flip a book open or look up to a paper pinned above my desk and get back at it.

Any of Kim Jung Gi’s Sketchbooks – these books are just bound pages of people at various different angles as drawn by artist legend Kim Jung Gi. If I need a quick angle, he is likely to have drawn a sketch in pen. If I need to think outside the box, I just flip through this book and try to blend the feeling I get from looking at his stuff with the lessons I have already learned and use when drawing.

Other Websites

If it didn’t fit so much into the other tabs here is everything else, it involves more youtube channels and some unrelated but also sometimes related websites that I frequent:

Mateusz Urbanowicz – I love his watercolor painting videos, and I am really wanting his Tokyo Storefront watercolor artbook that he put together (a lot of his videos have him working on those works).

Art Cafe – artist interviews on YouTube that are really good and often times have artists showing off their technique while discussing their art careers and techniques.

Art Station – just a ton of high quality artists posting on one site that you can look across. Often good for some inspiration or to see what other people in games and visual digital art like to do.

The Art Assignment – fun art videos about art movements and specific art locations. Its pretty good and quite a bit of fun. Its kinda where I started getting into and learning about some art movements and conceptual art.

Parka Blogs – website that shows video reviews of art books and full blog post write-ups for each. Honestly, just flipping through the blog posts is a good way to get introduced to a weird variety of art books that I normally wouldn’t stumble across such as Illustrated Musings by Eddie Chau, which looks nice.

Pinterest – while alot of people are not a fan of posting their own work to Pinterest, I can say that I am a fan of just going down rabbit holes for art and style inspiration for projects. Again, stumbling across things I just normally would not find if I went to a library or just asked for artist suggestions. And with the help of a reverse google image search I can find attribution if it is online. Here is my profile in case you want to check out the boards that I have set up for inspiration.

Life Drawing – photoshow website that can provide life drawing pictures to work with and help with learning some anatomy and poses.

The biggest thing for me is having enough inspiration within a glance or a moments notice that I can use them to learn styles and details and tidbits. They can influence me in a direction towards whatever I want to learn more about.

What am I up to, March 2018

It is March 11th! Stuff has happened! I am working hard! This is work. First the quick updates on stuff that I am doing that you can go check out RIGHT NOW!

Notifications:

  • Runaway Hirelings, my short tabletop rpg about hirelings escaping a dungeon after their employers die is out! IN PRINT AND PDF! Print + PDF over on Drivethrurpg, and we also have just a PDF over on Gumroad.
  • Monster Butts Volume 2 is out! You can get #1 and #2 in a bundle pdf purchase over on Gumroad, the second issue has a game by Brie Sheldon in it! So check it out! More monsters, more costumes, etc etc
  • Inktober 2017 zine! Its available in PDF over on Gumroad, go check this outttttt! Its all my ink drawings from 2017’s inktober. It is also in the compilation that is assorted art 2017.
  • Assorted Art 2017, my 2017 sketchbook art book contains a butt load of my sketchbook zines from 2017, monster butts #1, inktober 2017, and just a good 280 pages of sketchbook page scans from 2017. It is available in PDF on gumroad, or you can get a paperback copy over on LULU.
  • White Star Galaxy Edition! I did the layout for this might as well be star wars OSR game, galaxy edition is a big cobble together and revised version of the white star game and its various releases. You can get it in PDF + Print over on drivethrurpg, or pick up a print copy on lulu! Check it out, its pretty.

If your a fan of stuff that I make myself (Runaway Hirelings, Monster Butts, my zines, and art books), I recommend checking out my patreon! I give zines there that I don’t sell anywhere else most of the time. I also give print discounts for books that I made (not white star, not stuff that I get paid to do or am hired to do, just the stuff that I publish). Go check it out, I also give out small packs of for commercial use art on their to patrons. Which at this point the folder is feeling like it is getting bigger and bigger.

Here is an example of for commercial use that Patrons get to use:

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Sketchbooking and Making Art

This year I am hoping to learn more, study more, and just all around get better at what I do. To this end I am filling sketchbooks and drawing as much as possible, I also am looking and absorbing more art around me, through art books and the internet. Just yesterday I went to the frederic remington art museum and did a few pencil sketches quickly of stuff I saw that interested me. So I want to fill my books and learn how to paint. Here is a few pages from my latest sketchbook preview I gave to Patrons (shortened for the blogpost).

And here are some pictures of paintings that are WIP:

Reference Zine: Volume One (PDF)

Category/Tags
Categories: Downloads, Art
Tags: releases, zines

I have recently been looking at a ton of different art styles that involve pens, or things that I could replicate using technical pens. So I have been looking at old woodcuts and engravings, the type I remember finding in the school libraries copy of Dante Aligieri’s “Divine Comedy”. Specifically the first book, Inferno.

After looking across the internet, I downloaded a bunch of free to use images (found using google’s advanced image search of course), and assembled them into a zine. A art reference zine, which I could flip through whenever I need some inspiration quick or need to “oh yeah that’s how it looks” a specific things such as waves and water or fat pudgy clouds while working on a drawing or a piece.

Feel free to download this short zine, print it out even, and keep it by your desk too! Perhaps it may be useful to you too.

Click here to download

art reference volume 1