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Category Archives: fantasy art update
Fantasy art updates and news relating to the dragonbones.net website.
Sketchy Stuff from January 2023
Wow. We’re almost to the end of February and I haven’t uploaded my sketch stuff from January yet. Way to stick to that new publishing plan, sir.
And there’s a lot. While January wasn’t super productive in the Finished Art Department, there was a decent amount of sketching. So I think that I will upload it here in a gallery format rather than discuss each sketch. If there’s something you would like to know about a particular sketch, let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer all questions.
New Dominir Sketch
It’s been far too long since I’ve had some dragon themed artwork here on… you know… dragonbones.net!
I’m still working on something that I can’t share most of the time, but tonight I took some time out to play D&D with my weekly group.
I’m playing a sorcerer who started the game as a blue half elf with amnesia blocking his memory of anything prior to the opening game session.
Over the span of the campaign (we’re now 16th level) “Dom” has recovered a portion of his memory and sleuthed out a great deal more of his history.
The truth is that he’s a blue dragon and was trapped (as part of a larger scheme) in the form of his blue half elf self.
In a recent session, we broke Dom out of his trapped form, and he’s once again a blue dragon (young). So now I’m having tons of fun sketching his ‘true’ form…
Sketchy Stuff from December 2022
I was thinking it might be a fun thing to post all the sketches here that I did for various things each month. I often can’t post the finished stuff for my Patreon page (as an example) but the sketch work should be fine. And that give you fine folks a little more info on what I’ve been up to.
Additionally, I’ve been spending a bit more time sketching lately without taking the images through to completed work. So there’s more for you to see.
So let’s get started! (Click on individual images to embiggen.)
First up, we have the Gust Goblin. I’ve been working on a set of variant goblin types for folks to use in their TTRPG sessions. This one has an air theme, and the others will (of course) be earth, fire, and water. There will also be a fifth associated with The Void – which is something I’m wholly making up.
I’m hoping to develop a whole series of variant creatures with these 5 types eventually, but one thing at a time, so I’ll work on getting this set done and go from there.
It’s taking me a bit of time to build out the stats / crunch for each of the variants because I’m a bit new to all that.
I’ll post each of the individual variants to my Patreon page first, but then I’ll bundle them together and make them a Pay What You Want title on both my Gumroad and DriveThruRPG.
I believe I actually did the sketch work for this one a while back but I’m including it because I did the inks and colors in December. Plus, I like the little guy.
I created the character as a way to say thanks to my Twitter Pal The Goblin’s Notebook. He’s created a web app that is his namesake. A simple, elegant, and powerful tool for tracking all of your TTRPG campaign notes online in an intuitive way.
If you find yourself struggling to find the thing you’re looking for in your old spiral bound notepad, I strongly suggest checking it out!
This one was a bit of an experiment. I was trying to figure out how to stream live on YouTube using only my iPad since that’s often all I have available to me when I’m on the road.
I was… marginally successful.
Anyway, while doing that, I asked folks on the fediverse (via my profile on mastodon.art) what they would like to see. One person mentioned a mul character. Muls being a fantasy race I’d never come across before, I liked the idea. I did a little digging and found very little in the way of artwork for female muls, so here we are! There’s a lot of potentially triggering content involving muls, so I wanted to hint at it without doing anything that would be overt and clearly triggering. That’s how we came to this moment where she’s clearly standing up / rebelling / starting a revolution.
The first of my holiday themed images for the year. I was thinking about doing postcards. Then, after I procrastinated for a while, I thought about e-cards. Then I just said “Maybe next year.”
Sigh. Distractions, man.
Anyway, I like this little bugger. Goblins have been a bit of a theme for me of late.
I’m okay with this.
Another holiday themed goblin sketch. I was really just playing around with different ideas for holiday / wintery images. The goblin in this one is a bit too angry looking, but this was just the sketch stage.
Also, goblin.
Still playing around with winter / holiday themes, but a little less ‘funny’ or ‘cute’. I really liked giving this orc a pair of dire wolf companions as a parallel to Santa’s reindeer. Not a huge stretch, but I liked it.
This is a weird sort of amalgam character from my childhood. Back when I was in high school (and the dinosaurs still roamed the planet) I created this guy as a small rebellion in my introductory chemistry class.
Even back then, I enjoyed drawing high fantasy stuff, and I thought that sticking Beaker’s head onto Arnold Schwarzenegger’s physique was just hilarious.
He would continue to make appearances on occasion throughout the rest of my life, and yet, I think this may be the first time I’ve referenced him here on dragonbones.net!
That does it for this month!
All of the images above plus their inked (simple black and white line only) and color versions are available to all of my Patreon patrons for $2.
In addition, you’ll find bonus content, and I’m always looking for recommendations from my patrons.
Patreon News!
I have some news regarding my Patreon Page that I think may make some of you very happy.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how the vast majority of what I draw / paint gets locked behind the gates at Patreon, only to be seen by my patrons.
In one sense, that’s a good thing. I want it to never be a question whether or not the money my patrons are spending is ‘worth it’. I want the answer to forever be “OMG, hellz yes!”
But…
What about those folks who can’t or won’t spend the (currently) $2/month to support me? Don’t they deserve to see at least some of that artwork? Wouldn’t they enjoy seeing that stuff?
My recent experience selling my new and improved coloring book really kinda answered that question for me. Clearly, people want other ways to see (and even support) the kind of work that I do.
The problem is that keeping up with all the various ways that others use the internet is both exhausting and would draw energy away from what I should be doing most – making the art.
Well, apparently Patreon has been doing something about this issue and I was unaware (no real shock there).
Starting today, I’ll begin to make some of my posts time-delayed public. That is to say that my patrons will see it right when they get posted and then two weeks later, that same post will automatically become public!
So what does this mean for you?
Well, if you join Patreon (for free), you can ‘follow’ me there for free. Then, when those posts become public, Patreon will let you know via email as long as you don’t turn that off.
Free, easy, and you don’t have to go someplace to find my newest stuff since Patreon sends you an email!
But what about Dragonbones.net?
I will continue to use my site for the really big stuff. I’ll even do some occasional smaller stuff and / or big announcements here. I just don’t want to make you ‘check back’ all the time. Who has time for that?!
So what sort of Stuff will be going up over at your Patreon Page?
Well, I do weekly characters and / or creatures over there. That’s a steady stream of figurative illustration work. Patrons get free (beyond their membership) use for their private (non profit) game tables / VTTs. Now, if you follow me there, you’ll get some of that too!
What if I DO want to support you on Patreon?
Wow – thanks! Well, you certainly may. It’s only $2/month and you’ll get access to everything I post there, which (as noted) includes stuff folks won’t see anywhere else.
You’re also able to up the monthly amount if you’re feeling exceedingly generous (though, seriously – please don’t feel like you need to – every penny sincerely helps!)
Any big plans for anything else on your Patreon Page?
I’ve been thinking about doing narrated time lapse videos of the stuff I do. The problem is that this would require a whole new process beyond the work I’m already doing, and since this isn’t my fully time job…
Perhaps I should make that a ‘stretch goal’?
I don’t know – what do you think?
Please – consider sharing this post with any friends or family who you think might appreciate my art or enjoy using it in their game sessions!
And now, as a treat for you, since you made it all the way down here to the bottom of the post, here are some of the characters I’ve created for my Patreon Page which haven’t been visible elsewhere until now!
New and Improved Coloring Book!
The Dragonbones.Net Coloring Book – Pay What You Want!
It’s long overdue, but I finally hit publish on the updated / improved / enbiggified version of the Dragonbones.Net Big Coloring Book!
It’s now 54 pages with over 50 illustrations to print out and color as many times as you like!
I’m offering it up as a Pay What You Want (PWYW) book, and yes, that means you can pay $0.00 if you like.
I would like to thank my Patreon patrons. Many of the images in this coloring book were created thanks to their patronage. If you would like to support future products like this, feel free to pay whatever you like above zero, and/or become a patron over on my Patreon page.