Totally vain clothing choice? Tax Write -off? In case I get lost and forget my name? Possibly all of the above.
In all honesty, I'm picky about my t-shirts. I can't stand those cheap ass t-shirts from stores, that feel like they are on their tenth trip through a thrift store.
And now that so many people were so kind to show interest, I am now taking pre-orders in the store. The link is at the top of the page. There are also women's shirts. I just didn't have them done for the pic.
This is the last of the images I did for the Imperial Assault - Twin Shadows expansion from Fantasy Flight. The others can be seen here
I recently received my complimentary Game of Thones card game. Which is usually how I know that I'm allowed to share all of the images from said game.
Images for card games always get cropped. So you will be seeing the entire image before it's covered up or just cut out. All of these are major characters in the books and show. They are intentionally different from how they appear in the show. Because licensing.
Here you go.
And this one is actually from one of the previous versions of the game. I don't think I ever shared it. It's about a year old....2 years? I'm not entirely sure.
I recently had a request for a print for one of my paintings. Which reminded me that I had gotten lazy with my fotomoto store. Which lead to the discovery that fotomoto didn't work since I updated my site.
So I had to find a new printer. I don't want to deal with printing out stuff, packaging and mailing. It's a hassle. Enter Inprnt.
I set up a store with the few images I'm allowed to sell prints of. Unfortunately Star Wars isn't available as of now. I'll check with them about selling prints but I think I know the answer already.
So anyway, go buy a print.
http://www.inprnt.com/gallery/aaronjriley/
New cover for Rippers Game Masters guidebook.
The large image without the dressings.
Pinnacle Entertainment Group is doing a kickstarter for a new version of Rifts. I did a bunch of the characters for the Game. I've got some covers I did for them also, but I can't show those quite yet. Here are the characters individually and with the background for a GM screen (or something like that).
You can read more about the Kickstarter on the PEG website.
Cover for the new Rifts game from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. The kickstarter goes live next week on the 26th. For more info on the game go to PEG's website.
Another cover from the new Rifts game from Pinnacle Entertainment. The kickstarter just launched.
Another Rifts image has been released on the internet. I'm trying to get my blog posts down to fewer characters than a tweet.
Interior illustrations for Gods of the Fall by Monte Cook Games. You can read more about the game here.
Divine Labor
Revels in Trickery
The book is really well done. Plus a big ass map.
Contributor Copy
I had basically quit doing Warhammer cards. However, my AD that I had worked with for a couple years knew the one thing that would convince me to do some more. Necrons. I had been asking for them, the moment we had a relationship that I felt comfortable asking for stuff. And considering recent news that Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight have split, I guess I was in on one of the last sets of Warhammer 40k cards.
Chapter plate for Star Wars "Age of Rebellion" rpg by Fantasy Flight Games.
The title says it all.
Some character designs for Green Ronin's Blue Rose rpg.
The Boneyard by Seanan McGuire is the third installment of the Deadlands series of books from Tor publishing. The others being Ghostwalkers by Jonathan Maberry and Thunder Moon Rising by Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Here is the link to more on the book. The Boneyard
I've included the sketches. We changed directions after the first round of sketches to better reflect the Circus setting of the book. It definitely fits the book better, even though I liked the original sketches.
If you are a fan of the "Parks and Recreation" tv show, you probably know what this is. When Mayfair games asked me to do these characters however, I had no idea what it was. So here is a small clip from the show to somewhat explain.
During his week off between jobs, Ben becomes obsessed with creating a new role-playing game called "The Cones of Dunshire."
I believe Mayfair Games originally designed the general idea of the game for the show. Apparently it was pretty popular so they decided to try to make an actual game.
Normally when I do these character designs they are just variations on the common role playing classes. Knight, Cleric, Wizard, etc.. So needless to say I had no idea what I was supposed to do with a "Brinksman" or "Arbiter". I was just given the name and a rather small picture of the miniatures they were going to use. Thankfully my AD gave me a good idea where to go once I asked.
They wanted to use the sketches on the kickstarter page, so I did a bit more detailed sketch than my usual chicken scratch sketches. Couldn't have everyone looking at those.
Then the finals.
Unfortunately the kickstarter wasn't funded. So I'm not sure these will get used for anything unless they try again.
I'm so good at business, I forgot to post about my new t-shirts.
There are 3 designs right now. I'll slowly add some more as I come up with new ideas. You can get the designs on nearly everything. Shirts (of course), hoodies, tanks, pencil bags, and uhhh..shower curtains, blankets and several other things I never thought to put designs on, but Threadless did.
You can go here - aaronjriley.threadless.com
A couple interiors I did for Numenera - Into the Outside by Monte Cook Games.
The book is available at drivethrurpg.
Banded Bluff - Numenera
Endless Abode - Numenera
I haven't been able to reveal a lot of work lately. I've had a project that I've been working on for over a year and a half. And it won't be released from NDA purgatory till somewhere around November. There are a few other smaller projects that are under the same restrictions for the time being.
So in an effort to actually use this blog, I'll catch you up on the last few months.
In November of last year, I moved from Richmond, VA back to my home state of Iowa. I love Richmond, but it had become very difficult to see my friends and family that still live in Iowa. I hadn't seen most of them for 5 or 6 years since I moved to Virginia. So here I am. That covers the personal info. Now on to the art.
First, lets talk about the art annuals. I was nominated for an award in the Expose 12 book from Ballistic Publishing. The image nominated is my cover for Rifts: Tomorrow Legion Players guide from Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
It's an honor to be nominated. And the art that will be in that book looks amazing. So click the link above and check out the book.
Another surprise was getting accepted into the Spectrum Fantastic Art Annual. I haven't submitted to Spectrum for a few years. There is no political reason or grudge. It just seems that some other expense comes up at the same time every year. This year it was replacing all the brakes on my old truck. I decided not to die in a fiery car accident instead of getting my work into an annual. So how did I get in? The lovely people at Monte Cook Games submit work from their projects for the artists every year. That is incredibly kind of them, and provided a wonderful surprise.
The painting was an interior image for Gods of the Fall.
I always struggle to make work for myself. I work quite a bit, and try to keep a somewhat balanced life. Meaning, I hang out with friends, play video games, watch movies, read, etc.. So my time is limited.
I've been making an effort to fit some personal work into my daily schedule, Hence a lot of movie drawings on my instagram. Along with figure drawings, and digital brush experiments. Here are a few of those.
I've also been getting the itch for traditional media, to give me a break from staring at a computer screen all day. I love working with ink. I am incredibly rusty at it though.
Then there are the t-shirts. This is another effort to stretch my comfort zone a bit. I used to work in T-shirt shops for years. There is something I find attractive in the limitations that screen printing provides. Technology has changed quite a bit since then, and you can get just about anything on a shirt now, but I prefer to keep the limitations in place when I plan the shirts. It makes me come up with solutions I wouldn't typically think of. You can check them all out on my threadless shop.
I have done a few finished paintings. All of them were meant to try out different techniques than what I typically use in my paid commissions and more importantly, just have fun.
I've been upping my geek cred by watching people play roll playing games on Twitch tv. The series is Roll Play by itmejp. They play several different games in different RPG settings. The painting is of Carriless Firm (played by Geoff Robinson) from Rollplay:Blades. All characters play hired killers. It's a lot of fun to watch, or just listen to.
Carriless Firm
Also in the the Rollplay family of shows is Court of Swords. The gm Adam Koebel has a knack for killing off the party members. It gave me an entertaining idea for a painting.
Prints are HERE
The final painting started as a study of Gil Elvgren techniques. I've always been a huge fan of his brushwork. During this time, I was playing Fallout 3 (I'm way behind on video games). Anyway, the wonderful Moira Brown runs a shop in the game. She is such a unique and entertaining character. So...the Elvgren study turned into a Fallout 3 poster.
And lastly, I did a podcast interview for boardgamecloset.com. The episode was focused on a few artists from the gaming world. My interview is somewhere in the middle, but just listen to the whole thing. It's a good show. http://boardgamecloset.com/episode-7-all-about-the-art/
That's it. You are all caught up. I think.
