The Art of Arcana Unearthed

By Sue Weinlein Cook

"Water Roil" by David Hendee

We were very fortunate to assemble a great team of talented artists to illustrate the interior of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. Some of them you've seen in Malhavoc Press books before: Sam Wood, Toren "MacBin" Atkinson, and Stephen Shepherd are familiar names. But a couple of these artists -- Jennifer Meyer and David Hendee -- bring a fresh look to Malhavoc's pages. You'll be seeing more from them.

The book's interior artwork was all completed back in April. We asked the artists to reflect back and tell us which of their contributions they were most pleased with.

"I really dig the unfettered," said Sam. "They represent a sort of swashbuckling ideal that's every bit as iconic as the D&D core classes, but which hasn't received much attention in traditional fantasy settings. Plus I enjoyed drawing the quickling sliding down the banister!" [Look for Sam's "Unfettered" piece next week exclusively at Gaming Report.com. —Ed.]

The faen were also a race David enjoyed. "My two favorite illustrations are probably 'Little Folks in Combat' and 'Water Roil,' he said. "They both just clicked for me, and I like the way they show the variety of race sizes in Arcana Unearthed."

Toren said he would single out the akashic. "I work from photographs whenever I can, so it's fun to put my friends (in this case Marlo Tempest and Don DeBrandt) under the spotlight and turn them into fantasy and sci-fi characters.* I like adhering to the stringent anatomical rules of real-life people and animals, while at the same time I enjoy the freedom of breaking these rules when drawing monsters." [Look for Toren's "Akashics" piece next month exclusively in Game Trade Magazine. —Ed.]

Artists Stephen Shephed and Jennifer Meyer both illustrated very specific parts of the book: equipment and class symbols, respectively. But they still managed to find ways to get creative within those fairly narrow parameters.

"Plant Armor" by MacBin

"Usually it was in the basic shape or just the fun details," Jennifer explained. "In fact, with some items it was hard to decide which way to go. So I took more of a concept art approach and presented several sketch ideas at once."

Stephen said that in illustrating the equipment chapter, he was inspired by Kevin Long's work for Palladium in the late eighties. "As a young gamer, I loved looking through the weapons section. I loved that every weapon seemed to have a representation. At that time, I didn't know the difference between a great sword, a claymore, or a bastard sword. I actually ended up learning a lot of history from the descriptions of those weapons. Mr. Long's illustrations still hold magic for me, so I still browse them when starting a new project."

Stephen added that detailed weapon descriptions from Monte helped him quite a bit, as did Internet research on the real-life versions. And, as a resident of central Florida, he had one other trick up his sleeve: "Annual passes to Disney World and Epcot! There's lots of reference to be found there on cultures and history," he said. "Culture is probably the thing that gets my creative juices running most."

More Favorite Things
As some of these artists started their work on the book back in December, they've been "in the know" about Arcana Unearthed's new concepts for longer than almost anyone. Their assessment?

"It looks to combine the virtues of classic D&D with some well-thought-out innovation," Sam said. "I can't wait to see the finished product."

David said he found it refreshing simply to be working on a variant of the standard roleplaying rules. "I think it's fantastically creative," he said. "The design moves seem so bold but so resolved. Like the way Arcana Unearthed akashics relate to core rules rogues, that blows me away."

Jennifer agreed that the material that felt "very different from the current norm. I like the different approach for spellcasters. The witch sounds neat, and the use of the truename is interesting."

Toren appreciated other variant game rules as well. "I'm fascinated with the hero points concept. As anyone who's played Spaceship Zero knows, I'm a fan of giving the heroes chances to bend the rules. Lastly, saying good-bye to alignment is quite easy for me -- detect evil is my least favourite D&D spell/ability."

"Giants" by Sam Wood

"I think Arcana Unearthed will probably pull me back to D&D in short order," said Stephen. "There are tons of outlets for spells and the like, but races and classes always pull me to a book. The weapons and equipment were all a blast to do, and I found myself wanting to use them in my game as I drew them."

It shouldn't surprise you that these artists know their game rules as well as they know illustration techniques: They've clocked a lot of gaming hours in their time. Jennifer and David admit that their work has really cut into their gaming lately, but Stephen is a self-proclaimed Mutants & Masterminds addict.

"My obsession with M&M borders on insane," he admits. "I feel I can only work on games because I love them so much. I play and run in a game every Monday night. I'm also setting up a Spaceship Zero game and a Call of Cthulhu game that I will run once a month."

Sounds like he and Toren have something in common: "Every second Thursday I play in a Call of Cthulhu game," Toren said, "and every chance I get (usually at local game days and conventions) I run Spaceship Zero." Meanwhile, on Sundays he DMs in the Kathartikos campaign world, which draws from Ptolus, Book of Eldritch Might III, and Green Ronin's Freeport.

"Kathartikos is a unique experience for me because there isn't just a single DM," Toren explained. "Anyone in the group can run an adventure, and we have different adventures running concurrently. So while the group I DM is solving a mystery in the hamlet of Feldsbridge, my friend Jon Dawes is running my character and others through the Wizards of the Coast adventure path series far to the east. Rob Baxter keeps threatening to put us through The Banewarrens, so I'll take this opportunity to pressure him in public to get on that!"

Sam recently tested out the other side of the DM's screen. "I took a quixotic stab at running a 3rd Edition game recently," he said. "It was a lot of fun, but soon became a casualty of overwhelming time commitments. As a player, I've always got my antennae up for a good campaign, though."

Regardless of how often they play, each of the artists felt drawn to a different Arcana Unearthed race.

"I would probably go big or small," said Sam. "The faen, and especially the spryte, are very appealing to me because of the potential to play a tiny flying character. But the giants are just too cool."

David said it was a tough call. "I guess I might play a verrik witch. I like innate powers and the verrik are really boss."

"I'm a little slow on the learning curve when it comes to new games, so to start out, I wouldn't try anything too complex," Toren said. "Probably just play a human or a verrik. I also love monstrous races, so I would seriously consider the mojh. As for classes, the totem warrior calls out to me -- if there's a snake or bat totem, I'm all over that like a dretch on a fiendish dire Smartee." [Yep, Toren, we've got your snake totem warrior. —Ed.]

You Can See the Difference

Coming Soon Look for these other new books featuring illustrations by our Arcana Unearthed interior artists. Sam Wood You can see a bit of my work in the very cool WARMACHINE: Prime from Privateer Press. I've got several cards coming out for the War Cry TCG from Sabertooth Games, as well as quite a bit of all-new work in the Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual v3.5. At the moment, I'm hard at work designing characters and creatures for Mythica, Microsoft's new "MMRPG to end all MMRPGs," which is due out in 2004. David Hendee I have two other Malhavoc Press projects coming up: Anger of Angels (by Sean K Reynolds) and the Arcana Unearthed DM's Screen and Player's Guide. And I also have some illustrations in Siege on Ebonring Keep, the Arcana Unearthed adventure from Mystic Eye Games. Toren "MacBin" Atkinson Skull & Bones, The Unholy Warriors Handbook, Testament, Monsters of the Mind, and my favourite, the Book of Fiends Volume 3, all from Green Ronin Publishing. Meanwhile I'm writing and playtesting a huge story arc for Spaceship Zero! Stephen Shepherd Hopefully we will see the release of the primer of my first product fully produced by myself. It's a disk of artwork with character thumbnails: 1001 thumbnails, to be exact. My buddy Todd and his lady Jess are working with me to produce what looks to be a herculean undertaking. So far we have 300+ thumbnails. Hopefully we will be done by GenCon. Of course I have some work for Malhavoc (Cry Havoc) and the Babylon 5 RPG, lots of other Mongoose books, some Troll Lord books, and possibly more. See Jennifer's Portfolio! Jennifer Meyer I will have some pieces in Dragonlance: Age of Mortals, Dunkargans & Karnuans, Fang & Fury, and Morningstar.

Monte designed Arcana Unearthed to give a different spin to the core races, classes, and other rules. Then came the challenge of conveying that "same but different" feeling in the artwork.

"I found the whole project defamiliarizing," David said. "You really can't lean on any of your crutches when you're in such uncharted territory."

Sam said he took the opportunity to change his normal reference points a bit. "To a certain extent I felt the freedom to step away from both mainstream fantasy imagery and the edgier look of Third Edition," he said. "I drew inspiration from clothing and armor of a wider time span, from classical to Renaissance. And I tried to give the characters a timeless quality. I wanted them to be seen with fresh eyes."

With each of the artists in his or her own uncharted waters, Toren points out that it can be difficult to visualize a single style. "Unless the book has just one artist throughout, you can get each artist going in a completely different direction," he said. "I can only hope that my visions meld with Monte's and the other artists' without too ragged a seam."

Getting a chance to try a new approach was a welcome change from some of the topics that have become a bit too prevalent in game illustration lately.

For instance, Sam said, "I'm sick of all the really bad, cheesy babe-art. (Well-done babe-art is another matter.) And I really hate seeing lame captions slapped on illustrations when they don't serve any purpose. Artwork should speak for itself." [Oops. Sam, don't bother looking at the races illustrations on pages 13 and 14. Nothing to see there. —Ed.]

A pet peeve of Toren's is "when the Star Trek alien philosophy is applied to D&D races. Sometimes it makes sense, but usually there's no excuse for it." He said he wants to see more than "new humanoid races where the only distinguishing difference visually is the size of their ears, or the number of their eyes, or the colour of their skin." And while he's seen enough werewolves and vampires to last him a while, "I never get tired of undead or Cthulhuesque eldritch horrors. Don't ask why."

For the last year, Malhavoc Press has poured a lot of time and work into getting the text and game mechanics of Arcana Unearthed just right. Whe the book hits shelves late nex t month, we think you'll find that Sam, Toren, David, Jennifer, and Stephen have done the same with the art.

 

Check out our first Arcana Unearthed art sneak peek.

 

 

 

* Toren used real-life models to great effect in Skreyn's Register: The Bonds of Magic.