This is definitely overdue, but this Concept Art Showcase segment will look at the inspirational works of some of the concept artists I work with. It’s an absolute joy and privilege to work with talented artists and always exciting seeing an idea brought to life. Writing about something my cement the idea, drawing it and seeing it coloured seems to endow it with a sense of life that writing about it simply can’t do.

I’ve had fun working with artists, explaining not just what I’d like to see, but also what the concept means to me, bringing them into the worlds I have created and sharing a little of the way I think with others.

I hope to inspire with this segment, explain a little about the origins of each artwork and show the journey to its current form.

I drew Aeika years ago with the simple goal of creating a character who would be part of an adventure storyline featuring three individuals. She would have a royal background and an overwhelming desire to take control of her life, a life that up until she ran away, was regulated and stifling.

I’ve since developed this story and it is truly a joy to elaborate on, but not only that, she begun simply as a unique character and has since inspired the development of an entire race, beginning with Violettas and expanding with Civets.

The tattoos were initially spontaneous, but they became symbols of tribal heritage, unique colours and patterns to each civet clan.

I redrew Aeika here a few years later, equipped with a little more illustrative skill and was able to capture more of what I had in mind initially for the character. I tried to ensure I recaptured the tattoos and initial clothing in the same style and that took some time, something I don’t believe would be an issue to contend with now.

This time I was a little more subtle with the ears, added a tail and factored in more of the lower body. I didn’t have much confidence drawing feet and shoes with the first outing, but had had some practice coming to the second.

You’ll also notice I went for a somewhat less anime-fied look.

Shizen, a very talented illustration artist I found on DeviantArt was able to bring Aeika even further to life with this piece and what’s particularly cool is how you see the transition from the first iteration to this one.

Shizen was a lot of fun to work with and what I found myself most impressed with was their ability to not only make the character pop, but her surroundings pop too.

This piece tells the story of Aeika searching an abandoned tavern for information on her bounty, Cetus Harlander. This, as it happens, are the turbulent circumstances two which the two characters meet and eventually become both business partners and friends.

The Balgon are a race of individuals that coexist with others on the planet Intaria. Echoing similar fantastical concepts such as trolls, cyclops and orcs, these beings are often stereotyped as being towering, brutish, ill-mannered fiends with no moral compass and a wanton need for bloodshed and the glory of battle, but I went for something ever so slightly different here, taking inspiration from Fallout’s super mutants, which display a range of emotional capabilities. Balgons are just as capable of empathy and cultural sensitivities as any other race on the planet, even if they are particularly known for their physical prowess.

I wanted to establish that while each of them possesses the ability to dominate a battlefield, they are also far more interested, given half a chance, in farming, getting educated, travelling, starting businesses and even hosting emotional navigation meetups for a handful of examples.

The Assault on Nevita piece was the talent of Riccardo Zoppello, an artist I had the fortune of meeting via DeviantArt and have remained in touch with since to create more beautiful pieces. It is fair to say we’ve become friends. His artwork is profound, dynamic and exciting, bringing not only the creatures of Intaria to life, but the landscapes and environments too. He has a way of making a static piece appear as though so much is happening and that’s an aspect I love about his work. His process is once I’ve given him an idea of what it is I’m thinking, providing as much detail as I can, to send over several concept sketches which are incredibly detailed in their own right for sketches and often leave me so torn about whether my initial idea is still the way to go.

What you are seeing here is the kingdom of Nevita being attacked by a neighbouring kingdom, crushed beneath the power and resilience of a far superior army consisting of hundreds of Balgon and a man capable of transforming into a skeletal fire breathing lizard, the very thing you see perched upon a tower.

Check out more work from him here.

Flamoro, a larger, more ferocious, far more relentless entity than its counterpart, the flareman, a flame engulfed sprite known for mischief, is capable of leaving untold destruction in its wake with just the mere action of taking a step. Comprising entirely of hellish inferno, the Flamoro is a concept inspired by the Balrog, most recently seen in the Lord of the Rings franchise, the acclaimed “you shall not pass scene”.

I wanted to capture the sense of awe and fear that comes with seeing an encroaching intense forest fire (whether in person or on TV) in the form of a powerful entity.

Riccardo Zoppello returns with a piece commissioned and what I wanted him to create with this one was a scene of overwhelming odds. The soldiers at the wall of Kingdom Lorghain ready themselves for a battle unlike anything they have ever faced. This is a kingdom said to be impenetrable, said to be able to resist the greatest of adversaries and the mightiest of armies, yet brought to its knees by a mere 3 people, one of which has incredible power. Using the surrounding forestry, he whipped up a hellish firestorm and emerging from the thick smoke of that magic imbued firestorm, flamoro, not 1 or 2, but three colossal entities. Their thundering roars, a spine chilling omen of Lorghain’s inevitable demise.

Moving away from the Canon of Intaria franchise for a bit. Riccardo Zoppello once again graces us with his artwork. The thought process behind this one is simple, I wanted a chaotic outbreak scene, akin to something like the World War Z movie. One where the CEU (Containment and Evacuation Unit) task force find themselves inundated with infected, vicious and hungry people, scattered among the fleeing, making it nigh impossible to determine who is and isn’t a threat before it is too late.

Before long, the strategy switches from identify and neutralise the threat, protect survivors to simply shoot on sight leading to a massacre of untold proportions.

This was a fun piece. Not only was there a chance to tell a story with this one, but add some shameless universe building brand plugging.

While you’re here, check out the Black Ledger short story.

This piece has an interesting story. It began as a simple sea serpent idea, something so big that it casts shadows on ships, so big that it creates tsunamis, so big that its roar can be heard for miles around.

During the time I made my own playing cards featuring monsters from Canon of Intaria, once Solid Cocoon, I created 12 legendary cards and one of which was Quicon the dominant force of the seas.

Creating my own cards, inspired by the craze surrounding Pokemon and Digimon, was a fun pastime. I never completed these 12 legendary cards as I had others, but I kept them all the same, nostalgic reminders of a creative ambition I once had to draw and create my own series of cards.

I took the idea of the 12 legendary monsters further when I changed the name and overall concept of Solid Cocoon, establishing a concrete history and lore surrounding the 12 myths and forces of nature.

I established the Espirits, a group of powerful beings that predated the other species now existing on the planet of Intaria. These beings were all-powerful and posed so much of a threat to the order of things that they were mostly sealed away, each to a different degree. Quicon was one of them, sealed for its knowledge of the world and its findings kept locked away in a fortress upon its head.

The concept for a giant sea serpent with an island upon its head was inspired by numerous works of fiction and historical mythos, gods, titans and deities holding great lands and worlds upon, carrying the burdens of the world.

The canvas for this drawing was homemade, I had a great deal of fun putting it together.

Riccardo Zoppello brilliantly brought this concept to life through my drawing, adding his own spin. I particularly love the colours and vibrancy of it. The waters look untamed and furious, Quicon itself looks a brilliant mixture of graceful and terrifying, just the way it should. I wanted to ensure a sense of scale, so there was a little back and forthing about the size the ship should probably be, but I am tremendously proud of this final piece. I think it perfectly exemplifies the idea of an unpredictable sea and the unnerving mysteries it hides.

This piece had no conceptual design to work off of, I simply had an idea that I wanted translated to a digital art piece. I’ve always liked the idea of sailing a desert ocean, sand dunes that seemingly go on forever. Yes, sailing, because I visualise the sands as a sea, especially when combined with the idea that they could be concealing or hiding something, in this case, that something being the worms.

Worms aren’t a new concept, we’ve seen them in multiple works of fiction, most notably the Dune franchise, and the differences in the worms of Intaria to other iterations seen before, wholly superficial at best, but it isn’t the worms in particular that make the sands so mysterious or scary, instead, what they represent.

The worms make up just a taster of the types of creatures the sands of Bazreth hides and some of them dwarf the worms, whereas others are smaller, but far more vicious than the worms.

Another masterpiece by Riccardo Zoppello.

Tumbleworth was fun to create; I don’t think I had anything specific in mind when I started drawing it, but that always makes for the best design, something that begins to take form during the process.

I began with the larger body physique and from there simply let the pencil take over, ideas flowing the more I drew and the final outcome was this monstrosity.

Originally, I drew this for creative exploration, but soon made it an integral part of the Intaria universe and gave it a backstory, to become Gethas, or Tumbleworth the bone collector.

With this piece I wanted to go for something a little more self explanatory and dynamic, something that tells a short story without having to be explained. I think a fantastic job was done of this one and Tumbleworth looks magnificent in colour, scarier than I could have depicted and the background is vibrant and fascinating.

Another work from the talented Riccardo Zoppello, this piece was the perfect conclusion to our first season of concept art and digital art.