Onyx Path Publishing | Angela R. Sasser, Fantasy Artist

The time is neigh, my October Art Challenge approaches! So far, this year has been about allowing myself to rest and recuperate while also letting my muse off the chain to wander different paths for awhile. The next excursion is going to be with the Exalted Art Challenge that I created with the Exalted RPG Discord community!

For those who don’t know Exalted, it’s a tabletop roleplaying game much like Dungeons & Dragons where you get to become a character with epic-level powers! It features a world full of mystical places, vengeful gods, and faerie creatures with a rich tapestry of lore to explore. Its roots in non-Western mythology have made it one of my favorite worlds to play in on my days off!

I’ve even drawn illustrations and written many words for a story set in this universe entitled The Uncrucified. I’ve been sorely missing the characters from this story and wanted to get back into the mood of creating in this universe by challenging myself to a list of 31 art topics inspired by this fantastic setting! I expect many characters from my storyworld to show up for this art challenge.

I know many of these topics don’t make sense to non-players, but I hope to introduce you to them with a bit of explanation and art to go along with each one! In fact, enjoy a little sneak peek of thumbnail sketches for a few of the topics for a taste:

Patreon-Only Sneak Peeks!

Because my Patrons are the coolest, I wanted you guys to feel special during this event! You’ll be getting Patreon-Exclusive Early Access to my collection of exploratory sketches with my thoughts and notes on the topics each week , while the finished paintings and prose will be shared at The Uncrucified’s project blog. A compilation of the finished art will be posted here on Patreon once I’ve completed all topics!

For those keeping up on my Patreon Discord Server, I’ll be sharing the sketches as they happen in my Ang’s Sketchbook channel as well! (Read here for instructions on how to join my Discord Server dedicated to my Patrons and fans)

The Goal

I’m hoping by doing this event I can create more art in the TTRPG vein which is work I’d like to do more of in the future to channel my long-time passion for gaming! I also plan to experiment with an expressive painterly digital style, since I have been so married to detailed tight line work for a long time now!

With luck, I can finish all the topics in a month, though I won’t be too hard on myself if I can’t finish one a day. The big goal is to remember how to play with art again and enjoy the process more than perfectionism!

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I hope you all are ready for the ride! I’m excited to see what happens during this hugely experimental time. Are there any Exalted players here? Sound off in the comments! If you’re an artist who loves the game, I invite you to do this challenge with me and share in my Patreon Discord in the dedicated Art Challenges channel! I’d love to see what you all might do for this list!

More soon. I can’t wait to begin!

♥ Ang

After much contemplation, I’ve decided to go ahead and mark the Exalted Art Challenge as ‘complete’! I’ve been working on it since October of 2020, so it was time to end this not-so-short break from the Birthstone Goddesses, despite the fact I didn’t quite get to finish the final two topics of the Challenge due to life throwing some major challenges our way.

My husband is thankfully home and healing very well from COVID! We’ve both been resting after the sleepless nights and it seemed a good time to put this challenge to bed. It’s time to recuperate my energy levels and embark on the next part of my artistic journey!

It’s been a really great ride with this Art Challenge and I’ve enjoyed the creative challenge of strange and new topics for a while. Did you all also enjoy the diversion? I’m curious to know how this crowd likes my TTRPG-inspired art!

I do eventually want to finish the comic for the “Favorite Stunt” topic during my free time. When I do, you can catch the finished pages on my Exalted project’s social media accounts instead:

For now, enjoy a compilation of all the topics! Be sure to click the links to the individual collections for more on each topic and its creative notes.