Tag: TTRPG Art

Commission Gallery – Ganjo the Blade Beast of Steel Forest for Malusthe16th

I can finally unveil this commission I’ve been working on for awhile now! My client, Malusthe16th, commissioned me to design and illustrate a beloved NPC from their long-running Exalted TTRPG campaign. This is the first of several commissions I have in the TTRPG vein, which is an exciting step forward for me, as I have been doing more Fine Art focused work for the past few years.

Tabletop RPG games and the Fantasy genre were some of my first loves that got me interested in drawing in the first place, so being able to take a step in this direction with my art was invigorating!

My paid members here on PAtreon at all levels have access to a Secret Sketchbook deep dive into the process behind designing and illustrating Ganjo, the Blade Beast. Be sure to check it out for an in-depth discussion on research, design, and planning this intricate character and illustration.

Read on at Secret Sketchbook: Ganjo the Blade Beast – Part 1 – Character Design & Thumbnailing.

Watch a silent 1 min timelapse of Ganjo’s design from start to finish here:

I have more TTRPG-related art in my commission queue, which is exciting! I also haven’t forgotten about my Cassiel’s Servant fan cover, which I hope to finish in time for the Kushiel’s Legacy series’ 25th anniversary in June.

More art to come soon!

<3 Ang

Reminder that I’m currently accepting commissions like Ganjo’s! Here’s my quick sheet showing price rates for simpler character portraits and design, while more complex illustrations and cover art will require more complex price quotes.

I’m currently booked till approximately Mid-May and happy to book more clients! Find my full commission details and FAQ here.

Studio Hangout MAR 2025 – TTRPG Portraits & Artist AMA [Video + Monthly Digest]

Where did March go??? Here’s the skinny on the happenings, new art, etc. for this month. You can watch the video above (which has captions and chapter breaks in the desc on YouTube) for my full update. This post contains an abbreviated summary if you’re short on time and a transcript of the full video attached to this post.

Personal Updates

It’s been a rough month! I’ve been attempting to keep up with writing and art, but found myself overwhelmed trying to juggle art/writing classes, a regular biweekly stream schedule, and swapping my sleep schedule to a new night-time routine (as endorsed by Brandon Sanderson).

This month, I’ve also taken the time to do our taxes and was faced with the exact numerical value of how my business has been impacted by social media and AI flooding Etsy’s marketplace in the past year (60% down in sales, to be precise).

The art community is suffering existentionally right now, so I have to thank you all once more for your continued support during these trying times! It’s been a struggle to create with all this noise around us. Making art goes, slowly, but surely!

New Art

I only have a couple of things to share this month because of existential dread brain and taking time to do taxes reasons.

  • Yorigasu, a celestial agent from Exalted. (Top)
  • Artorias Portrait (Bottom Right) – A D&D character portrait currently in-progress (which was shared for the first time on stream). Watch the full vid for more about each character.

  • Writing Class Homework – A little different than the art I share, but hopefully an interesting glimpse, regardless! Here’s a quick look at the brainstorming homework I’m doing for my writing class with Maggie Steitvater. A longer explanation is in the video as well as a story pitch of what I’m working on.

Ask Me Anything Questions

Check the time stamps for the answers to these questions.

  • 22:25 – (From Aaron R.) – What’s a piece of yours that surprised you?
  • 24:53 – (From Lindowyn) – What is the most satisfying piece that you’ve done?
  • 27:13 – (From Lindowyn) – What is your favorite medium?

Announcements

  • Art Streams are on hold until further notice!  I’ve been overwhelmed and sleep-deprived and needed more time to focus on re-balancing my schedule. Art streams will return once I’ve been able to settle into a healthier schedule for myself! Game Streams (featuring the game Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden) is still a go for Thursdays, 8pm EST.
  • Coming in April! – Creating private character art commission samples is my current priority. Then, I hope to return to focusing mainly on writing, with a couple of days a week spent on art as soon as the samples are out in the wild. I’m hoping taking these private commissions can help refill our life savings after our bad year last year. They will be released to my Patrons and newsletter subscribers before the public.

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    Catch you next month.
    Wishing you all inspiration!

    <3 Angela S.

Exalted Character of the Week Vol 2 + Bonus Valentine’s Comic

Until May rolls around and this Patreon is re-vamped with a brand new theme, I’Il be sharing the fun random arts I do, like the next collection of character portraits for the Exalted Character of the Week challenge I host over at the Forge of Wonders.  It was another adventure in experimenting with different styles and loosening up after so many years of working in a more rigid style.

The Cultivar of Bloodied Sunsets for Kess 

At the same time that The Cultivar was chosen for the next Challenge, my husband started playing Persona 3 Reload, which put a whole new coat of paint on top of a game that he loved growing up.  I’ve always enjoyed the sleek and appealing designs of ATLUS’ games and wanted to see if I could try to bring that visually stunning nature to a portrait of The Cultivar.  How did I do?

Apparently I subconsciously matched her outfit with her girlfriend’s outfit from an earlier challenge, which is a fun bit of accidental serendipity.

Fia for Morpheous XO

Next up, we have Fia, the No Moon Lunar witch.  I was originally going to keep this portrait as a simple pencil portrait, which I’m quite pleased with Procreate’s graphite simulation.  But then the color tempted me!  I tried to keep it subtle with the pops of her dramatic red hair tips.  I ended up with a look very close to what I can do with copic marker, traditionally, which is neat!

Moira for MissSunnySweden

Lastly, we have Moira for MissSunnySweden, a kickbutt Dawn Caste with a tiger theme.  I’ve long considered smiles my weakness when drawing people, but I was able to capture a delighted bloodlust smile without too much trouble.  I didn’t have much time to draw Fia and Moira, so I aimed for more simplified ‘token-style’ portraits.

All the portaits you see here were painted in Procreate, which has become my mainstay of late since it let’s me curl up in a comfortable spot on the couch to work.

Bonus Valentine’s Day Exalted Comic

I created one last bit of fun Exalted art in February where we were challenged by another member of the Forge to draw our characters on a date.  My character, Kalara, was paired up with the Abyssal, The Cultivar, for a date, which triggered a fun idea for a whole mini comic I could practice my visual storytelling skills with.

I wasn’t able to finish the mini comic with everything happening with health and job woes last month, but I’m hoping to clean this up at some point for practice.  For now, enjoy the sketches for the comic and the quick final panel I did work up just for fun!

Premise:  The Cultivar and Kalara go on a date!

Kalara shows up to the cafe, where the Cultivar awaits, the two of them competing to show off who has the highest Resources rating (basically means how rich they are in this setting).  They ‘battle’ through various things, from fancy tea vs coffee, to fancy favorite foods, to the final battle – Who will cover the check???

Eventually, Kalara wins the wealth battle, but The Cultivar gets the upper hand…which my gal is actually pretty okay with.  There are worse, more boring ways to die, right? 

The final panel:

(This one was drawn on Procreate, but word bubbles added in Clip Studio Paint)

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this little art diversion!  I have more serious projects to finish up by the end of the month, but these character challenges are always a fun way to stretch my legs between more intense projects.

– Ang

[Art] Exalted Character of the Week Vol 1: Rainbows, Abyssals, and Big Hats

You all know I’m a nerd for the tabletop game, Exalted from Onyx Path Publishing (and if not, SURPRISE! Prepare yourself for my weebness).  I help run a Discord server for fans who like to create art, writing, etc. for this particular TTRPG community.  Recently, we started up a community activity where we roll a die to choose a character from a member to create arts inspired by them.  This little collection features characters from our first rounds.

This activity has been an excellent opportunity for me to practice different styles, so strap yourself in for a ride through the colorful characters and styles of my first Exalted Character of the Week collection!

(My gal, Kalara, was chosen for the first round, but that’s a whole other art feature collection for later).

Theo for Jen

Theodotus is a bombastic Zenith Caste who beams rainbows from his heroic anima.  The energetic style of the Hades video game seemed like a perfect fit for him. I absolutely adore this style and always wanted to try it myself!  This style involves clean line work and bold highlighting for a signature look. I definitely want to play with it more, as it suited my own proclivity for line art and elegance very well.

  • Watch a timelapse of Theo’s creation here.

Orchid for MissSunnySweden

Next, we have Leaping River Orchid, a demure noblewoman Twilight Caste who hides her Anathema nature from the noble house she was born into.  She prefers to charm rather than combat and seemed a good fit for testing out a style inspired by the Arcane animated series with her elegant costume.

I’m particularly happy with how this one came out. Despite how rough it is, it feels polished in the right places, which is a valuable lesson to me on balancing detail and value in a composition so I can plan my time and effort with pieces better.

  • Watch a timelapse of Orchid’s portrait here.

Thrice-Fallen Affections for Raefen

Finally, we have the Abyssal, Thrice-Fallen Affections, who serves the Deathlord, The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears.  Thrice-fallen Affections has some rather risque tastes in formal clothing in the skeleton themes of the Underworld.

  • See the uncensored version and watch the full view timelapse of this piece here.  Artistic nudity warning (bare breasts in a non-sexual context) for any who do decide to click through.

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It’s my hope that by experimenting with different styles, I refill my creative well a bit, as well as learn about what makes MY style “me” by figuring out what it is I like and don’t like, what feels right to me, and how I want my work to look in the future.  Most of all, it’s just nice to take a break from serious years-long projects to have some fun with casual art!  I have been emulating Mucha for so long with the Birthstone Goddesses series that it’s nice to break out of my shell a bit.

The Exalted Character of the Week Challenge is going to be an ongoing activity in the future, so I’ll probably share quarterly collections from the event from here on out.  It’s been fun to let loose with styles and fashion exploration with all the colorful character possibilities that Exalted has to offer thus far.

Next up, I hope to have a very special bit of fan art inspired by my favorite TV series of 2023 – Blue Eye Samurai!  Granted I can get it done by next Thursday.  We shall see!

Till then, I hope you enjoyed the art dump!

– Ang

Comic + WIPs – Carbon 2185: Parablepsia – “Unintentional Ninja”

I teased that I’d be cooling down after the big project milestone with fun exploratory art and part of that carefree fun art has been brushing up on my sequential art (comics) skillset.  I enjoy taking little scenes from our tabletop campaigns and turning them into one-shots like this for a lark.

Comics also make excellent drawing practice for anatomy, perspective, storytelling, the works!  So I thought you all might enjoy a peek at this one-page comic plus some WIPs I didn’t share on social media.

Programs Used – Procreate for the lines and colors, Clip Studio Paint EX for the Word Balloons, FX, and Text.

The Premise:  Welcome to the Cyberpunk setting of Carbon 2185!  Parablepsia is the name of our campaign featuring a disparate band of street runners who wake up in a morgue to find themselves embroiled in a corporate war for power and technology.

Then there’s Nightingale (Gale for short), the character I play who is a synthetic humanoid singer who believes she has no business being caught up in this mess.  Little does she know that she’s been programmed with ninja skills without her knowledge!

Making of the Comic

It all starts with the rough sketch and scribbling in the dialogue so I know that the dialogue will fit in the panel.  The expressions are also pretty abstract since I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this while I figure out the positioning of all the various elements.

I also didn’t know how Gale looks since I hadn’t drawn her before this comic, so I ended up going through a few variations trying to nail down her look.  Which one’s your favorite?  I tried to channel feather shapes like her songbird theme.

I had a good laugh making expressions into my camera trying to nail down Gale’s various shocked expressions in this comic and how silly, yet accurate the rough drawings of her face were to the emotions she was expressing.

The final comic:

  • Watch a timelapse here.  My process is absolute chaos, but it’s kinda fun to watch a story emerge from the scribbles!

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Will I share more comics here?  We’ll see!  It’s something I haven’t done with consistency because it’s difficult and time-consuming, but it’s also a lot of fun.  It’s very satisfying when those expressions work and the comedy lands!

I’m still learning how to use software, brush up the written script on longer stories, etc. which has been my hobby time fun lately.  I’ve been sharing more of this exploration over in my Discord server, which is open to both my Patrons and the public. Patrons can connect their accounts for access to my Secret Sketchbook there, while free fans can join the public areas here.

For now, I hope you all enjoyed this errant one shot!  Stay tuned for more character portraits and a painting over the next few posts.  Meanwhile, I hope you all enjoy the end of the year.  Stay toasty and warm!

– Ang

September 2022 Sketchbook – Rabs & Kalara Character Designs

This weekend, we put the first boxes in the new studio and I’m so excited!  Studio pics to follow in the near future.  In the meanwhile, I’ve been using the time between the seams to chip away at the character designs for Rabs and Kalara.  Character sheets have been my happy place lately!

Rabanne Arore, Big Muscles, Big Heart

I wanted to challenge myself with Rabs’ design with a muscular body type and her glowing hair. She’s really captured my muse with her fun tatts, color schemes, and themes, so you’ll definitely be seeing more of her in my sketchbook!  This particular piece was meant to be in the style of a more traditional ttrpg rulebook style source book image, as well as a base for me to put different clothing on.  More fashions are sure to follow!

Watch a time lapse of how I created this piece, along with Rabs’ tattoo sheet here.  She was painted using the Acrylic brushes in Procreate on the ipad.

Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified

I meant to save this image for a proper release with a full sheet of FX and turnarounds, but our house move is taking forever, so I thought I’d share a WIP!  You guys got to learn a little bit more about Kalara last month via Fantasy Indies August.  She’s been inspiring me for years since our Exalted ttrpg game, so it was about time she got a new look!

This new look captures more of the elegant merchant negotiator she becomes after her years on the run from the Guild.  

Kalara’s old look as a reminder:

More to come when I explore the rest of her character sheet!  I’m especially excited about drawing the phoenix on the back of her jacket.  The redesign was also created in Procreate using the Studio Ink Pen for color flatting to achieve a comic book feel, as this design is meant as a precursor to a prospective webcomic for the character.

Both Rabs and Kalara utilized helpful stock poses from the awesome Jookpubstock, who has been an excellent resource for inspiration!

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Art is going to slow down even more over the next month while we move our small boxes over to the new place ourselves, with the big stuff being handled by the movers.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel finally and I’m excited to really settle properly into a new permanent studio art cave!

♥ Ang

Fantasy Indies August 2022 – THE UNCRUCIFIED

I took part in the Fantasy Indies August event during August, so I thought I’d share a little bit about that here with folks!  While you all mainly see the Artist side of me, I also love to write and have been dabbling with several novel ideas between the margins of life over the past few years.  

The Uncrucified has been at the forefront of my endeavors as a Writer and you all have probably noticed the muse inspiration overflow with all the Kalara art that’s flooded here lately!  She’s been the comfort subject for my muse while I’ve been on this long hiatus for shoulder surgery / burnout / life chaos.

The topics for August:

Rather than bombard you guys by pasting all of these topics in, I figured I’d tease you with some of my favorite topics I answered during the event and invite you to check out the full thread.

Introduce Yourself & Your WIP

I’m currently working on The Uncrucified, the tale of an upstart from the desert slums named Kalara. She was chosen to lead a world in chaos, but she has scores to settle first!

Yup, it’s a TTRPG story inspired by the Exalted RPG, but I hope to make it readable for more than just Exalted fans!  There’ll be romance, grudges, gunslinging, & more.

WIP Mood Board 

I’m an obsessive board maker! These are just a few of the images I’ve drawn of my MC Kalara plus location inspo for the stained glass ruins of Chiaroscuro, the magitech desert of Exalted’s South, & her hometown, the underground city of Gem.

If you’d like to see more of THE UNCRUCIFIED’s in-depth mood board, I host it on  Pinterest where I’ve been adding to them for literal years. Sub-divided by character, locale, etc. because this soothes my artist brain!

Book BFFs

I’m open to suggestions! A beta reader for my story has told me Kalara gave them NAME OF THE WIND vibes (which I haven’t read). I’d love for my chars to have the same larger than life charisma of the chars in THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN (which I have read & loved).

I have a much easier time comparing THE UNCRUCIFIED to anime instead. Sinbad from MAGI mirrors Kalara with his wish to build a trade network & navigate political waters using his amazing charisma, while trying not to lose himself.  Not to mention MAGI’s combat is VERY Exalted!

I’m also looking to Fog Hill of the Five Elements for combat vibes. It oozes over the top stylish badassery!

BLOOD OF ZEUS also strikes me for being very Exalted with its sexy elegant character designs, warring gods, interpersonal drama, & pissed off ancient imprisoned deities.

Toss me more inspiration suggestions, fam! Especially my long-suffering beta readers. What does THE UNCRUCIFIED make you think of, as far as inspirational book/media BFFs?

I’ve already gotten some amazing suggestions from fans for Book BFFs for my story, so I’ve gathered them into a wishlist. Feel free to mine it for inspiration and good reads!  Featuring clever protags, underdog heroes, geopolitical drama, & more.

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Read the full topic list + my answers here for the full effect of posts, memes, and animated GIFs.  I’m sure this won’t be the last time I talk about my stories here.  I hope you all enjoy this glimpse at the other Muse in my brain!

♥ Ang

Exalted Art Challenge – Collection 1 – Fave Caste, Regional Fashion, etc.

My journey with the Exalted Art Challenge started off a bit slow, as just when I was going to begin we were placed in quarantine due to a COVID exposure at my husband’s work!  Luckily, he has tested negative and we’ve had no symptoms, but it meant a slow start till I was able to focus on art.  

We’re just going to try and relax till our days are up and I will meanwhile continue taking it slow and enjoying my time with this challenge!

1 – Favorite Caste

The Solar Exalted are chosen for a caste by the Unconquered Sun based on our propensities for violence, for diplomacy, or for many other specialties. Sol sees our potential and blows on the embers of our ambition, no matter our station in life, no matter if we are good or evil, as long as we can bring about the change that this world in chaos needs. We are marked with a symbol that shines upon our foreheads, a beacon of purpose and power for all of Creation to recognize, if not respect.

– Memoirs of Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified, RY 800.

My Favorite Caste is the Eclipse Caste. They are the voices of reason, the keen wit, and the clever bargainers.  Their ancient treaties and trade deals helped reinforce the fabric of Creation.  As someone who enjoys both art and business, the Eclipse connection with culture and commerce as a positive force really speaks to me!  Plus, they are excellent at winning a fight before it even begins with their social graces.  (Admittedly I am not good at social graces IRL so part of my enjoyment of playing this caste is vicarious wish-fulfillment!)

For this topic, I took the basic Eclipse Caste mark and customized it for my Exalted character, Kalara, bringing in aspects of her middle eastern-inspired homeland. I explored Moroccan tiles for inspiration and eventually settled on a flame-inspired motif evocative of the element of Kalara’s homeland with hints of silver, the color associated with the Eclipse, as well as phoenix feathers, a personal symbol of Kalara’s own rise from her near-death into the Eclipse Caste.  The cartouche includes the honorifics this caste is called in Creation, my favorited being “Quills of Heaven”.

(Though my own gal, Kalara, would earn the name The Silver-Tongued Devil in her time.)

2 – Regional Fashion

I wonder sometimes if I would even recognize myself back then. I still remember the soft light of Gem’s crystals and the teeming underground marketplace that never slept. As a slave of Iblan, I was dressed in attire to represent the household of my master, an aging master goldsmith.

I owned no finery of my own, not even the bangles I wore which served as an example of Iblan craftmanship for all to see and admire, for even their slaves must convey everything about their stature as Gem’s famed goldsmiths. Instead of gems sewn into my shawl as any fine lady of Gem might own, mine was painted and embroidered to mimic gems. I was a pale imitation of what a noble Iblan lady might be.

– Memoirs of Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified, RY 800.

I explored many variations for this topic, ranging from a fancier look of a current-day Kalara who can afford to dress as a noblewoman, to versions of her past self who was dressed as a servant.  I really liked the image of her eating lunch next to a crystal cluster in Gem, the underground mining town where she grew up, but went with a closer view so I could show off more clothing details.  

Gem prides itself on its extremely regulated gemstone production and I wanted to get that across in its gemstone-inspired trims. I definitely want to explore local wardrobe further with story concepts in the future!  For the final illustration, I took cues from Muslim and Anatolian clothing, but hope to explore fashions of the region more in-depth later.

3 – Favorite Charm

I didn’t have the final image done for this topic yet, but I was so excited about how these came out that I just had to share today!  Charms, or magical abilities, come in epic flavors in the world of Exalted!  I’ve always drawn Kalara posing elegantly, so it will be fun to finally get a chance to see her in action, even if she would usually consider this a last resort when diplomacy fails.

Kalara practices a celestial martial art called Righteous Devil where the charms center around the theme of judgement and justice.  At higher levels of this art, she can judge the soul of her enemy, dispatching them to their deaths and directly into their next reincarnation!

However, a Righteous Devil must be careful, for if they falter from a path of justice, the original Righteous Devil who invented the art will hunt them down!

I’ll share more about this topic with the final art in next week’s compilation.  Till then, I leave you to guess which thumbnail from this set I’ll pick for this topic’s final art!

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Do you want to see my sketches and art for this challenge as soon as I do them?  Be sure to join my Patreon Discord Server where I’ve been actively sharing challenge topics and discussion as I go!

Hope you enjoy this little diversion. I know it’s quite the subject matter shift from my usual stuff, but MAN I’m having so much fun!

♥ Ang