A Hippo Hero, A Wizard, and a Manticore Step into a Bar.... Traditional Work for May 2024!

This month I have 3 characters to share with you! The first is from the Monster of the Month series, and for the first time in the series, one painted traditionally.

The Hippo Hero started primarily as a warm-up study for the next Dungeon Master Series image "The Dragonslayers". I only meant to paint the face, and then the warhammer, and then treasure chest, but one interesting thing lead to another, until I accidentally finished the whole figure.

In the process series above you can follow the progress I made on the image. I began with a very light sketch in 2H graphite on Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper. After this I laid in ink washes for the shadows and lines using Yellow Ochre Liquitex ink. Once that was I dry I moved on to watercolor, using a little travel set of colors from Winsor and Newton that I've fallen back in love with recently. I had this exact set almost 30 years ago when I first started, (lost it somewhere along the line) and in a fit of nostalgia I ordered another. It's still excellent!! Even with only the basic line-up of Carbon Black, Payne's Grey, Burnt and Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Sap Green, Pthalo and Ultramarine Blue, and a Synthetic Alizarin. It has a few bright colors too, but I left those unopened, as I much prefer to limit myself to the earthy side of the palette more.

I used a little bit of acrylic white at the end to add some highlights.

I'm excited to use this same method on the new Dungeon Master Series image! (which we will hopefully have a chance to paint live this summer.)

Next, I have a rather unique Manticore for you. Not usually depicted as bipedal, this was a great challenge to work on, and turned out to be one of my favorite from the Fanstratics series thus far.

I think a large part of why this one worked out so well to having spent more time producing a very clean preliminary sketch (shown above) before proceeding to the tight pencil drawing.

And finally I have a wizard from the Monster of the Month series. He is a character from the creature guide book I am still (slowly) working on. One of 3 major figures characters responsible for the monsters being loosed upon the world. I'll be doing the other 2 figures (a tinker and a librarian) next!

-jg