Infinite Dark Art

My budget ran a little dry on the art front, which led me to have a bit of a stress a few weeks ago (it collided with other things and was a contributor - albeit a small one - to my panic attack). But as I mentioned in my podcast episode on commissioning art, it helps to have spent over a decade fostering contacts.

I've commissioned four pieces of original art for the book - the cover and three interior illustrations from regular contributors David Sondered and Tan Ho Sim. And that blew most of my budget. With what left, I reached out to some artists who already had substantial bodies of spaceship art in their portfolios. Two of them never got back to me, but the third was the only one with whom I'd had previous contact: an artist called Mike Doscher who is co-author and illustrator of the amazing Spacecraft of the First World War (which is only available as an e-book but I so, so want to see it as the glossy coffee table book it deserves to be). You may also have encountered Mike's work before if you ever saw the 6x6 rapid assault vehicle mini from Secret Weapon Miniatures.  This was also Mike's work and I'm now wondering where the hell I left mine (it's around here somewhere!).

My contact with Mike has been pretty light over the years. I've followed him on deviantArt for about a decade, occasionally commenting, saying positive things and once touching base to test the waters for a miniatures game based on SotFWW. And this goes to show that it doesn't take much to establish a relationship in this game that pays off when you need it to.

For a very modest fee, Mike is letting me licence nineteen of his spaceship illustrations, like this one:

As you can see, he's really jolly good.

If you check out his dA gallery, you'll also see that Mike does a good line in Mechs, too, so hopefully you'll see more of his work in Precinct Omega publications again in the future.