I sometimes use MyPaint, an open source painting program to create my work. It has less features than GIMP, but I love how the brush paint digitally as I move the Wacom tablet stylus. This is how I painted the “Brawling” artwork for Wicked North Games upcoming Westward RPG that was featured in a previous post. At first I sketched the scene quickly in MyPaint using one of the Pencil tools. Initially the person who was throwing the punch was a man, but then I changed it to a woman in mid-sketch. I decided on a yellowish hue for the image before I started painting the sky upon the layer immediately below the pencil sketch layer. Then I started colour blocking one character, playing with some colours over it to see if they meshed well. I started to block the other character as well as refine the punch thrower. The […]

Here are some scenes I drew as filler are in the Characters, Attributes and Skills section of the Westward RPG by Wicked North Games. These scenes, also drawn by Alexander Gustafson, Ryan Rhodes and Cory DeVore, gives players an idea of what your players can be doing on the steampunk planet of Westward and what the millieux feels like. You could arm-wrestle an Enclave – a steampunk cyborg – and win! You could write a secret messages! You could punch a guy in the jaw because he hadn’t showered in two months. You could blow up a water tower for shits and giggles. Not really for giggles since water is precious here. Westward RPG will be available online or at your FLGS later this year.

This is the second of two blog posts featuring location artwork of cities and prefectures on the planet Westward, where human colonists have been marooned for centuries with only an exotic steam-powered technology to run their machines. Over the years, new politics, allegiances and social dynamics have driven the inhabitants of Westward. How would you play characters in an alien western steampunk setting? Look out for the Westward RPG to be released soon!   There’s even a sideslicer on the hillside beneath Fort Gowchain there. Click here to see part one of two.

More Westward RPG artwork were commissioned by Wicked North Games, and for this batch they have ordered location artwork of various cities and prefectures on Westward. Here is the first of two posts of the locations on the (mostly) dry and arid planet of Westward!   What adventures can players experience at these places? Check out Westward RPG to be released mid-year by Wicked North Games.

And here is the latest batch of creatures that inhabit not just the deserts, but the lesser illustrated jungle and tundra of Westward… presented in the form of a 1280px by 800px wallpaper! Tentative names from left to right: Ice Fish, Entracter Crab Spider, Death Ogler, Snow Globber. Watch for the Westward RPG core rule book to be released by year’s end!

Some more bizarre alien creatures were commissioned by Wicked North Games for their space steampunk western role-playing game Westward! While you’re riding a shieldhorse or piloting a steam-powered mech, you might come across these guys in the Badlands of Westward.

So, let me ask you this: what do you suppose is the medium used to draw the above concept sketch of the Tusker for the Westward RPG bestiary?

This series of creatures I drew for Westward RPG from Wicked North Games is special. I was tasked with proposing and designing these beasts from scratch. Once approved by Wicked North, I started illustrating them with ink and water colours! Of course, the names might be changed by the writers during editing. Keep an eye out for Westward the steampunk western roleplaying game in space, produced by Wicked North Games to be released in the near future.

Here are four more preview creatures from Wicked North Games’ Westward RPG! Sure it’s a steampunk western set in space, but what sort of strange critters would PCs be up against in the wilderlands of Westward?

Wicked North Game has been busy developing a new role-playing game using their Cinema 6 variant of the Open D6 system, entitled Westward. I have been given the task to visually design some creatures for Westward, based on descriptions and stats by Peter Schweighofer. Here are initial designs that were sketched with no text description to whet your appetite.