Tony Hough Illustration Review of 2023, Part Two!!

 I had a few of the Lone Wolf gamebooks back in the day but I hadn't played them all like the Fighting Fantasy ones. I met Joe Dever a few years back at a Dragonmeet. I was a fan of Gary Chalk's illustrations and was happy to meet and chat with him at the 2022 Dragonmeet, Thus I was greatly enthused when Rene Batsford asked me to do some illustrations for Holmgard Press's Lone Wolf Playmats - which are a play aid for the new delux editions of the series (I have them and they are beautiful - you can get them here.)

The Playmat art includes cards for all the Kai Powers, encounters, weapons and special items - a huge undertaking! I have been producing a mixture of full scenes and backgroundless characters and items which can be placed against a variety of different backgrounds supplied by the other artists. 

 

 So here am I with my wife and daughter enjoying a stroll with a party of Giaks!!

 

The artwork for these is done in pencil on paper, then scanned, enhanced and coloured using Photoshop. For the backgroundless images I have to use Layers and carefully remove the surrounding ground, taking care with the edges so that when placed over any background colour or image there are no glaring "fringes" (which make badly Photoshopped images so easy to spot!!) before saving them as backgroundless PNG files
That's how I was able to pop these scary guys into this family snap, carefully sized and calibrated to match us!!

Kai Power: Mind Shield

This Vodak was fun to draw!!

Drodarin Warhammer and Tinderbox

 

 

A very varied and enjoyable set of commissions which is still ongoing!!