Category Archives: commissions

Detour Cover – the Black and White Final

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This is the scan of the final “real world” version of the Detour cover art. The color for most of my illustrations is added in Photoshop. That way I have more flexibility if I need to make corrections. For me, working with color is a tricky business. I’m still learning what colors work well together, which clash and the difference between too many colors and not enough. With Photoshop I can experiment with different colors and compositions until I find the best looking one.

The original art is usually done in ink and graphite. I lay down the areas I want to be solid black with a brush and india ink and then add tones with a B weight pencil. Lately I’ve been using gray tone markers as well. The markers add variety to the textures in the illustration.

Detour Cover – Final Sketch

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From yesterday’s rough cover sketch I did this detailed pencil drawing. I’ve included the Detour title in each sketch (pasted in after scanning into Photoshop) so that I’m making sure to leave room for text in the final artwork.

If Detour were a movie pitch I’d say it was “The Road Warrior meets Dawn of the Dead (2004)” but, of course, it’s a little more complicated than that.

Detour Cover – Rough Sketch

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I’m interrupting the Oz Squad posts to throw some attention at another project I worked on recently – the resurrection of the Dark Conspiracy RPG. 3Hombres Games are the folks producing both new and revised material. Their first release – Detour – went live on Friday at drivethrustuff.com.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting the rough sketches of the illustrations I did for this supplement. The final art is available in the product.

Today’s post is of the really rough sketch for the cover. I usually do three or four thumbnail sketches for a possible cover and submit them to my editors to choose from. In this case I did a number of really bad, barely comprehensible sketches that made no sense to anyone but me, finally came up with this one and, fortunately, the editors liked it.

Getting Fit! Numero 4

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Stripping down a bicycle to its basic shapes was another challenge. I don’t draw machines that often so every time I do have to spend a lot of time sketching and resketching the ones I’m intending to depict in the final illustration. So first I had to sketch the bike with all its parts and then streamline each subsequent sketch until I ended up with this version. Looking at this now I think I should I done one more version.

Getting Fit! Numero 3

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The client wanted a series of cartoons of people engaged in athletic activities – running, swimming, biking, etc. Swimming was one of the more challenging to figure out how to present. A full figure of someone swimming looks a little weird without context and a partial image of someone’s head and hands above the water can look as much like the person is drowning as if they are swimming.

Getting Fit! Numero 1

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Back in 2003 or 2004 Labor of Love set out to design a logo and business kit (business cards, stationery, etc.) for a personal trainer. While Nizzibet did most of the actual design work and client interaction she asked me to come up with some cartoon figures that could be used to enliven the material. Since the ‘toons were likely to be used online or on business cards I went for very simple designs – bold lines, straight black and white. I really like the results. I can’t remember what the client thought. I’m guessing she wasn’t in love with them since there’s no evidence of them on her current website.

Oh well. Just another reason why I concentrate on illustration work rather than graphic design.

Chaosium Sells Stolen Goods – Part the Second

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UPDATE – The check has arrived!


I’m posting these screenshots from Chaosium’s Facebook and Twitter pages as a record in case someone at Chaosium decides to scrub my posts. They should be able to. I’d suspect that they hadn’t noticed them except that I get emails when someone responds to my FB posts and tweets. Someone there should be noticing that I’ve been posting.


Between Facebook, private emails and looking around the web I’m finding a lot of folks who are pissed off at Chaosium. Sadly I’m not hearing from any defenders. The best I’ve gotten is “So far they’ve always paid me … but yeah, I’ve heard from a lot of people in your situation.”

It’s been recommended that I call and speak directly to Charlie Krank. That’s a good suggestion. For the moment, however, I’m still trying to be polite. In an email or a blog post I can think twice (thrice!) about what I’ve said before I pass it on to the world. In a phone conversation I’m more likely to be … surly. Also, unless I record the phone call, there’s no record of what was said. I like keeping records.

It’s also been suggested that I take Chaosium to small claims court. I’m seriously considering that one. Laws vary from state to state so I’ll have to see what the situation is here in Washington.


Here’s the thing – I have no illusions that Chaosium is getting rich by publishing stolen property. I’m sure they’re not. I’ve been a publisher. The publishing business has a narrow to non-existent profit margin. For every best seller there are thousands of books that barely cover their print costs. Chaosium publishes roleplaying game books for Call of Cthulhu and the Basic Roleplaying system, therefore they are niche publishers in a niche market. I’d be really surprised if a best seller in that market sold 10,000 copies. More likely it sells 5 thousand or less.

I wouldn’t be happy if they went out of business. I’m rarely happy to see a business fail. But, as I said yesterday I have to pay attention to getting paid. Chaosium has made it a habit to not pay people. I can’t, in good conscience, keep my mouth shut about that.

Chaosium could probably continue to exist if they restructured as hobbyists and paid contributors in copies of books printed. The RPG industry is fan driven. Folks work in it because they love it. They would still have writers and artists who would be happy be published. No one would expect to get paid and everyone could get along happily. Yeah.

Until then – DANGER! QUICKSAND AHEAD!