Field notes & deep dives
One long-form genre guide per genre we paint, plus the studio notes — guides, walkthroughs, and process pieces. Start with a genre guide, explore the deep dives.
The genres we paint in
Cornerstone guides for every genre on the studio’s slate. Live where written; the rest are in the queue.
Commissioning Fantasy Character Art: A Complete Guide for Players, GMs, and Writers
Species cues, faction-warm palettes, magical effects without the sparkles, weapons that aren't generic, and what actually goes in the brief.
The D&D 5e Player's Guide to Commissioning Character Art
What a D&D 5e character art commission actually delivers, what to put in the brief, and how class and lineage shape the painting. From a studio that has painted hundreds.
Sci-fi Character Art: From Starfinder to Original Settings
What two years of painting sci-fi characters taught me about hardsuits, alien species, body mods, Starfinder, Mothership, and original-IP worldbuilding briefs.
Cyberpunk Character Art Commissions: The Neon-Lit Aesthetic Guide
A studio guide to commissioning cyberpunk character art — palette, chrome, archetype cues, lighting rigs, and what RED, Shadowrun, and 2077 each demand.
Horror Character Art: Painting What Should Not Be
A studio guide to commissioning horror character art — dread over shock, gothic vs cosmic vs body horror, 1920s investigators, and what to leave to the painter.
Modern Character Art: Urban Fantasy, Crime, Mundane Heroics
A working guide to commissioning modern character art: World of Darkness portraits, urban fantasy leads, modern crime PCs, and the person-in-jeans brief.
Historical Character Art Commissions: Getting the Period Right
Medieval, Viking, samurai, Edwardian. How I narrow a year range with the client, check references, and avoid the costume-drama mistakes that ruin a period portrait.
Souls & Anime Fan Art Commissions: Tribute Portraits Done Right
Souls-style and anime style commissions, palette by palette, plus the calm IP conversation about fan art that most studios won't have with you. A founder's field guide.
Western & Weird West Character Art: Frontier, Gunslinger, Outlaw
A studio guide to commissioning western character art — period-accurate fashion, firearms, dust-and-golden-hour light, and how the weird west really works.
Field notes & process
Guides on commissioning art, walkthroughs of recent pieces, and the occasional studio dispatch.
Eleanor of Aquitaine in paint: the medieval queen most worth commissioning
Why Eleanor (1122-1204) is the most painterly medieval queen, three eras of her portrait, and how to brief one without sliding into Disney-medieval.
From sketch to final paint: the character art commission process, walked through
Every commission walks through the same nine stages, in the same order. Thumbnails, color block, render pass, two revisions, delivery — the shape of the work.
Weird west: blending horror and frontier without it looking goofy
Where the B-movie line sits for horror-western art, the subtle-wrongness toolbox, and the references that work — Deadlands, The Sisters Brothers, Bone Tomahawk.
Deadlands character art: a TTRPG-specific brief guide
The Deadlands archetype matrix, Reckoner influence cues, weird-west palette logic, and what to put in a brief so the painter doesn't have to guess.
Cowboy fashion across the eras: 1840s mountain man to 1900s gunslinger
How western character clothing actually evolved across sixty years — mountain man buckskin, post-war transition, peak cowboy, railroad town, end-of-frontier — plus a hat cheat sheet.
Souls-style character art: Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Bloodborne palette and linework
What 'Souls style' actually means in commission terms: palette discipline, FromSoftware linework conventions, the three lighting modes, and the tragedy-in-armour register.
Genshin Impact and Honkai fan art commissions: the brief checklist
The HoYoverse splash-art register in plain terms, the canonical reference set, OC versus canon character briefs, and the IP conversation in one paragraph.
Fan art vs original character in anime style: which is right for your project
The decision matrix for anime commissions — canon-character tribute portrait versus OC-in-the-style, with brief skeletons, pricing notes, and IP framing.
The fan-art IP gray area: what we paint, what we don't, what stays personal
The studio's position on fan-art commissions in plain English. Personal-use fair-use commentary, commercial-resale boundaries, and the cease-and-desist conversation.
Anime-style portrait commission guide: cell-shaded vs painterly anime
Cell-shaded and painterly anime are two different paintings, not one style. The brief for each, the references that fail, and which register fits which project.
Starfinder character art: a TTRPG-specific brief guide
How to brief Starfinder character art class by class and species by species — Soldier, Operative, Mystic, Solarian, and the kasatha-vesk-lashunta-ysoki roster.
Sci-fi armor design: hardsuit vs mech vs softsuit at portrait scale
Three sci-fi armor families and how they paint: sealed hardsuits, piloted mechs, and worn-in softsuits. How to pick the right silhouette for your character portrait.
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New work & new thinking, monthly
Every few weeks, a roundup of recent commissions, process notes, and slot openings. No spam, no marketing fluff — just the good stuff.