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.
Painting alien species: humanoid vs non-humanoid visual rules
How to paint alien characters that read as people rather than creature concepts. Proportion shifts, skin texture language, eye design across humanoid and non-humanoid species.
Original sci-fi IP commissions: painting from a worldbuilding brief
How to commission character art for your own sci-fi novel, indie RPG, or homebrew setting — the worldbuilding bible, the locked reference set, and the small-cast cohesion pass.
World of Darkness commission guide: Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and beyond
Commissioning art for V5, W5, Hunter, and Mage characters — clan and tribe shorthand, era markers, and the one detail that makes a modern portrait feel wrong.
Urban fantasy character art: Dresden Files, Rivers of London, and the modern-magic vibe
How urban fantasy commissions differ from straight modern — the wizard-in-a-t-shirt principle, city-specific settings, and the one supernatural channel that lands.
Painting a "regular person" character without fantasy crutches
The hardest brief I take — a character in jeans and a hoodie, no armour, no staff, no fantasy props. How face, posture, hands, and one telling detail carry the painting.
Investigator portraits: the Call of Cthulhu 1920s aesthetic in paint
A painter's deeper companion to Call of Cthulhu portraits — Prohibition fashion, sepia mixed not filtered, period gear that earns its frame, and the 'I have seen something' eye treatment.
Eldritch horror design: tentacles, eyes, and non-Euclidean geometry done right
A painter's guide to cosmic horror commissions without the tentacle pile-up — what to imply, where to place an extra eye, and how the non-Euclidean trick actually works on canvas.
Body horror commissions: when to push, when to pull back
A studio guide to body horror as a commission category — the dial from subtle wrongness to Cronenberg overload, the kickoff call, and the five-year wall test.
Atmosphere effects in character art: fog, candle, mothlight, smoke
A painter's guide to atmospheric character art: how fog, candle warmth, mothlight, and smoke tendrils carry storytelling weight without reading as filters.
Viking-era character art: from Free League's Forbidden Lands to historical accuracy
Viking-age character briefs that work — no horned helmets, wool over linen, the right weapons, the Forbidden Lands aesthetic, and museum references the studio actually trusts.
Samurai character art: a quick guide to Japanese historical periods
A period-spanning samurai brief guide — Sengoku, Edo, and Meiji at a glance, the kabuto by era, the ronin question, and which Kurosawa film maps to which century.
Medieval armor reference: 5 mistakes amateurs always make
The five medieval armour mistakes that derail commission briefs — wrong era for the kit, mail-and-plate stacked wrong, boob-plate, and Renaissance that's not actually medieval.
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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.