Dragyri Earth Caste Cover Art

This year we revealed the Earth Caste as a new sub-faction for the Dragyri from the Dark Age miniature game. Click the image below to learn more.

For the project, I designed the Earth Caste faction logo as well as the type treatment for the cover. I used the mountain motif for the icon, and some of the positive negative shape forms the Chinese character for the word mountain. The lighting was super fun to play with, the Chiaroscuro effect turned out looking really neat.

The Earth Caste units train in styles similar to Eastern Chinese martial arts. They emphasize strong, balanced, deliberate movements to push or knock down their foes. Their stable stances and use of psychogenic powers make them more resilient in combat, granting them the ability to resist various attacks that can re-position them. Slow and steady wins the race, and with their grit and determination, they can overcome any mountain in their way.

Skarrd Bolas Art

Hello everyone, here is another piece of art I did for the new Dark Age Skarrd faction update. This time I was asked to update the art for the Bolas unit from the game. Bolas is the basic skirmish infantry that takes the brunt of an assault to lock down enemies and chip away at health until the stronger units can get into position to clean up.

The Bola sports a rusty blade that is simple but deadly when used in numbers with others as a group attack. They also carry their signature weapon, the razer bladed bola to slow down or knock prone their targets to make them easy pickings for the Skarrd Horde. Like the Harpies they are able to infiltrate the battlefield at any moment's notice to turn the tide of battle through capturing objectives, locking down larger units, or add bulk to a depleted army.

Update miniature. you can find more at the Cool Mini Or Not Store.

Dark Age new Harpy Art

Back in May I created some new artwork for the new Skarrd Faction book for the Dark Age tabletop game. Some of the older miniatures received updated sculpts and new concept art. Here is one of the pieces I did for the Harpy. These ladies are agile, highly mobile units designed to take objectives, enter the field in strategic locations to assassinate isolated units or create a distraction. Their low point cost also means you can pick up a large group of them so you can swarm the field at the opportune moment.

For more information please check out: http://dark-age.com/ to learn how to play. You can purchase your very own Harpies HERE.

Icon Art for Rum and Bones: Second Tide

Did some icon art for the Rum & Bones: Second Tide ship tile.

Old timey bomb design with shell and fuse. The textures were fun to paint.

Unused icon art for the Ork Catapult. Looks more like something the undead would use.

Final version of the Ork catapult, more spikes, more metal, industrial.

Wedding Invitation Art

So I was searching my hard drive and I came across artwork I made for a friend's wedding invitation. For context, my friend Jonathan Phillips-Bradford commissioned me to create a piece of artwork the features him and his then fiancee Elizabeth Beckley as chibi characters in an epic battle with a dragon. Art work took me about a day or two to complete, the style was based on the game Arcadia Quest by Cool Mini Or Not.

Initial Sketch

I had a lot of fun trying to come up with things to add to the characters that are uniquely Jonathan and Elizabeth in terms of interests and personality.

Have You Eaten Film- Glazed Honey Sweet and Sour Pork

Hi Everyone, posting another completed art asset for Marisa Tontaveetong's thesis film!

Today I present to you honey glazed, sweet and sour pork. Notice the brownish red glaze and the juicy sauce pooling below. How tantalizing.

Painted honey pork :D

Vectorized version.

Look at the vector lines! 

Be Wary of Cassowary Speed Paint Study

Hey Everyone, decided to do a more detailed speed paint study tonight. Spent around 2 hours along with another 30 minutes to polish.

Be wary of the Cassowary!

Looks like he is judging you.

Shaman Necromancer Sketch

Started on a sketch of a witch doctor while on a hangout call with some friends, Nicholas Palmer, Tim Kafantaris, and Jeremy Cropp.

I used chevron, trapezoidal shape with skull motifs to create visual interest in the character. The staff will consist of a wooden core shaft with leather wrap to hold glass ritual spheres, and bone fragment decorative protrusions in place. He carries a skull with markings for rituals on his belt, and some prayer beads to commune with spirits. The horns and bone pauldron adds to the arcane nature of the character's appearance.

Dark Age Product Feature: Outcast Faction Starter Box

Time for an introduction for another faction from the Dark Age miniatures table top game line! Today I present to you the raider-like bandits from the wastelands of Samaria called the Outcasts. Like the Forsaken, they are one of the humanoid factions but they do not bend to the rigid laws set by the Prevailers. Instead of paying taxes and fighting in the arbitrary crusades set by the zealous council, the Outcasts prefer to fight for their own land and destiny.

The Outcast Faction Box has what you need for your bread and butter army to play a 500 point game. I designed the box based on concrete slabs and rebar scene in the post apocalyptic world of the Fall Out and Mad Max franchises. The Outcast is known for its fast moving, hit and run tactics. Though they have heavy hitters like the Brutes, they play off control abilities to give themselves an advantageous position, or apply status effects.

This box features the following models:

• Warchief x1
• Blades x1
• Manhunter x1
• Fixer x1
• Wasteland Warrior x3

 Blades is part of the Bounty Hunter faction meaning he can fight for both the Outcast or the Forsaken. He is a pure melee unit that deals rapid damage with status effects such as bleed, blind, and stun to debuff enemies. He gains bonuses from charging into enemies, and simultaneously can negate any attack bonuses (charge and gang up) of attackers when defending. Thanks to his agility he can also deflect any 1 non-template ranged attack if he succeeds on his saves. His whirlwind attacks is a powerhouse if he can catch groups of enemies off guard.

The Fixer is a must have for any Outcast band that have ranged units because he can negate malfunctions even after he is killed in battle! He can provide your units with scavenge counters which are basically useful items jury rigged from scraps on the battlefield. Scavenge counters provide offensive and defensive boosts to units. The Fixer is also able to heal units on the field with his Medic ability.

His utility makes him a target on the battlefield so be sure to keep him alive with bodyguards like the Wasteland Warriors.

The Warchief is a veteran of survival in the wasteland, have proved himself through cunning tactics and martial abilities. As a result he is the commander of your army, so be sure to have other units squadlink with him to push objectives or combine attack to overwhelm stronger enemy units.
His melee attacks can deal area of effect damage which is useful when fighting swarms of enemies. His ranged Enforcer Pistosl help chip down enemies from afar while his entourage charges into the fray.

The Manhunter is one of your specialist units meaning he works on his own and therefore cannot squadlink with other units. His go it alone nature allows him to sneak onto the field, single out enemies, and personally take care of them.
Both is sword and ranged pistol attacks can paralyze opponents, making them less effective on the battlefield. As a resourceful survivalist, he can always find something from his surroundings to use in order to stay alive. As a result, he often acquires scavenge tokens to help him gain an edge over his targets.

The Wasteland Warriors are your bread and butter line infantry who enters the fray in melee, or whittles down foes from afar. While they do not hit hard alone, a group can easily overwhelm opponents through advantageous positions. Their zip guns are extremely useful in forcing opponents out of position. With the ability to pull a foe away from their group, the warriors can isolate targets for the Outcasts to swarm and eliminate.













There are more boxes coming out for the Outcast in the future. Some give you additional troops to supplement your army. For example, the Brute Box will provide you with some heavy hitters who can also tank for your units. This gives your a wider range of tools to play with to help jury rig your way to victory.

Have You Eaten Steamed Fish with Green Onion and Sliced Ginger

I hope you are hungry! Today I present to you steamed fish!

So this one is a bit more complicated because I have so many components to create before putting them together into a dish. Like cooking in real life, I needed to prepare the ingredients.

Speed painted Fish

Vectorized fish

Look at all the crazy pieces!

Ginger Strips

Green Onions

Porcelain platter for the fish.

And now, we combine all the ingredients together into something scrumptious! I have to take the garnishes and duplicate them a couple times, then reorganize the composition over the elongated plate.

TASTYYYY!!!

Tune in for what else is cooking in the kitchen!

Have You Eaten Shumai Design

I just completed a shu mai dish for Marisa's thesis film. The process started with me painting the shu mai in photoshop and then bringing it into illustrator to vectorize. Afterwards, I duplicated it and arranged it on the plate I created.

Ming Pottery plate design.

Speed painting of a shu mai dumpling.

Vectorized the digitally painted shu mai dumpling.

Arranged the dumplings on the plate, and gave it some drop shadows to separate them from the surface of a plate.

Have You Eaten Plate Design

Hi all, I recently started working with Marisa Tontaveetong on her thesis film called "Have You Eaten", a documentary/biopic about family life between her mother and aunt. Food, culture, and personal growth are central themes to this journey, and I will be helping her bring her vision to the screens.

I have completed the plate design that will be seen through out the introduction.

The design is reminiscent of Ming pottery ware with blue and white porcelain color schemes. I added some grease texture to show that it has food placed on it at some point.

I elongated the plate from before and created a new center pattern design.

The plates are created in an octagonal format because the designers fabricating the geometric pieces will be shaping my creations into an origami like form in 3D but with a texture wrap around.

Stay tuned for more!

Dark Age Product Feature: Forsaken Faction Starter Box

Hello everyone,

For the last couple months I have been working hard on re-branding various packaging, books, cards, and concept art for the Cool Mini or Not tabletop game called Dark Age. The game is set on a post-apocalyptic planet called Samaria right after corporations that were conducting illegal experiments left promptly when their activities were revealed. Those left behind are forced to survive on the harsh conditions of the planet, where alien lifeforms are hostile, and the remaining scavenged technology used to sustain the human civilization is unreliable at best. Delve with me into the grim sci fi game of Dark Age.

For more information, please click the image below.

Sanguine Plateau has bear witness to many battles that scar the surface of Samaria.

So the first faction I had the pleasure of revamping is the Forsaken, remnants of the United Worlds staff left behind to fend for themselves. Over time, they have developed a distrust for outsiders, and un-sanctioned technology. Some have even become overzealous in their view on preventing the distribution of illegal technologies. Over time, the most outspoken became part of the inner circle council called the Prevailers. They created the city of Ashkelon as their headquarters, and formed the other less faithful groups into different sectors outside of the inner circle. These outer ring slums are filled with the morally dubiuous. They are often recruit for dangerous tasks outside the city wall, but it is a sacrifice for the glory of the Prevailers. The inhabitants in these cities have taken up a name that is quite suitable for their predicament, the Forsaken.

I will be uploading various boxed sets for each faction in Dark Age. The next couple days I will focus specifically on the Forsaken.

Today we have the Forsaken Starter set. One of my favorite things about the new box set format is that it bypasses the outdated individual blister format. Before, Dark Age players stress out on trying to figure out how many of each unit they can take. Now, each box tells you what you need exactly for a playable army of 500 points. Everything outside of the "Faction Starter" can be considered ancillary and supplementary.

When I designed the box, I used a lot of religious buildings for reference such as Gothic and Romanesque style churches. The frame design features a semi-trompe l'oeil effect that has a pop-up 3D effect.

In this Forsaken Faction Starter, you will receive :

• Warwind A x1 
• Field Medic x1 
• Coil Diskmaster x1 
• Deacon x1 
• Banes x3 
• Bane Leader x1

 So I actually own this box, and I like what comes in this box. The Deacon is one of your command unit. He can squad link with unrelated unit groups which is great for combined activation and attacks. he provides a temporary buff to attacking units through the use of his ability called Inspiring. He has a melee attack that places toxic counters to debuff the enemy, and has a ranged attack with selective fire options that offer debuffs, damage overtime, and area of affect damage options. The versatility is great!

The Warwind is your combat oriented commander unit. Like the Deacon, he can squadlink with unrelated units. However, he is strictly melee oriented and he is quite good at it. with a low Defensive value, he is very hard to hit, and his dual katana which crits on a 3 and deals additional +1 damage or a total of 2) when he crits, he can hit very hard. Also, he is very agile meaning enemies do not gain combat bonuses from charging or ganging up on him. The Warwind model has two versions both of which is also featured in future box sets (Forsaken Command Box 1 & 2).

The Coil Diskmaster is a stronger version of the Coil Leader. They sport devices that shoot spinning saw blades of death. The Diskmaster is so skillful with his ranged attacks that he can shoot enemies behind light cover, and hit enemies behind heavy cover as if they are in light cover. As the leader of coils, every time you activate with other coils, they also gain the Crack Shot ability to ignore enemy cover bonuses. The highlight of this unit's attack is the critical strike when you roll a 3, and the decapitate ability similar to the Warwind's melee attacks. Be careful though, technology created on Samaria are often fabricated from scavanged parts and can malfunction if your critically fail your rolls on a 19. To supplement this you will want to have a Weaponsmith on your team, but that is for another box feature.

The Field Medic is your support unit. She keeps your units alive and you do not want to get her into a combat situation where she can be targeted by being singled out. Any units within her influence range of 8 inches do not die right away if their hit points reach 0. Instead, they are in a Dying State that can be stabilized by the medic if she succeeds in using her laser scalpel to restore the downed unit. because the medic is an important for keeping your units alive, other units are willing to take a hit for her when the time comes. Her Human Shield ability allows her to use units more heavily armored to get between her and what can amount to certain death. I would recommend grabbing a Sister of Compassion from a box from a future feature.









Bane Leader and Banes are your bread and butter front line unites. They are relatively well armored but have only 1 hit point for each unit so if they take a wound, they die. On the upside, their melee attacks allow you to roll two die, one die for each side of their two headed mace. This gives you the potential to deal 2 damage each time you use an attack action. The knockdown weapon ability can help turn the tide of battle in your favor if the enemy is knocked prone. This allows other heavier hitting units to take out the hapless enemy.

The Bane leader gives all the bane units that squad-link with him this turn the Guard ability. This allows them to go on hold without having to spend an additional activation.












For more information on how the game plays, please check out the rule book on the Dark Age website.

I hope you enjoyed this post about a fun table top game that I play and have designed for. I am encouraged to see the number of players dropping by the Cool Mini or Not Booth last weekend at the Nova Open in Virginia. I hope more people will pick up the game so we can develop a community. So that is it folks, please stay tuned for future posts about Dark Age the miniature game!

*Miniatures are painted by the talented Jen Haley and the hardworking team from Big Child in Spain.

Athena Greek Art Concept

Athena with headdress portrait art.

Dim Sum speed Paint 2 Hours

Hi everyone, it has been a while since I last did a speed paint based on food.

Lately, I've been in the mood for some Dim Sum so that's the subject matter for today. Who says you shouldn't eat before bed?

Weird Desert

Quick Speed Paint Matte Painting using images from a friend's to the Las Vegas Open. In this scene, a mutant behemoth crab traverses the desert. He oversees what was once the domain of man.

WWI Soldier Study

Quick study of a still from from a World War I movie I was watching. I'm really liking the overall blue tone, it has that somber, oppressive feel.

Waterfall Speed Paint

Just some speed paint practice with environments. Usually my exercises involve trying to match photos, but this time around I decided to just create an environment from the ground up. The process took a little more than 2 hours overall. I'll do more city design work in the future since I'm not satisfied with the results yet.