See Santi at work applying the colors to the line drawing… and see him performing some magic to finalize the result with amazing texture and detail.
Watch Santi sketchig the artwork for the roman centurion.
Sometimes we receive questions about the origin and in spiration of certain cards. Most of them are invented out of the blue, but some of them have a background story, or come with a little wink.
The card refers to the story of Howard Dully, who was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia at an age 4 by Neurologist Walter Freeman, altough numerous other medical and psychiatric professionals who had seen Dully did not detect a psychiatric disorder. In 1960, at 12 years of age, Dully was submitted by his father and stepmother for a trans-orbital lobotomy, performed by Dr. Freeman. During the procedure, a long, sharp instrument called an orbitoclast was inserted through each of Dully's eye sockets 7 cm (2.75 inches) into his brain.
Dully was institutionalized for years as a juvenile (in Agnews State Hospital as a minor); transferred to Rancho Linda School in San Jose, California, a school for children with behavior problems; incarcerated; and was eventually homeless and an alcoholic. After becoming sober and getting a college degree in computer information systems, he became a California state certified behind-the-wheel instructor for a school bus company in San Jose, California.
In his 50s, with the assistance of National Public Radio producer David Isay, Dully started to research what had happened to him as a child. By this time, both his stepmother and Dr. Freeman were dead, and due to the aftereffects of the surgery, he was unable to rely on his own memories. He traveled the country with Isay and Piya Kochhar, speaking with members of his family, relatives of other lobotomy patients, and relatives of Dr. Freeman, and also gaining access to Freeman's archives. Dully first relayed his story on a National Public Radio broadcast in 2005, prior to co-authoring a memoir published in 2007.
When Santi asked me, "How do you envision the 'Cutpurse Imp' artwork?", I replied "Why don't we pay homage to the funniest, wicked and by far greatest character of one of the best fantasy series ever made." If you look closely you'll find a slight resemblance with Mr. Peter Dinklage, who did an amazing job bringing the fictional character to life.
And as usual, but not less impressive, Santi went ahead and created us this nice piece of artwork.
For those who didn't figure out the 'Cutpuse Imp' reference. Here's another hint.
We just couldn't resit to put some lightning on this one… I wonder why 😉 In the first version of the artwork Santi started with a blue dressed mage, but that wouldn't do for a Red Banner card, would it now?
The message in the flavor text was sent by 'Armadant'. He's a kind of secret police man in the awesome magic-meets-french-revolution books written by Brian McClellan. His Powder Mage Trilogy is must read for every fantasy addict!
See Santi at work creating the sketch for the Conscript card. You can just sit back, relax, and watch how things came to be out of thin air. Or take up the challenge and give it a go yourself.
Still there? Following up on the sketch, Santi sets to work on the line drawing. One more step to go … stay tuned!