#snailriders — Public Fediverse posts

Finally some art to show! A toll collecting troll, illustration for an npc-encounter in my #Snailriders boardgame. I started this piece for over 1,5 years and than suddenly life went into overdrive... However, back than I didn't have the skill to finish it anyway, I've come a long way since. Also I've learned something extremely important about myself as an artist, read more in the thread below.

#GameDev #BoardgameDevelopment #FantasyArt #Troll #MastoArt #Art #DigitalArt #NoAI

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since you've heard from me. Basically because I needed to fight through an art block, but I finally did it! I finished an artwork! It's going to be my new banner and is a promotional piece for #Snailriders titled "traversing the deepwoods". Check out the followup timelapse because it is wild to see this struggle. But, man, did I learn alot...

#FantasyArt #MastoArt #boardgames #BoardgameDevelopment #GameDev #DigitalArt #Forest #Snail #NoAI

I wanted to make a piece for #Snailriders, the Magpie Dragons. First I sculpted a reference in #Blender3D and started painting from there.

But sometimes a painting just feels off, often expressing itself through a lack of excitement for achieving the final result. I often think that I might fix it later on, but if the rough version doesn't feel good yet, than it won't really be fixed by painting more details. So I'm back to drawing thumbnails until one of them screams at me to get painted :)

Apparantly it's #PortfolioDay so I'll finally join it for once! I'm Benjamin Brinckmann, a dutch digital artist living in Norway. I specialize in illustration with a classical art style, often involving nature and fantastical creatures. FOSS enthusiast, so I work with #Krita and #Blender3D. I'm also developing a boardgame called #Snailriders.
I'm looking for work within the (board)game/movie industry, so if you have any tips let me know!

Couple of weeks ago I made a quick concept sketch for a Fire salamander, an NPC your Giant Snail might be confronted with in #Snailriders. Your snail can handle him, but the precious cargo you are transporting might suffer the consequences if you are carrying flamable items...

Just a proof of concept, not a finalized illustration. I'll have to experiment more with the colors and pose.

#GameDev #BoardgameDevelopment #Boardgames #FantasyArt #GameArt #MastoArt #Art #Salamander #Amphibian

4/4 All in all, this image has been such a struggle, but man did I learn much... I could only work in my sparetime on it. Even though learning so much about Blender took a long time, it really payed off in the end. I think I spent about 6 hours divided in 4 sessions on the illustration itself, which really is much faster than before. I'm really excited where this is going to lead me next! I'm definitively going to put all this practice to good use in the illustrations for #Snailriders.

And here is the timelapse of Magpie Dragon for my #Snailriders boardgame.

A bit more background lore: Magpie dragons are too large to take off from the ground. The claws on their wings and feet are solely used for climbing up large trees and rock faces, much like bats. They build their nests high up from where they can take flight, but where they also hoard their treasures.

#boardgames #gamedev #ConceptArt #Fantasy #Art #MastoArt #birds #dragons #magpies

I've been painting again and decided to make a concept piece for my #Snailriders #boardgame of Magpie Dragon. Do I need detailed concepts like this? No, but I want to use this as an opportunity to build up a creature concept portfolio.
Magpie dragons despise anything more shiny than their own feathers. Especially during the mating season. Snailriders have to be careful about what items they use when in their vicinity.

#Art #MastoArt #FantasyArt #CreatureConcept #Dragon #Magpie #GameDev #Krita

And here is the #timelapse

#ArtTimelapseVideo
#Snailriders
#GameDev
#Cards
#MastoArt
#Art
#DigitalArt
#Krita
#KritaArt
#Machete
#Knife
#boardgames
#TabletopGameArt
#GameArt

Here's another item illustration for my #Snailriders #boardgame : a rusty machete for cutting through dense vegetation and vicious brambles. Not so effective anymore, however since the metal no longer shines, it won't attract Magpie Dragons either...

#GameDev
#Cards
#MastoArt
#Art
#DigitalArt
#Krita
#KritaArt
#Machete
#Knife
#boardgames
#TabletopGameArt
#GameArt

For quite some months I've been wanting to make illustrations for the encounter cards in my #Snailriders boardgame. However, I've been struggling a lot with perfection paralysis, so I decided to take a few step back and focus on illustrating some item cards instead. So I did this lantern for exploration during the night. Great opportunity to practice rendering metal! (which I have little of)

#GameDev #MastoArt #Art #DigitalArt #Item #Krita #OilLantern #boardgames #tabletopGameArt #GameArt

I've been wanting to make a painting of the Fungal Jungles biome for my #Snailriders #boardgame , but improvising the designs of the mushrooms just didn't work. So I decided to put in the extra effort to make some actual concept art for 5 different fantasy mushrooms and 1 giant lichen that can be placed in the environment. I'll probably will be expanding this one with more designs, but this is what I had time for for now.

#GameDev #FantasyArt #ConceptArt #MastoArt #boardgames

I was really hoping I'd get this painting (for an NPC encounter card for my #Snailriders boardgame) done before going on vacation tomorrow, but alas, it's taken way too much time and is still unfinished. I had to redo this sketch a couple of times, but I've learned tons of this image, of what I should NOT do in the future! The process I landed on in the end is making a greyscale image first, with midrange grey values, and color it afterwards.

#GameDev #fantasy #FantasyArt #Troll #boardgames

Lately I've felt a huge urge to continue on the artwork for my #Snailriders #boardgame, so this is a sketch for a random encounter card: Troll Collector, who demands payment for your passage...
I've decided that I will sketch on paper first and import this to #Krita as a base for painting. I find that I'm more creative while sketching on paper. It also gives me more protection and authenticity in the current AI dystopia.

#GameDev #boardgames #FantasyArt #Troll #GameDesign #PencilSketch

A free sunday evening, so I'm slowly preparing for playtesting my #Snailriders boardgame. I've glued some prints of the landscape tiles sketches on a pizza box and am cutting them out one after one. After that I got to print and cut out the playing cards, create some tokens for the random encounters, and customize a d6, after which it's good to go!
#GameDev #boardgames #GameDesign #fantasy

Making art can be a mess sometimes…
I've been continuing on my #Snailriders #boardgame and I want to make finalized art for the creature encounter cards. I'm working on "Swamp Octopus" who crawls onto the cargo your Snail's transporting, blocking your access to it. This is a process video of making just the rough sketch before painting. It was a real struggle to get the composition and pose right. I had to make many iterations before landing on a final sketch.

#GameDev #FantasyArt #Octopus

Been doing some creature design for #Snailriders. It's a dragonlike creature inspired by a raven, a so called Ravern. Despite their frightening appearance, they're actually allright. However, they steal everything that shines, to decorate their nests. So adventurers are advised not to use any compasses, spyglasses, knifes or any other tools made of shining metals when near these creatures, lest they'll swoop down and pick them off of you.

#MastoArt #CreatureDesign #fantasy #dragons #GameDev

So, I finally managed to finish my commission yesterday. I basically drew and colored three comic pages in two weeks, where it took a tremendous amount of time before it finally 'clicked' and it started to roll more automatically. To wind down I've started on a passion piece for #Snailriders, and I'll soon be diving into the subject of colour theory for our next #MastoArtStudy. In the mean time, here is some sketch studies of #lichen, in preperation for that passion piece.

#ILiche #mosstodon

Been busy with work and personal stuff, but whenever I had the opportunity I worked on realizing a childhood dream: learning building videogames! I had this "brilliant" idea to do prototyping of my #Snailriders #boardgame as a simple video game in #Godot. Started from 0 and got this far. Turns out building videogames is even harder than imagined, so forget "prototyping" a boardgame as one. Still, it's been fantastic and I will definitively continue on this Dev journey!

#MastoArt #GameDev

I've been awfully quiet about posting artwork lately, because of two big reasons. One, I've been working on a commission, two I've been working on #Snailriders and let's just say that the scope has changed "a little"… I'm really close to showing you what I've been working on, but until then, here is a little backpack illustration for the game. It was just a quick sketch that I wanted to give some color and "accidentally" ended up fully rendered 😅

#GameDev #BoardGames #MastoArt #Items #Fantasy

Last days I've been doing small studies in my #sketchbook, both as part of #MastoArtStudyNumber3 and for future creature concepts for my #boardgame project #Snailriders. It's been quite relaxing to be working this much on paper. I've learned a very valuable lesson, when working digitally I feel forced to be quick and productive. Working on paper has made me realize again the importance of finding your personal rythm. That is when the magic happens. #MastoArt #PenSketch #BirdArt #PencilSketch

So, just want to give a quick update on how it is going with #Snailriders for those who are interested. I had quite an intense period where I put together a presentation of the game with rule explanations, 3D-graphics and illustrations for a large publishing company here in Scandinavia who initially showed interest, but unfortunately turned it down. That's not gonna stop me though and in December I have time again to continue working on the game and I'm really looking forward to it!

#GameDev

Sketch for my #Snailriders boardgame, a monster you can encounter in the Crystal Canyons: a Crystal Tortoise. He won't let you pass and will gobble up your food reserves if you aren't careful, but you can lure him away to another space, opening the way.

#MastoArt #GameDev #GameArt #ConceptArt #FantasyArt #Fantasy #CreatureDesign #turtle #tortoise #crystals #boardgames

Another sketch for a monster in my #Snailriders boardgame, a Ravern that likes all that is shiny. So take care that he doesn't come and steal your stuff...

#MastoArt #GameDev #GameArt #ConceptArt #FantasyArt #Fantasy #dragon #boardgames

Been crash coursing Blender last week, quite a journey. Pushed my poor laptop to the brink. Its been fun, but I look forward to drawing and painting again now. This is the final 3D render for the #Snailriders boardgame for now. I've also made a whole lot of smaller renders for the explanation of the rules. Now just to finish the whole promo with text and send it to the publisher that asked for a presentation of my game, hope they will bite!

#MastoArt #Blender3D #GameDev #boardgames #GameDesign

I've been hard at work continueing with my ventures into Blender. I've been learning (and failing) loads about physics and cloth simulations. I tried to simulate a bag for the landscape tiles and kindof got something. I've also made this snail model. My hope is to have similar models in real life, though this one is probably way too complex for casting. Doing this work cause I need to get a promo pitch out, soon...

#Snailriders #MastoArt #GameDev #boardgames #3DArt #Blender3D

I've been busy with a commission lately, but otherwise I've been returning to Blender for both practice and making a mockup of my #Snailriders boardgame. This has been so much fun and very educational: learned a lot about UV-mapping and physics. Just a quick disclaimer, this picture does not at all represent the final state and look of the game. Lots more to come!

#MastoArt #GameDev #3dgraphics #3dArt #boardgames #Blender #Blender3d

I finished my final set of landscape tiles for my #Snailriders boardgame prototype. For now, at least. There are many more tiles I have in mind, but I can use these tiles as bases for other variations. This time some webby woods, a crystal canyon, vicious brambles and a rugged wasteland. Now I have to place symbols on them, fix the playing cards and get some playtesters. Getting a bit nervous now…

#MastoArt #GameDev #boardgames #FantasyArt #ConceptArt #landscape #LandscapePainting #art

I finished another set of lanscape tiles for the prototype of my Snailriders boardgame: this time rather plain looking plains (needs a whole lot more conceptual work), an idyllic lake, an ominous marsh and a mysterious ruin. These ones have been challenging, but I've gained quite some experience and learned some neat tricks that will be rather helpful further on.

#Snailriders #MastoArt #FantasyArt #fantasy #boardgame #boardgames #GameDev #landscape #DigitalArt #plains #lakes #swamps #ruins

I've been making these sketches for the landscape tiles in my #Snailriders boardgame. These sketches are really meant only for the playtesting prototype and I shouldn't be making such detailed sketches for that, but I don't have that much experience in making small isometric landscapes like these, so its a lot of fun to experiment with them and I'm learning a lot in the process.

#MastoArt #boardgame #GameDev #GameArt #landscape #isometric #DigitalArt #FantasyArt #mountains #forests #fungi