Annoucing: Hoppings

So, the project I have been working (on and off again) for a while is: Hoppings!

Hoppings will be a TRPG booklet written and illustrated by me! It uses my Homebrew Agnostic RPG system and I made sure to make it compatible with all the big brand and indie systems. But what is this book about?

Well, as I created designs for my remake of Die Geschichte vom wilden Jäger. I started to think of how a Hare-folk person would function: Their smaller humanoids bodies with big furry feet... Burrow houses with round entrances in the greenish fields... Notably silent and excellent at stealthy missions...
Wait! They're Halflings!?!

So yeah. Basically they became my version of a halfling race. I mean, much gets talked about a Pig version of Orcs... But what about a hare version of Halflings?

Dwarf

A Random Dwarf in the Tavern offers you Wine

Of the fantasy creatures that often are playable the dwarfs are the one that I wouldn't change much. However, I do think that they could be more magical... I think they should know one or two types of magic that are secretive and unknown to other species. That is how I am approaching them in my setting. But other than some metallurgy and magical secrets they are just like the hard hitting dwarfs of Tolkien and Norse lore.

The piece above was created on A5 piece of 1557 Canson paper¹. I mostly used black watercolour and ink. Black gouache for the bottle and as always Mars Black (aka Pbk11 Iron Oxide Black) for leather effect. Oh, and some white gouache on the bracelet metal pieces.

¹I'm not sponsored by Canson, I got a block of 1557 Canson paper for real cheap when a certain store went out of business and I have been testing and enjoying it as of late. I don't recommend since it is only 120g/m². It takes some light watercolor washes but it WARPS like nobody's business! So, for black and white pieces and inking it's fine...

Little Girl Ranger wearing a Vizzerdrix Helmet

 A new character design exercise: Louise Belcher as a Ranger. Little girl Ranger wearing a Vizzerdrix Helmet.

Seriously now, when I saw Dave Dorman's Vizzerdrix illustration on a Magic the Gathering card back in the Early2000s my younger self thought that the creature was a common RPG foe. As a result I incorporated it into my Homebrew setting at the time. Mostly because I thought that heaving pink leather armour was a neat thing. So when I thought about pink bunny ears in a RPG setting I thought of my old pal the Vizzerdrix.

The earthy sap green dress is almost a uniform for rangers these days. Then I went ahead and added the gear for a double wielding weapon expert. Bow and arrow is nice and all, but I'd like to break that Ranger mold if can.

As far as the technique goes this one is all gouache! I have been putting more hours on my gouache technique. And I have been getting happier with it. Poster colours are more fun than watercolour on some techniques... like doing those fluffy fur pieces.

Paladin Nun in Iron Maiden Armour

 

"God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay"
-Tidings of Comfort and Joy, Fol Song

So warrior nuns are a great concept, uh?

The anonymous suggestion for this one was: a Holy Woman Warrior who is cursed and doesn't know it yet. A mix of someone on an Anti-Paladin path and a Sister.

The sword is an original item. This Evil Eye Sword is your typical cursed sword with blood-thirst and a sentient eye in the pommel that detects evil.

Now I know you're probably thinking that the "skirt" in the armour is too long and would make for unrealistic movement. Or might even be thinking the "fan favourite word" impractical (hehe). But the Armour is supposed to resemble an Iron Maiden torture device, that is why it is so long. It might be cursed as wel...

I designed a helmet but it didn't make the cut.

The palette is another minimal one: Earthy Yellow, Red, Ivory Black and lil'bit of White.

Silas Lamprey

"F### me! I'm all out of enemies!"
-Spit it Out. Slipknot

In January of this year I got the opportunity to play a Mörk Borg adventure online. And this is the illustration for the character I played.

Die Geschichte vom wilden Jäger

When I first read Struwwelpeter, for whatever reason, I became immediately invested in the story about the Hare and the Hunter. Unlike the other tales in that book this one didn't have a strong and drastic moral lesson. It was on the lighter side...

So I thought to myself: what if I redraw this one but the hare is more anthropomorphic? (just for fun)

The illustrations by Dr Heinrich Hoffmann are very fun to look at! And they are very inspiring!
But rather than just redo the same drawings in my style, I decided to make my own composition and tell the story from a different angle.

This project served as a warm-up for another one I have coming.

About the text being in German: Do I have any German-speaking readers?
I considered making a version with the English translation, but I think that version is copyright protected. So I'm only posting a German version.

Enjoy!

 

Hitoshi Yoneda

 This post is the answer to the question:
Who is your favourite Artist?

   I'm always out of sorts when asked about "my favourite" anything. I have so much love for all things that I love that this type of question makes me feel like a Parent whose kids asked who is the favorite one... you know well enough that there is enough love to go around, but that's not an compelling answer.

So if you ask me who is my favourite artist, I could certainly geek out on several people I admire. But for many special reasons I'm going to say Hitoshi Yoneda [米田仁士].

In 2017 (I think) two friends who knew that retro games are a minor hobby of mine gave me an original copy of the Japanese version of Phantasy Star 3 for Mega Drive. Which made me the owner of the First and Third games of the series. So I googled about Phantasy Star 2 and that was when the art of Hitoshi Yoneda struck me for the first time!

セガさんからメガドライブミニが届きました。(^w^)
私が描いた『ファンタシースター 〜千年紀の終わりに〜』も収録されてます。

カートリッジ ミニも入ってました。こんな感じです。#メガドライブミニ #ファンタシースター #米田仁士 pic.twitter.com/PaaHZ5Adq6

— 米田仁士 Hitoshi Yoneda (@Brise_Marine) September 27, 2019

And I quickly became fascinated with his art style!♥

Being that my main media is watercolour I felt (for a while) a bit distraught because most modern Fantasy illustrators that I liked seemed to either work in oil or digital. So when I found a fantasy artist that had watercolour as his main media and made an exquisite use of it I was thrilled! It vindicated my own path as a fantasy artist.  

However at that time the information and images of his work were scarce on the internet. But my search led me to discover that he had published two Art Books in the 90s. One named Qvinta Essentia and another named E-nu-ma e-lish So I set out to buy them both because I just needed to scrutinize his technique. :P

In my search for more of his works I also found out that he currently (at the time) was illustrating the covers of a Japanese RPG magazine called Warlock Magazine (ウォーロックマガジン, formerly TtT Magazine). Which in turn led me to discover the amazing  website EntropicDreams that talks about everything TRPG and Board-Game related from Japan.

I found Hitoshi Yoneda's blog (last updated in 2017 as of this post). And a Twitter account @Brise_Marine where he posts fairly regularly with new and old work. He also posts plenty of nice pictures of the Nara Park and urban Japan by him. So I followed.

Then in 2020 when he posted his artwork cover for the book E-nu-ma e-lish I replied with a photo of my copy of the book. He did reply it in 2020. But he once again replied to me this year:

2020年のTweetだけど見逃してました。（＾ω＾）

YOU MADE ME HAPPY !!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH INDEED !! https://t.co/IEdzjRDQgQ

— 米田仁士 Hitoshi Yoneda (@Brise_Marine) July 1, 2022

So we had a nice exchange and I told him how much I admire his work and that I wish to be a great illustrator like him. He responded me with nice words of encouragement:

And now I have a nice Motivational Poster in my Studio!