One of the ways that Six Ages is following in the footsteps of its predecessor is to use very distinct art styles for different purposes. Here’s a brief look at the directions we’re going.
The Distant Past
Although we debated a variety of styles, in the end we decided to stick with a “woodcut” look to represent things that took place a long time ago (i.e. for the clan questionnaire). I found our artist because she had a show at the gallery a few blocks away. Here’s a look at a Gods War event by Damara Kaminecki.
The Present
Keeping the ink and watercolor style for the bulk of the illustrations, which are set in the here-and-now, was not really questioned. We did consider different nuances, and Jan Pospíšil did a few test pieces. There are a number of artists working in this style — this is one of Jan’s early pieces, which helped establish the tone. (Note that the trolls are awake early, since the sun has not fully set.)
The Otherworld
The world of the gods is key to a game set in Glorantha, and we again wanted a look that was very different from the mundane world. We didn’t have any preconceptions, though once again we were drawn to Magic: The Gathering artists. But we ended up going with a local artist, who has a distinctive style. Here’s Michelle Lockamy’s take on a Gloranthan archetype, the blue dragon.
Lockamy just does wonders with colours. Her blue dragon just looks… very different to everything. A bit comic even.
The idea of having different visual styles represent differences in time and space is a fantastic idea, you’re definitely going in the right direction in that regard. I like Jan’s style a lot, it’s very Gloratha-esque. However make sure that the quality and overall style of presentation stays consistent and true to both KoDP and Gloranthan mythos as a whole.
If these samples are any indication, I doubt consistency will be an issue
At first glance I could very easily believe these are all done by the same artist. But they do have enough different nuances to emphasizes the time periods
If the rest of the art is in this same vein…. then I’ll be even more excited for this game than I knew 🙂
Man, I hope I can get my hands on one of those other world artworks!
Michelle works digitally, so there are no original paintings to purchase, I’m afraid.
I’m sure prints would be possible though.