Jeffrey Beebe's Dungeons, Monsters, and Kickstarter

First of all, Jeffrey Beebe's art is awesome. You might have seen his hand-drawn OD&D inspired maps show up on Boing Boing a few weeks ago. He also does cool monsters and stuff. His world would make a great (and bizarre) campaign world.

And now he has a Kickstarter where you can get prints, pictures, and a personal hand-drawn dungeon map!

More Pople Need to get a Dungeon by Me

Look, in no way am I trying to say that anyone needs to go out and drop more money on a Kickstarter than they need to. I routinely completely neglect really awesome Kickstarter projects even when started by good friends of mine. I'm a bit of a bastard about it, actually.



But more of you people really need to get a custom dungeon map drawn by me. It's right at the bottom under Dungeon Architect. Only two people have claimed it. It's a pretty awesome perk. I'm just saying.*



So what does the Dungeon Map mean? It means I'll call you up on the phone, or Skype, or your media of choice, and gab for a while about dungeons. Maybe we'll talk about dungeons we have known, good ones and bad ones, what we've never seen in a dungeon but would like to, what we think every dungeon should have. Then I'll draw a dungeon inspired by our conversation. Then I'll mail it to you suitable for framing and also send you a high quality PDF of the drawing.

Working On...

I'm sure you can't tell, but this is a painting of two very large piles of crushed cars in different states of completion. I get a lot of pleasure out of painting crushed cars. It never gets old. And now back to your regularly scheduled microdungeons.

The Microdungeon 10

The Microdungeon 10 experiment is completed. Today I (finally) mailed 9 microdungeons to the folks who requested to them.

I've also thrown in a few extra goodies: a print of The Wizard's Tower, a couple of Moo cards, and a sticker with dungeon art on them.

So what was the point of this exercise? With shipping and materials, I only made a few bucks on it. On the other hand, I created 10 new dungeons I wouldn't have created before and found owners for them. This is a huge win for me! With dozens of homeless dungeons sitting in little boxes on my desk, a piece of art I can send off to someone makes me happy. Homeless dungeons make me sad.

The only downside was how long it took. Even though each dungeon is quick, it took me a month to complete them all. This is because I do most of my sketching in the 45 minutes between dropping my daughter off at school and starting work every day. And that time is subject to disruption from work emergencies, family duties, errands, dental appointments, other art assignments and a host of other obstructions. The next time I do something like this, I'll carve out a block of time to work on it so I can get it done in a more timely fashion.

That said, thanks for taking part everyone. I hope you enjoy your new dungeons!

Random Dungeon Generator that is a Dungeon

Paul Hughes has this awesome project on Kickstarter: Random Dungeon Generator as a Dungeon.

It's a 36" x 24" poster that is also a walkthrough of the random dungeon generation rules in the classic Dungeon Master's Guide. I already happy to own Paul's poster of the wandering monster tables, and it is pure awesome, I assure you. This is the kind of amazingly cool thing that can exist today because of people like Paul, who have an awesome vision and are able to take hold of the tools to make it happen. I can't wait for this project to ship!

Hell Yeah, this is Art!

I want art that packs in MORE!
I want art that mocks artistic convention...
while epitomizing excellence in technique!
I want art that builds on the conventions I grew up...
without depicting them in a bland, safe, or corporatized way!

Hell yeah, this:
http://www.evilspacerobot.com/evilspacerobot/1001101/uploads/2011/10/mayhem-complete-72.png

Art Books

I'm at Eliott Bay Books browsing the art books. There are a lot of boring books about art. This amazes me. When I open these books on every page extraordinary images stare out at me. They are full of authentically new images that no one ever though of putting into art before. I can't think of anything else more exciting. But the text is universally boring, obtuse, and meaningless. How can you write about something so interesting in such a sterile way? I think the only interesting book I've read about art in ages is Matthew's Collings' Blimey. Anyone know of any other good ones?

Microsoft Art Collection - Melissa Manful

One of the benefits of doing contracting work at Microsoft is that I get to travel around to a lot of different Microsoft buildings and see the artwork there. Today I ran into this gorgeous piece by Melissa Manful. It's a reminder to me that there are an awful lot of artists out there making interesting art.

Proof that I'm Still Working!

How do you work this digital camera again?

It's 4th of July weekend and I have a guest coming. Go Play NW is next weekend, and there's a lot to do. Plus work just released a product, and we're all super busy. But I did manage to get up early in the morning, do some drawing, and take this rather blurry photo of it.

See, I'm still drawing!

A new Wall

This month I was due to have an art show at Verite Coffee in my own Madrona neighborhood, however the show was cancelled due to a double-booking with a school group. Sad news, considering I had just spent the last two weeks furiously completing and framing pictures, several of which featured somewhat twisted versions of Madrona houses and buildings.

To make up for, they offered me an October show at their Capitol Hill Location: the one with the huge walls. The one where you can see the art blazing out across Pike Street when you walk by. The one that's a favorite stop on the Capitol Hill Art Walk (though, perhaps more due to the cupcakes than the art). Seduced by walls, i said yes.

Life has a weird way of closing doors and opening doors at the same time.

So my existing art will be horribly swallowed by the giant walls at the store. I can probably fit my whole existing inventory on the back wall alone. The plan is, over the next four months, to make at least 5 huge dungeons, 24'x28' or bigger. So I'm going to be pretty busy.

Another consequence of this change is that I realize it's time to finally let the Year of the Dungeon come to and end. I don't mean this blog, which will continue to have a trickle of activity. Rather I'm letting myself off the hook for posting microdungeons to the blog in any kind of regular schedule.

So that's the story. I'm not quite sure what any of this means except that I really hope there will some extremely cool dungeon art showing up on this blog pretty soon. Fingers crossed.

Art Inspired by Games: Oilfurnace

I love it when games lead to really cool art. Check out Oilfurnace a Dwarf Fortress by the artist of the much-linked Boatmurder. The isometric infographic/map of the Fortress is worth the full price of admission alone.

The Oeridia Map

I have this little corner of my mind called "The Greatest Fantasy Maps Ever." In that place I keep a little secret file of maps that I think represent truly amazing works of genius.

The Oeridia Dominions Map by Twan is one such map.



What makes it great isn't the artistic skill. If you look at a detail of the map, you'll see that the techniques are pretty rudimentary.



What makes the Oeridia Map great is its scope and completeness. The maker of the map had a clear vision which he fully executed using whatever tools he had at hand despite the fact that it must have taken a truly unreasonable amount of time. The same could still be said of a huge number of fan projects on the Net (I know I've made a few myself). But of them all, I like this one best.

The Oeridia Map is 9800 x 5700 pixels in size, yet it contains artistically rendered villages, bridges, and terrain features as small as 8x8 pixels. That's a pretty impressive information density. This map is big, and not just in terms of file size. Everything about it reinforces the bigness of the world it's portraying. This looks and feels like a world so big that you could only ever experience a piece of it in your lifetime. It helps to have played Dominions yourself, because just visiting every province on this map in a single game is probably impossible within practical limits.

Note also that an attempt has been made to make every province at least somewhat individualized. Some contain unique features. Terrain features are created using repeated icons, but these are mixed so that the regions do not contain just one kind of terrain. The arrangement and mix of trees, for example, is clearly intended to make each forest distinct.



But it's not obsessiveness that makes this map great (although that helps), but imagination. The way that the underworlds are rendered as a mix of natural caves and constructed places is inspiring (and probably helped inspire How to Host a Dungeon truth be told).

But I none of that explains why I get chills when I look at this map. I guess that really it's because the map feels like it's showing me a real place -- in just enough detail to feel real, with just enough mystery to make me wonder what it would be like to go there.

What this map is is what I want my games and my art to be: specific and detailed, but offering an endless horizon for exploration.

Actual Play Maps and Outsider Art

Shout out to PlaGMaDA,the gallery of D&D play artifacts for getting mention on Boing Boing this morning!

Waking up Again...

I'm slowly coming out of hibernation again, and making plans for the new year. New Years is kind of a big deal. If you're going to do anything interesting with your year, now is a good time to think about it.

So what's up for this blog in the new year?

• More Microdungeons: I'm not done making these little things, not remotely. There will be a new microdungeon every week, maybe two.


• Other Art: And I've been drawing some new and weird art, so I'll be posting some of that.


• Old School Gaming Stuff: because old-school is awesome.


• Another art show: Cafe Verite in the Madrona neighborhood, June-July 2011! This show won't be explicitly dungeon themed, but there will be fantasy maps aplently.


• Writing projects: The Purple Worm Graveyard, a Labyrinth Lord Adventure; and a sequel to How to Host a Dungeon


• Mercantile projects: And I have some commercial projects, including an Etsy store to sell some art and prints. I'm very happy to have a decent career that means I don't have to rely on art to pay my bills. However, when I can make a few bucks at art, that means less financial pressure, and more time for interesting projects. So a big part of my plans for this year is to spend less time working and more time drawing.

Steampunk Submarine Break

From Boing Boing this morning: awesome steampunky submarine prints.

Hibernation

I'm still hibernating...

It's a weird transitional time right now. I'm forced to realize that so much has changed in my life in the last 4 months that going back to the same-old isn't even an option.

I'm back from Canada and the news is that my Mom is doing much better than anyone, including her doctor, considered possible! She's currently recovering in hospital. At her age a heart attack is always a serious matter, but the current news is good. Thanks to everyone that sent prayers and wishes.

At work, the big software launch is imminent, which means there will be some pressure off in the consulting business, which means a bit of a break, hopefully. This has been the biggest and busiest few months in my career history, which has all sorts of implications for what comes next.

With lots of time on the plane and in hospital rooms over the last week, I decided to take a bunch of movie stills from the old Tron movie and play with the design aesthetic to see what I can make of it for some weird cartography and illustration stuff. So now I've got a big stack of new ideas to play with.

The Year of the Dungeon art show was also an unforeseen success. I really did not anticipate the response (Thanks ya'll!). That opens up a whole bunch of options for me artistically.

Plus the Purple Worm Graveyard and How to Host a Dungeon sequel are quietly mutating in my desk drawer.

So the upshot is that I may have a modicum of time and even a bit of capital to play with over the next few months. There's a strong potential for life-chaning awesomeness in all this.

But in the meantime, I'm working, thinking, and hibernating.

Lost Breugel Uncovered

"The painting was beautiful, just not admired. Then suddenly, after more than four centuries, it was." Check out this NY Times article about a lost painting by Breugel. This guy is one of the great masters of fantastic art. He made some amazing paintings of the Tower of Bable that you may have seen before. If you like his stuff, check out Jacek Yerka, who paints today using similar techniques. Or, if you want something a little more modern and funky, check out Mattias Adolfsson.

About Buying the Dungeons

There's been a spate of people wanting to buy dungeon originals lately, so here's the drill. Many of the dungeons on the blog are for sale.

I've been waffling very hard about selling the dungeons online and for how much. Frankly I've come to the conclusion that the way original art is priced and sold is completely screwy and I'm not into it. There Will be a blog post on that later, you better believe.

So for now I'm selling the originals at $25 each. That's basically a fee to cover my time and effort and shipping. Or else corner me in person when I've got a few minutes to chat and I'll draw you one for free on the spot. I might ask you to buy me coffee.

I've got some cool plans for the new year, which will include things like some nice letterpress editions and reproductions and the like which I'll be able to offer at a nice price point, so if $25 feels steep, hang in there. I've got you covered.

To purchase, email me at tony DOT dowler AT gmail DOT com, or DM @tonydowler on twitter and tell me which dungeon(s) you like. I'll let you know if they're available or not. Unfortunately, the town and wilderness maps aren't currently available at all.

Oh, and the physical details: each dungeon is drawn in pen and ink on 3"x4" cardstock and placed in a 4"x5" matte frame with foamcore backing. Dungeons may have small smudges or pencil marks owing to the process by which they were created.

If you're interested in custom commissions, email me and we'll chat. I offer reasonable rates, but I'm totally jammed with other life commitments until after the holiday season.

Blown Away

Every now and then (like about twice a week), I see art that really knocks me off my feet, makes me question my vocation, and sends me off to my sketchpad to re-group. That's where I've been with Zak Smith's artwork ever since I found his online sketchpad. Like this really appeals to me, just as a painting. And this totally blows me away from a D&D gamer point of view.

Your Red Box has Better art in it than Many Professional Galleries

Something interesting and important is going on right now over at The Mule Abides, where Tavis is talking about D&D and contemporary fine art. Maybe this conversation has been going on around the art/game world for a while, but I’m just becoming aware of it.

Tavis asks, pointedly “what is the alleged difference between commercial art by Dave Trampier, Ian Miller, Gary Gygax, et. al. and gallery artists take serious at all?”

It’s a self-evident to me that the distinction between the kind of art those artists made and contemporary fine art is vanishingly small. Erol Otus could walk into half a dozen Seattle galleries today and get his art hung, no question.

Compare a recent Erol Otus:

Hackmaster Basic cover by Erol Otus

To these gallery-worthy works of art:
Why Do I Do What I Do? by Tara McPherson

Wishes for the Wicked by Scott Campbell

Art by Andrey Mayorov


They’re on a par, at least in enough ways to matter. What’s more interesting to me is how we got to here.

Here’s some art from Magic: The Gathering, circa 1994-ish.
Hymn to Tourach by Scott Kirschner

Mana Vault by Scott Tedin

Necropotence by Scott Tedin

I really dig that Hymn to Tourach (top image). What the hell is going on there? Who is that guy? What's going to happen if he drinks that cup? Don't drink the cup, man! Don't drink it!?

Anyway, this is art that stimulates the imagination. It gives you enough to start you feeling, but then leaves you to complete the journey on its own. It’s interesting, exciting, and evokes a range of emotions including wonder, interest, and enjoyment. By the way, these experiences all work in a direction that’s oblique to the business interests of the company publishing the game. They’re unnecessary.

Here’s some art from Magic: the Gathering circa now:
Auriok Edgewright by Mike Bierek

Auriok Sunchaser by James Ryman


Abuna Acolyte by Kieryluk

It’s generally of a higher technical quality. It’s highly art directed and carefully produced. It’s also utterly soulless. There’s no question posed that can’t be answered by buying a comic or a novel or something. There’s no experience that can’t be harnessed as an engine of the business. It’s unquestionably some of the best game art out there, but “fine” it is not.*

I submit that old-school D&D art and contemporary art that employs gamer sensibilities is looking better and better because commercial art has pulled away from it in an altogether less inspiring direction, leaving the good stuff standing alone.

Yeah, I think that’s one of the most important functions of good art today: to make the distinction between commercial and creative crystal clear. That’s why tattoo art, graffiti, flash mobs, lowbrow, pop culture, outsider art, folk art, and brute art are everywhere these days.

* Hey, business is a great thing! After all, Erol Otus got his start drawing for a business, right? I’m not slamming commercial illustration here. It can be greatly awesome.

Edit: Added picture credits