When I did this picture, I had a hit of nostalgia that I couldn't really shake. It was a realization that I missed old D&D (or 'insert game' here) artwork. Moreso, I missed evocative art of the era.
This isn't an 'old man yelling at clouds' moment, either. I'm in no way stating that new art in modern ttrpgs is bad, some of it is technically brilliant. But it's crowd-sourced, and in the case of D&D, it's no longer there to show adventure or danger, but there to make sure that other brands want to hitch their wagon to the D&D IP. Because safe and broad appeal garner more licensing bucks than anything thought provoking in the sphere.
Art by committee isn't art. It's marketing.
In this sense, I missed images that showed senses of exploration. Not necessarily combat, but just the sense of quietly creeping into that inky black tunnel, or down those stairs into a flooded chamber, feet falling quietly on stone stairs with the centers worn down to a rut, eliciting a sense of many boots having travelled them before.
The sounds of water dripping, the great dark vein of a crack in the far wall that lets water bubble in, and the bones of some lost soul, forever to remain so, who has come before you and met their end.
It was a hallmark of days when tales of these adventures and the games they were attached to were still new, and other-worldly. When there was an esoterica that seemed to make you get chills at the thought of what might be down that hallway, with engraved with the scrawling of the hands of madness and studded by doors that lead deeper into the complexes' black bowels.
I don't hate modern fantasy art. I just don't really care about it to be honest. I was never into super heroes all that much, and I think perhaps its why the modern depiction of 'everyone is fantasy Deadpool' doesn't really grab me. I know it goes deeper than that, but I'm not here to give an essay on how corporately spawned art orders tend to water down the fantasy of fantasy art.
I have no idea where I was really going with this. It's a late night screed written into the darkness. But a little bold-bold making her way into those dark depths was something I remember wanting to get down into digital form. It's actually the predecessor of the kobold and Raixa mini-comic I did. It might not inspire anyone else, but it inspired me to draw upon the adventures of old, and want to expand upon them.
Please ensure your bold-bolds don't have to wander down dark tunnels for shiny things.
Give them cookies.
Until then. Ror.
-T.J.