Merry Krampusmas!

I sent out Krampus cards last Holiday season and did so again this year (got them in the mail pretty late so most will probably arrive after the 24th — better late than never I guess).

Krampus is a character from the folklore of the Tyrolean region of Europe — a long tongued devil who assists Saint Nicholas — where the Saint rewards the good kids, Krampus carries off the bad ones. Krampus also enjoys shaking chains, beating kids with switches and doing God knows what with that unspeakable tongue. In the past, some people sent “Krampus cards” to friends and family around Saint Nicholas’ feast day (December 6th). Today people are bringing the Krampus card tradition back — there are dozens of different designs of Krampus cards for sale on sites like Etsy.  And I’ve started making my own (this year’s design, in which Krampus looks a little cross-eyed, is reproduced above. Last years design can be seen here.).

Some places even hold an event called a “Krampuslauf” (Krampus run) where some dress up as devils, parade around and shake chains and whip other people with birch branches. I suspect consumption of alcohol may also be involved.

W.I.P. – Battle in the Tower

Work in progress – beast men defend their dark and dirty lair.

Wizard’s Laboratory

Wizard laboratories seem to be a thing in my illustrations recently. I drew one a while ago and I just finished this one as well. This is drawn on a “grey tone” paper (it really looks more tan than grey, but all tones are grey in greyscale reproduction) and then I went in with a thin green/blue wash for the darker areas and china white for the lighter areas. Even though it will be printed in greyscale, I like the way it looks in color:

The black area in the upper left corner is for text. Here’s how it looks in grey:

Level Zero Hero for DCC

Above is a new DCC “Level Zero Hero” character sheet for Goodman Games’ “Dungeon Crawl Classics.” It is available as a free pdf (4 to a page) for your funneling needs. Print ’em up and go to town.

Permission granted to photocopy or print for personal use. (EDIT: Added saving throws).

Giant WIP

Capture the Flag

Acolytes

Sometimes you get these long and skinny spaces to work with and you have to do the best you can with them. Here we have religious fanatics lamenting something or another.

Battle: WIP

WIP for a new project — this is my version of “The Battle of Alghieri” by Leonardo DaVinci. I suppose copping DaVinci seems presumptuous… but I was really into DaVinci’s drawing of this scene when I was growing up and then I discovered there are dozens of different versions by many different artists of this same painting. Haven’t quite figured out some of the things… and I took some liberties. Horses are really hard to draw.

Evil Priest

Another recent work for Goodman Games.

Insert joke about Kathy Griffin here.

Lounge Lizard