Kanday is Updated

A repost from our Harn artist’s blog.

by Richard Luschek II

I got kind of a lucky break being asked to do art for Columbia Games way before I was really ready. My initial offerings were barely passable, but I learned tons while getting paid to do so. Early on I felt so luck to be part of publishing for a game I had started playing when I was 13, I pretty much just shut up and did the work to the best of my ability.

A few projects I have worked on have been around enough that they are now due for an upgrade. I wont name them all, as I am not sure when I will get to them, but one that particularly made me cringe has been Kanday. Much of the art in that publication was done for other jobs that never saw the light, were already old, and kind of got forced into inappropriate spots. As you know CGI has been updating and expanding the product line with new color products. This gives us a chance to revisit old work and continue to improve the quality. Again with excellent editing and layout by Brent we have a wonderfully updated Kanday. It is not completely laid out yet, but will be available soon.

The download is available now on RPG Now.

Blessings of Larani, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Below is the image I am replacing. There are are a few things wrong with the following image. I liked idea, so I basically redid it. It is more appropriate to the kingdom of Kanday and has a bit more energy and life. The orc shown in the image are not much of a threat in Kanday. I figured a soldier from Rethem would me more accurate. Thankfully I have gotten a bit better in the 13 or so years since I did this image.

Blessings of Larani, Copyright © 2001, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I recently purchased a used Cintiq from a friend (technically- I haven’t paid yet, but I probably will).

It has taken some getting used to. Already I cant believe I have not been using this all along. I think it is calibrated better than my monitor, so that has been a help as well.

In the end for Kanday, I colored 5 of the images, updated, fixed or redrew 20 of my old illustrations. I started with the King. The old image did not seem very kingly in addition to being kind of weak overall. The trick was to redraw him, get the same likeness yet improve upon the old illustration. This one did get colored too, but I just wanted to post the B&W versions.

King Andasin- Before and After, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I have never liked realistic images of dead characters in times before the invention of the camera. It is just too anachronistic. The only way they would be known visually is through painting or sculpture. I love medieval painting. I of course based this off of medieval icons- maybe too much. I even used some gold leaf texture in the background and painted the image over this. I have been trying to put more appropriate medieval art in Harn publications.

The Murdered Queen, Before and After, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

A few of the images were a bit miss placed. One image showed a man that looked about 30 years too young. So I aged him and put him in more appropriate clothing.

Constable Fodin, Before and After, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

This one had a bit of text that indicated the Baron is suffering from wasting disease, yet the image showed a robust individual. So, some tweaking remedied this.

Baron Daffyd, Before and After, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Some of the images were just plain terrible in every way.This was not just a weak image, he looked like a commoner. I reworked this one the most of any and am much happier with it.

Constable Elaris, Before and After, Copyright © 2014, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I can now page through Kanday Kingdom without crying in embarrassment.