This is less of a project and more just for my own satisfaction, but I wanted to highlight some of my D&D art. Specifically a series of drawings I have done to be used as miniatures. They are also drawn in the same style as an exercise in style consistency. To create the mini, I printed out a smaller version of the drawing and laminated it. This was a cheap and efficient way to create a mini true to my vision of the character. Now I am in that position where I cannot make a new D&D character without drawing them in this style.
d&d
Queercoded
I was approached by Oliver Darkshire to illustrate two gods from the Dungeons & Dragons pantheon for his re-imagining of D&D characters as queer villains. This addition to a 5E campaign is available for purchase on Dungeon Master’s Guild.
I was asked to design The Raven Queen and Lolth, something I was very excited about since they are two very famous names in D&D lore. This project could not be better suited for me, as a queer woman myself and as someone who is passionate about diverse representation I was thrilled to be able to sink my teeth into this. Since I also love Dungeons & Dragons I was very excited to be featured in work that someone could be using in their campaign.
The Raven Queen
The Raven Queen is a very mysterious god of memory, she has rarely been seen in physical form and I wanted to continue this sense of mystery. Her body is elongated and she is beautiful, but clearly not fully human anymore. She is a deity deeply connected to sorrow and death so the imagery of the veil covering her face creates those associations. Her colour palette is dark and dramatic and her red lips is a reference to Matt Mercer’s interpretations of The Raven Queen from Critical Role Campaign 1.
Below you see one of the ways the art is presented in Queercoded. I love the integration between text and art and think Oliver did a great job presenting all the beautiful work he had commissioned for the book.
Lolth : The Spider Queen
Lolth was a lot more challenging to me than The Raven Queen, mostly because I am deadly afraid of spiders and did have issues with finding reference pictures that did not make my skin crawl. But with help from some friends and a lot of exercises in shutting my brain off, I managed to get through it. For Lolth I wanted her to be maternal and beautiful, I wanted her to feel organic, but also threatening. She is the Spider Queen and main deity of the drow (Dark Elves), I wanted to combine elements of both these things. Drow is largely associated with geometric designs and metalwork featuring less organic curves than Elves in the world above. However, I also wanted to lean heavily into the spider imagery. I had a vision of a woman entirely encapsulated in spiderwebs, her dress is woven and mended as she walks and a host of spiders trail behind her like a cape as she is both their home and their queen. Eggs dot her body like pearls and her red gems glisten like blood, a reference to her signature colour and the harsh nature of her religion.
Oliver opted to not use Lolth in the same way as The Raven Queen, but still featured the art in the book, which was very nice of him.