Incline D&D and non-D&D artworks by Jennell Jaquays (Paul Jaquays)

[LESS T_T]

https://www.facebook.com/Jennell.Jaquays.Artist/posts/1669429803325125

Catching up on things after Visioncon in Branson, MO (more on that in a different post). I spent a good share of yesterday in front of a camera with a documentary film maker talking about my involvement as an artist in the earliest days of Dungeons & Dragons. My career has weaved in and around this game all my life. The documentary is going to focus on the artists who brought the game to life, including many of my friends, peers, and former co workers over the years. This year will mark the 40th anniversary of both my first art publication in Dragon Magazine (Issue #1!!) and the publication of my fan magazine, The Dungeoneer (produced with several of the peopel in my gaming group from college).

https://www.facebook.com/eyeofthebeholdermovie/

The documentary sounds interesting.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.facebook.com/Jennell.Jaquays.Artist/posts/1671118916489547

I mentioned that I got to meet Christie Golden for the first time last weekend at Visioncon, in Branson, MO. Just before I joined TSR in 1993, I painted the cover for her Ravenloft novel, The Enemy Within (part of series in which classic horror tales were retold with a Ravenloft spin ... in this case, Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde).

This is a scan made from the original painting (now in the hands of a private collector). The painting was rendered in 1993, in acrylics on mounted Bristol paper. The character in the foreground was posed for by my friend Ed Englerth.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.facebook.com/Jennell.Jaquays.Artist/posts/1672385823029523

I'm in a Throwbacky mood (call it a variant of procrastination) so here's a bunch of my past work, from all sorts of projects, clients, and even something more or less personal. Be sure to read individual image descriptions for what they're about.‬

Spoiler

One of my freelance clients in the late 80s was a graphic house in Jackson, MI that published two magazines that I did work for. One was a Christian children's magazine called Faith 'n Stuff (later Guideposts for Kids) and the other was Tanning Trends, a trade magazine for the tanning industry (the graphic design studio was part of a "family" of companies that also included publishing the magazine, running tanning salons, and selling ... if I remember correctly, commercial plumbing supplies).

Anyway, the editor of the magazine did a feature story called "Trued Confessions of Tanning Tech" where she worked "undercover" at one of the owners' tanning salons and experienced the business first hand. These cartoons and a comic book like cover (which I didn't like enough to include here) shared some of her experiences.

These images were all drawn in pen in ink with the color added in Pagemaker (I think) by the graphic design studio using a color key overlay that I created.

This was done the summer before I joined TSR. My favorite panel is the one on the lower right.

Spoiler

Eric Goldberg's Crossover Technologies was a regular client in the late 80s, early 90s. One of my projects for them was on a project for the Prodigy Network that we eventually just code-named "Jupiter" because it was so big. We were designing a non-realtime MMO (in 1990!) for the Prodigy Network. I did some content design and development (world building, adventure design) and some concept art to establish what a fantasy game world might feel like (remember, this was going to be pushed to execs who came from a SEARS/IBM "suit" mindset, not game publishers). This is easily my favorite piece from the set. Looking at her, I wonder how much I was telegraphing/projecting. I apparently based female physiognomy on my own. That brow profile looks male to me. Also, my go to Halloween costume is currently ... a sorceress.

This image was painted at about 11x14 inches on Bristol paper using permanent black ink. The original was provided to Crossover Tech and may still be in their, or their successors' possession.

Spoiler

How I made my early D&D adventures. I printed up a bunch of sheets like this on my college's ditto machine and then hand wrote in the details. It made sense to separate out details like doors and room sizes, ceiling heights, etc. than to embed them into description text. I was also a nasty girl when it came to traps. I made a lot of annoying, non-fatal ones. I also used a lot of magic that wasn't available to players via spells.

The dungeon was originally designed to play with some friends who were going to be visiting from Canada. I don't think that ever happened. Dungeon was never finished. Parts of it likely were cannibalized for my later professional game adventure work.

I have no idea who the "Gorbat Brothers" were anymore, though it looks like they may have been more powerful than usual orcs with armor class 4 who used scimitars. But now Shagrat, Naglo, Gorbuck, and Hamfat have been rediscovered here.

Also note: I apparently like anachronisms. Chainsaw and a fuel tank as treasure, anyone?

Spoiler

In the early 80s, Chaosium licensed their Runequest game to publisher Avalon Hill, minus, for the most part, the Gloranthan world and culture. Griffin Mountain, the campaign setting that I designed along with Rudy Kraft and Gregg Stafford, became Griffin Island, in a generic location no longer a part of Glorantha. As part of my additions to the product, I did some maps I really liked. At least three were for inns, based on those in Griffin Mountain.

Number One Inn was located in an "Invader city" created by the culture that was occupying the city (think Roman Empire). Again, all hand drawn and inked. I really liked that hand drawn text style. The building is more complicated to reflect the more "advanced" construction skills of the invaders. That logo was created in Mac Paint on my vintage 1984 128k Macintosh.

Spoiler

All of my freelance work was NOT done for game companies, but sometimes those game art skills crossed over into my more mundane clients. The Photo Marketing Association was an international trade organization that ran trade shows and produced promotional and marketing literature for the photo processing industry (remember way back when ... everyone had a film camera).

I did the illustration (in two colors) and a graphic design studio (whose owner later became the art director for the graphic design studio who was doing the tanning magazine, this was a small city and incestuous in that sort of way).

The art was drawn in pen and prismacolor black/conte crayon on coquille board (a textured drawing paper).

I did not choose that type, though I may try and track down a digital version of it now. It is so funky!

 

[LESS T_T]

Hello 1993! This ‪#‎ThrowbackThursday‬ (on an actual Thursday) harks back to one of the last freelance projects done before I joined TSR ... illustrations for FASA's Earthdawn RPG. I was one of many artists who contributed (and one of the two whose art was apparently, accidentally dropped from from the credits ... Liz Danforth was the other). This piece is not a final, but rather the sketch from which the final pen and ink rendering was created. This went on my vintage lightbox (a gift passed on to me by my grandmother) with a sheet of Bristol paper over it and that's what I inked onto. The media here is graphite pencil for the clean up work and sky blue pencil (which I prefered to non-repro blue) for the original layout on 20 lb bond paper (aka copier paper).

Not long after completing this, I joined TSR, Inc. as a staff artist, ending that stint of my freelancing career (freelancing 3.0, currently in revision 4.0).

 

[GarlandExCon]

I really dig the Mind Flare and the most recent work from the first post.

 

[LESS T_T]

One of my commissions in the late 80s was a marketing piece for West End Games that would, over the course of several months, tease the coming of WEG's next big RPG, T.O.R.G. They wanted a depiction of a storm, a wasteland, a bridge of lost souls, and of course, their bad guy, The Gaunt Man. These are my concept sketches for the character and the painting that came from it. It's one of the few instances during that era in my career where purchase of the physical painting was part of the deal. The image of the Gaunt Man didn't get as much use after the game shipped, but that storm was featured in the graphic art of every T.O.R.G. product thereafter.

The painting was done in acrylics on primed masonite. It's not a particularly large piece. On a technical note, I was using Mars black to neutralize my colors. It would be a few paintings before I got past that craziness.

https://www.facebook.com/Jennell.Jaquays.Artist/posts/1745610625707042

 

[vonAchdorf]

She'll be featured in this documentary (already mentioned, but I think the trailer is new):

 

[LESS T_T]

OK ... this is a #ThrowbackThursday (on a SATURDAY!) for me ... because I want to have the image handy as a painting reference for a mini that I'm painting (selfish me).

My first project as a staff illustrator was cards for the Wildspace board game, then in development. I did not quite half of the cards, and David O. Miller did the rest (because I when I want to paint well, I paint slowly). This Salamander monster was one of the Fire-based encounters. It was also one of the paintings that I did early on, so it is larger than some of the others. I like it how it came out. Acra red is also one of my favorite traditional paint pigments.

Also, she's no longer CCO at Olde Skuul since May.

 

[Dedup]

Looks like she's doing some work for the upcoming DCC Lankhmar.

 

[Azalin]

Looks like she's doing some work for the upcoming DCC Lankhmar.

Is that supposed to be Gray mouser because that's pretty bad

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Looks like she's doing some work for the upcoming DCC Lankhmar.

Is that supposed to be Gray mouser because that's pretty bad

Spoiler

Proper Fafhrd and Gray Mouser by Keith Parkinson (the AD&D accessory is from 1993, but the illustration was made earlier, sometime in the '80s).

 

[GarlandExCon]

Looks like she's doing some work for the upcoming DCC Lankhmar.

Is that supposed to be Gray mouser because that's pretty bad

Spoiler

Proper Fafhrd and Gray Mouser by Keith Parkinson (the AD&D accessory is from 1993, but the illustration was made earlier, sometime in the '80s).

Man that's a sweet ass illustration.

 

[Alchemist]

That Parkinson Lankhmar is one of his best. So much goodness in there, so much going on. Great lighting, good rendition of Fafhrd and the Mouser, whores, illicit trading, assassin skulking around on that bridge, smoggy atmosphere, even the rats and the rat-hunting dog have a drama playing out.

Man, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

 

[GarlandExCon]

I was looking at some part that was in one of the Forgotten Realms books today and my God was it particular. I need to figure out which one is was, but the cover was beautiful.