Knight Watch

 Knight Watch

oil on paper on board, 12" x 16"

©Wizards of the Coast

Here's the first illustration of four that I did for the Gatecrash expansion set. The relieved goblin knight has called in for backup, who are proceeding to beat the tar out of some louts. 

Thanks to my friend and extremely talented artist Dominick Saponaro, I got some really top notch reference for this piece. Dom did a great job of posing for the armored guys, and I filled in for the louts and and the goblin. My wife Gina took the pictures, as she does whenever I pose, (Thanks to her too, as always). 

While I'm at it, I should also credit her for finding that great roman armor you see Dom wearing in the photo below. It was my Christmas present a couple years ago, and it's really helped me a great deal on a number of pieces. Gina picked the roman armor because it's comes apart, and is pretty basic, making it easy to transform into armor of my own design. 

Sometimes I'll arrange my photo reference in photoshop into a mockup. This allows me to see how it will all fit together and choose the best photos. Many times, I'll combine reference from a number of photos for one figure. I'll take the arm from one photo, for example, and meld it with the torso from another, and the head from yet another. Just be sure the lighting always matches up.