caeora

Tiamat, The Dragon Queen

Tiamat is the insanely powerful five headed dragon goddess from the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game, and one of the only named dragons I have ever drawn. 

Arguably she is one of the most powerful beings in existence and certainly the most badass token I have also ever drawn as well. The name is taken from Tiamat, a goddess in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. 

She is also a default member of the D&...

Ice Dragon Variants

I nearly forgot to post these today, opps!

Here are the variants for the Ice Dragon! Not a huge amount of differences here but fun to have and use for games in case you are running multiple dragons and need different colours without much work XD

Over the last few days I've been working on the final dragon for smaugust and.. well... it's very large :D

I'm very excited to show everyone so I might do sneak peak later this week!

Ice Dragon

Hello everyone!

Another dragon finished up today :)

As we were doing the dragons we did notice that we were kind of doing them in pairs, leaf/sand, demon/angel, lava and now an Ice Dragon!

This is the second to last dragon we will be doing for Smaugust this year, so you will be happy to know that the post spam will be slowing down a little bit after this but it has been fun! XD

Lava Dragon Variants

Moar dragon variants!

Yep, not much to say about these ones, they are some nice colours for a bit of variety!

We only have 2 dragons left to go this year for Smaugust now! :D

Lava Dragon

Im back!

KTech has been running the show for about a week and half while I was taking a little break. I was not in a great place for a little while and even though I was still doing a bit of work I needed some time to get away from social media and try and relax.

In any case, today I finished the final details on the next smaugust dragon, the terrifying Lava Dragon! This one is bigger than the other dragons that we have been doing and is quite a bit chunkier as well! I like to think this dragon is more than capable of beating any...

Angel Dragon Variants

 Hey everyone! KTech again with the next variant pack, this time for the Angel Dragon!

There’s a slightly transparent version in this one that I really love, which will work perfectly as a spirit/ghostly dragon :)

We have a couple more dragons coming up before the end of the month then we'll be back to more battlemaps and the CR packs in September! 

Angel Dragon

 Hello everyone! KTech again. Here's the next smaugust dragon, the Angel Dragon. :)

I wasn't 100% happy with the sketch work for this one. It went through a lot of chopping and changing so Caeora did an absolutely amazing job reworking the parts I couldn't get to look right and made an absolutely stunning dragon! :D

Just like the other dragons we have an awesome veteran pack coming soon as well :)

Demon Dragon Variants

Hello everyone! KTech here again this time with the variant versions of the Demon Dragon! 

Also I'd like to say a big thank you for all the support from all of you with this Smaugust project. It's been great seeing all the lovely feedback and hearing how much you're enjoying these dragons!

We have a few more Dragons coming up for you all soon too, including one that I'm especially excited for :D

Demon Dragon

Hello Everyone! :) KTech here bringing you our next Smagust dragon, the Demon dragon!

I did quite a few sketches for this one early on that got completely scrapped because I just wasn't happy with how the face looked. I realised after a couple of attempts, the horns looked far more demonic pointing forwards which led me to looking up goat skulls and gave me the idea of the skull faceplate. I also wanted to avoid a fiery demonic look so I wasn't overlapping with any ideas I had for the Lava dragon later on.

Once I gave the sketch ...

Sand Dragon Variants

Hello everybody! KTech here bringing you the variant versions for the Smaugust Sand Dragon including, a more red version to fit deep rocky canyons, a grey version to fit more temperate climates or vast salt flats, and a darker version for a more spooky black sand setting.

Sand Dragon

Hello everyone! KTech again with the next dragon Caeora and I have made for Smaugust, the Sand Dragon! this one took a little more teamwork to get the face just right, but we got there in the end and made something were both happy with! :)

Personally, I'm really enjoying the challenge of trying to make each dragon as unique as possible in every way from build to wing shape :)

Same as the Leaf Dragon, there will be a few recolours coming up for veteran tier and above!

Leaf Dragon Variants

Hello all! KTech here again  

Here are a few awesome little variants of the Leaf Dragon which may fit some more magical or corrupted settings, red blue and yellow versions that are somewhat based on seasons and you can find them in the downloads below! 

We're working on a couple more dragons that will be coming out soon, each with their own variant pack as well. We're working on them in a slightly randomised order though, picking the ones that jump out for big ideas so it is a fun and enjoyable break from other bigger p...

Leaf Dragon

Hey everybody! KTech here with a Dragon me and Caeora have worked on together, and were both super happy with the results! 

Caeora recently put a smaugust list up on twitter that we’re planning to do a few tokens from, (Only a few this year) so this is a slight variant idea on a forest dragon.

Smaugust is a drawing challenge month fo...

Creature Packs: CR 3

Hey everybody! KTech here again with the next pack of creature tokens!

The UK has been hit with a heatwave recently and we've had a week and a half or so of 30c+ days,which has caused abit of a slow down at the moment! (The UK is not designed for this kinda weather. There's no Air Con. we're both melting. HELP) But we've both soldiered on, through the power of fans and a freezer full frozen water bottles.

Despite the weather, I'm super happy with this pack. I've been waiting to draw a werewolf since CR0 cause they're just cool as...

Kickstarter Question

Yes, I am thinking about running my own kickstarter!

Now, I should first, before doing anything else, ask people what they would expect and whether it's a good idea in the first place. I'm very interested in what people think so please make sure you vote in the poll below and leave a comment if you have any other thoughts. 

Bear in mind, if I do a Kickstarter it won't be for a little while :)

There are a bunch of circumstances that are somewhat unique to my situation which I will try and break down below. 

<...

Crooked Hill (Variants)

Hello everyone!

Today I spent some time putting together some different variants of the Crooked Hill map and released them for use by all my Veteran tier supporters and above! 

In total, with the day, night and rain versions with all the different colours, the total number of maps in the downloads is 28! 

In other news!

It's been super hot here in the UK over the last couple of days and I dont cope well with the heat so work has slowed down significantly, but I’m still slowly proding away ...

Crooked Hill

Hello everyone!

Another battlemap finished up today, a dark spooky (very angry looking) mystical tree on top of a wind blown hill and this one is absolutely massive. Well it's a big one for our current zoom level and amount of detail anyway! 

Once again, like with the last battlemap, KTech did most of the line art for this one but not all, mainly focusing on the shape of the tree and I then worked on greater detail, adding more roots, rocks and grass etc. 

I should say though, the idea of glowing eyes and other ef...

9 Fantasy Cartography Videos

Hello everyone!

This July 2020 I recorded 9 Videos on my Youtube channel that have covered the majority of the basic concepts for fantasy map making!

These videos cover everything you might want to know when you are starting out on your mapmaking journey, from setting things up, to drawing your mountains and forests.

You can find the full playlist here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9M2AAp8WU0...

Behind the Scenes: Practicing Concept Art Maps

Today's post is a little different and goes into a bit of the behind the scene work that i've been doing recently to improve my battle map creation process! 

 I'm a little hesitant to show these off because they are so rough but.. I think its also worth it!  

In the images above you can see nearly twenty maps that have all been made quickly and roughly, trying to nail down form and colour rather than detail. Usually I will start out with a rough line sketch, then complete the line art and then move to colouring a m...

Fallen Ent

Another battle map today all finished up for a wonderfully atmospheric encounter with a long forgotten guardian of the forest!

And I didn't do the line art for this map, KTech did! 

And she did an absolutely wonderful job, so much so in fact, I was so excited to colour it and I think I put in even more effort than my own line art for maps >.> 

In any case, we are currently working together on more maps and one of the things we have talked about is larger maps in the future! Which is pretty cool but obviously...

Complete Pack: CR 2 (Part 2)

Hey all! KTech again with the next lot of recolours! :D

I had a lot of issues with photoshop not co-operating with me on this one, there was a lot of random artifacting that I couldn't quite work out where it was coming from, but I got there in the end and I'm really happy with how they came out. :)

Can you tell which one I was most excited to do? (cough) Rainbows (cough) Anyways, I did have a little bit of a difficult time coming up with recolours for the Ogres as anything too wacky just looked off. Some Creatures seem ...

Lhodos: Northern Kingdoms COLOUR!

A ton of people wanted me to colour the previous map that I posted. I received some lovely comments and it was such a lovely map to work on that I decided that I should listen and keep going..

And here it is! The Lhodos Northern Kingdoms map all done in glorious colour :) 

Technically this is one of my most detailed smaller maps Ive ever done and I've improved on a number of things, including the forests, rivers and the way I highlight the oceans. All in all it's a wonderful little map that you can use to create your own lit...

Lhodos: Northern Kingdoms

Finished up the map of Lhodos: Northern Kingdoms today and this is now one of my new favourites! 

This is actually a remake or rather a zoomed in region of a map I did years ago called Lhodos, you can see what that was like below :P 

I think i've improved a little since then and was able to include tons more detail. Now this might seem like a big map but actually it's not, this is halfway between A4 and A3! It's 300ppi so it might seem more detailed and larger than it is but despite its smaller size it was a wonderful m...

Mythic Age Creatures

After doing the mythic age assets, both KTech and I really wanted to do some classical monsters from greek myth as well! 

We knew that some of these would be covered in the MM series that we are doing but we also thought we could do unique mythical versions and this is what we came up with! 

The line art for these is just spectacular, the hydra in particular is simply stunning, KTech is doing such an amazing job! I ended up doing the colouring on these though and I had tons of fun doing some of the glowing mouths and ey...

Simple Dungeon Room

I've spent some time recently getting back to basics, doing some concept pieces and trying to distill my process down into manageable chunks and I might share some of the results of that if people are interested but one of the results of that process was the creation of some simple tiles. 

I then did some walls..

And then a door and well I thought doing a simple dungeon room would be nice after that and this is the result! 

You cant see the detail very well with the display image but if you download it and zoom in...

Creature Packs: CR 2 (Part 2)

KTech back with the other half of CR 2! :D

A small change with this pack, I haven't included versions with shadow because after a little talk with Caeora, we agreed they are not as necessary. That said, if you did use the shadow versions, let us know and I'll add them back in! :)

As these packs go on, I feel like I'm getting the hang of this more and more especially with posing and design ideas! I’m super happy with a whole bunch of these, specifically things like the Myconid Sovereign. I was really stuck on how to make that on...

Caeora's Cartography Creation Pack

A bunch of people have asked me about this and have been very excited to get their hands on the brushes and tools that I use to make maps! 

Well, here they are :) 

There are a bunch of things in this pack that can help you start a map, from a region or world map to a battlemap. I'm planning to record youtube videos on mapmaking tutorials tomorrow so I will be using these brushes, templates and assets to explain the processes and techniques that I use. 

There are also a few little notes in the folder itself th...

Quick Update on Sales Tax

I've mentioned this to people a few times on streams and in conversations but I have not talked about the new sales tax for certain states in the US on Patreon that will be going into effect tomorrow.

Why?

Because my patreon is mainly based upon supporting me as a creator, and supporting me like that is not currently taxable. I don't promise content per month and I make it quite clear that the benefits of supporting me at different tiers is pretty nebulous. 

Extra content comes out when it's done, randomly as thank you...

Mythic Age Assets

I really need to start setting limits on the scope of these things XD

This pack contains nearly 150 assets and is nearly 3x the size of the Dark Lord Assets pack released recently :) 

For anyone not aware, Wizards of the Coast is releasing a setting book called The Mythic Odysseys of Theros a setting book set in fantasy version of greece/roman in a time of myths and legends and the hardcover comes out on the 21st of July. You can still get it online on various sites like D&D Beyond right now though.

Even though I�...

Sneak Peek: Theros Assets

Just a quick post today, to show off what I've been working on recently! 

The Mythic Odysseys of Theros has come out recently and this is my take on the mythic adventure aesthetic, with an emphasis on roman and greek styles. Ive also tried to make them a little more fantasy themed and not as realistic which I think works really well. 

Both Ktech and myself have already put a ton of work into this mega pack to get the feel right but I feel like it's really coming together. There is still work to be done from a detailing/...