Project Sample Showcase

Vow of the Blackwater ✦ Direction, Production, Narrative Design

Vow of the Blackwater is centered on an original fantasy world. It is a collaborative project building custom content for tabletop roleplaying games. Aside from directing and producing the project, the illustrations and narrative design entailed here are some of the contributions I have made to it.

All of my 2D pieces are created in Adobe Photoshop and Procreate.

References ✦ Norse mythology via period texts Prose Edda & Poetic Edda, Norse period art, ancient Korea, Soulsborne games & high fantasy

✧ From the mythological blade of death and battle Tyrfing

✧ Artifact that players can seek, gathering implications of this character across a campaign

✧ Manifestation of death in war; designed to appear as corpse-like armor

✧ Ashes evoke cremation & fading fire; something dying

✧ Edges of armor are filled with small holes to evoke decay (e.g. rotten wood)

✧ Modeled after skeletal structures/foramina

✧ Settled on longer, sharp shapes to exaggerate form

✧ Scaling & silhouettes

✧ Manifestation of death & guidance to the afterlife

✧ White marble evokes grace and purity; black corruption implies struggle against decay

✧ Designed after spiderwebs, tendons & roots

✧ Mechanical array floats behind character as a catalyst

✧ From the mythological life-giving stag Eikþyrnir

✧ Embroidered, refined wear constructs a ‘scholarly’ feeling

✧ Machinery & prosthetics match this style, being constructed by the character

✧ Tattered cloak gives stronger sense of a well-traveled, seasoned warrior

✧ Elaborate but worn knight garb evokes both honor and the toil of duty

✧ From the mythological wolf Vánagandr (Fenrir)

✧ Simple, rough-patched wear was chosen to evoke a wandering experienced sellsword

✧ Chains serve as implications to be solved as players progress through a campaign