The Host returns (TFTSW #2)

 Hello. Been a good minute since I updated this blog hasn't It? The well is far from dry for things I can show you. And I return with the return of the host of Tales From The Smoking Wyrm himself,  N'gilken Niarb.  I say it's his return because it was his 2nd appearance in TFTSW and the 2nd illustration I had done of him. 

N'gilken Niarb returns.

As you can see our host has a drink to serve to someone and he has also caught a mysterious cat-like creature. This thing is called a tentacular, and the Wyrm team had been working on the article and overall design of that thing since before the first issue had gone to press. I snuck one into an illustration for the first issue, and here is another preview of it. Trevor, who writes the intro dialog for Niarb for every issue, had a blast writing  this soft introduction for the tentacular which would appear in all it's monstrous glory on the cover of issue 3. 

If I recall, this illustration was done fairly fast and somewhat at the last minute. In the original brief I had been instructed to draw him standing under  the Smoking Wyrm sign, which is why in the original artwork the sign is penciled in above him.  It still begs me to ink it everytine I see it!

 

The ghost sign of the Wyrm?

This drawing is smaller in size to the original illustration of N'gilken Niarb despite having far more detail. Issue two was a problematic issue for all of us. And I disliked how many of my pieces in it appeared in print. This piece in particular just felt 'muddy' to me when I held the issue in my hand, and I look back on it less fondly than the others. But here in hindsight, and with proper scans, I think I have been too harsh on this piece, and think it holds up alright.

Alrighty, here's a bit of a bonus for you; 

The full page

The original illustration contains more art. The clip art for the pointing fingers that are going to appear in Blind Visionary products and a phantom. I am not sure if any of those have been printed yet or ever will be.  The pointing fingers are called manicules, which are typographic marks that appear like a hand with it's index finger extended in a pointing gesture. They still get use today and I see them on junk mail all the time. The guys at Blind Visionary want to bring them back to their fullest potential, so look for them in their products. Who knows, you might even spot one of these!