Huge bucket list check mark for me! I got to paint freakin Witcher!

What follows is almost 17 minutes of me walking you through my cover painting for Witcher: Baptism of Fire. For Orbit Books.

Its all Acrylic on cradled panel but I tried a few new things in this one, including airbrush and -gasp- Pigma paint pen!!

But the subject matter is unusual for me. I rarely get to do a nice quiet scene like this. It is a scene we see so much in the books and show- Witcher clomping through the woods on Roach with Dandelion by his side. Often I am called for much more ‘In your face’ subject matter. And I absolutely loved this change of pace. My thanks to the magnificent Lauren Panepinto for having the vision to tap me to do this.

Beyond that, we get super graphic, but have a textural party, and even cast a foreground figure in shadow- again a thing I rarely do! But painting things out of your comfort zone and trying new techniques is what keeps us growing folks! As Uncle Vesemir says:

“When you know about something it stops being a nightmare. When you know how to fight something, it stops being so threatening.” – Uncle Vesemir, Blood of Elves

Hope you guys dig it and find your own art-monsters to kill!