Ostensible Cat

Merry Christmas, Yuletide greetings, happy Festivus... whatever you celebrate (or don't) I wish you the best this holiday season.  As for me, it's been rather trying in terms of the day job.  And the hunt has begun for the next adventure for Team Bingham (which will unfortunately require us to leave Italy - our home for the past 6 1/2 years) but we've got other plans in the works...  At any rate, while I've been working at honing my tech skills for the job search, I've also been squeezing in some art time.  Here's the latest that I did for Joe Browning over at Expeditious Retreat Press for an upcoming project. 

OK, yeah, So I've been really busy slaving away at the day job and then staying up past my bed time trying to fit in some artwork ;).  Actually these pieces are a few months old but still wanted to share them because they were a heck of a lot of fun to do, and it's almost Christmas and you need a new adventure for your group right?  Here's the latest from one of my favorite companies, Expeditious Retreat Press and the OSRIC adventure Lost Lair of Drecallis!!

Well, well well, the cat came back.  I've been busy with a lot of things lately and unfortunately that has precluded me from blogging.  However, I just received my copy of the Adventures Dark and Deep bestiary by BRW game/Joseph Bloch.  Man o man is it ever cool.  And as usual, my art is the least of the coolness that is this book.  If you haven't hear about it, then go here to find out more.  At any rate, here's a peek at some of my art inside.  I told you I was busy didn't I?

I haven't posted much art lately (or anything else). That's not to say I haven't been doing any. I have actually done a ton of art over the past couple of months (maybe around 40 pieces or so) that I can't share just yet. I've also been working on some techie skills in anticipation of a major life change (which I also can't share just yet).  Here's my latest for as yet unannounced project with Expeditious Retreat Press.    

Wow, I just checked that I haven't blogged in about a month and a half.  I say it half jokingly but it was a bit of a cruel summer with my grandfather's passing and a lot of family drama surrounding that.  I've been very busy with the day job trying to sharpen my technical skill sets ahead of a possible career move (I forgot how much I really enjoy programming).  And I've done a ton of artwork this summer (can't show much yet since the finished products have not yet been released.  Autarch's Domains at War and Joseph Bloch's Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary top that list so look out for those.  I've also had inquiries from others about more possible projects along with some of my own.  Delve issue 2 is very near completion.  I have a few more commissions to get to first though.  But I did want to share some original art that I did for Ronald Redmond for helping me proof Lost Lair of the Lizard Laird.  

Here's one I was going to do in Adventures Dark and Deep but I felt that I kinda blew the description so I didn't submit it.  However, I like the piece so it's gonna be in Delve issue 2. Alright, I've got a ton of projects to work on including Delve 2 so Happy Gaming folks!

Heya gang, Lost Lair of the Lizard Laird is now for sale at RPGNow. Old School Gaming goodness for on a buck ninety nine. Check it out here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/ 116152/ Delve-Zine-Special---Lost-Lair- of-the-Lizard-Lairdhttp:// www.rpgnow.com/product/116152/ Delve-Zine-Special---Lost-Lair- of-the-Lizard-Laird.   Thanks for permitting me this moment as a shameless shill - oh what the hell, even if you don't permit it I gonna do it anyway ;).  Just go check it out OK?  Grazie!!

OK kids, I've been busy (when am I not) but have been working hard to try and get some more old school gaming goodness out there.  I'm wrapping up the Delve! Zine Special Edition of Lost Lair of the Lizard Laird.  Here's a peek at the art: I'll be releasing this as a PDF on RPGNow very soon and might have a VERY limited hardcopy release.  Happy Gaming!

I've been pretty busy but you wouldn't know it to look at this poor neglected blog (or perhaps you would, hrm).  At any rate, yes, I've picked up Delve!  issue 2 and have been working on that.  I have a kind of creative ADD so that work has bled into what will be Delve! issue three.  Right now, I'm going back through issue 2 and reading through it and tweaking a few things.  Most notably converting from the OSRIC/1e stats to Swords and Wizardry.  Not a huge change as they are largely cross compatible but there are some interesting differences (especially in perceived power levels between the two - S&W is much less "inflated" I guess).  However, much of the town of Dustchapel Downs has been keyed out in a sort of gazetteer fashion.  Keying in on some high points in broad strokes just to get a feel of the town, major players, organizations, etc.  There are a few new monsters, lots of legends/lore type stuff and hints at dark things.  D...

Heya Gang, I'm sure by now that most or all of you know that this is the Swords and Wizardry Appreciation Day.  While I'm not officially signed up to be a participating blog, I did want to chime in supporting Swords and Wizardry.  I'm a big supporter of all the verious "retroclone" systems out there (although I must admit to being more heavily in the OSRIC camp) and if you've played any of the older editions, it is a snap to convert between any of them.  In fact, I'm pretty confident that it is so easy, I'm going to give away five pdf copies of my zine Delve! at random to people that post comments in the comment section below.  So if only five folks post, then they all get copies.  At any rate, Swords and Wizardry is a great system.  Matt Finch, the mastermind behind it, was also the originating force behind OSRIC before turning it over to Stuart Marshall.  The main point of all of the clones, regardless of what you play, is ...

Ah yes, Petty Gods is a most fun project to work on.  I give you two of my latest pieces for the Petty Gods Project - The Lady of Lost Angels and Loe-Hann, the Goddess of Licentious Behavior.  Enjoy!

Heya gang, I hope everyone one is doing well.  It's been very busy here at Casa Bingham.  I've been doing tons of art for Expeditious Retreat Press, Stuart Marshall's latest OSRIC Companion book, and the resurrected Petty Gods OSR Project.  So yeah, I've been a rather busy boy lately (that's good) and with upcoming stuff like art for Gygax magazine, Delve!, and my Lamentations of the Flame Princess project (as well as some stuff for Tim Shorts - eh Tim?) and possibly a few more - my art should be getting around this year.  So just to prove that I'm not a complete slacker, here's a look at two of my Petty Gods:  Nebius the Shrouded Lord - God of Dismal Mists and Dreary Fogs and Iracaecus the Flaming Fury - God of Blind Rages.  

I've been a rather busy little bee knocking out artwork for various projects.  Here's the back cover piece for Advanced Adventures #28 Bitteroot Briar.  I think Daisey really nailed to color work on this one.  I've also been playing around with some ink wash and having a lot of fun with it.  Here's the frontispiece for Advanced Adventures #30 To End the Rising.   I'm pleased how it turned out.  Well, time to go back to the drawing board and knock out some more work ;)!

I just sent a box of four original pieces of art to Lake Geneva, WI today to be auctioned at Gary Con V to help raise money for Ernie Gygax after he lost pretty much everything in a fire.  I like to give to give where I can.  I'll have to admit, that it was a bit surreal mounting, bagging, labeling and shipping art to the fabled land of Lake Geneva.  Making it in to the WotC reprint of the A Series Slaver modules last week and then messaging Luke Gygax about the benefit auction this week has been a bit, um surreal.  So if you are going to Gary Con, have a great time and let me know how the auction goes ;).

I got my notification this morning that I was a winner in the WotC A Series art contest.  So it looks like I'll have my myconid picture in the upcoming premium release of the A Series modules by WotC this June.  Another of my friends Chet Minton also was notified of being a winner with his cool roper pic.

OK, yeah, I've already got the original set and I have the Swords and Wizardry version, but I'm definitely down for WotCs re-release of the OD&D premium edition.  I am sure there is or will be a lot of banter as to WotC's motives and pricing ($150 is not cheap for a lot of folks).  Sure, this is not aimed at the casual gamer.  I do hope that WotC releases the pdf versions for the folks that don't want to pony up for a premium edition.  I for one am glad that at this point WotC is releasing all of their old material and reprinting some of it in premium formats.  I hope they continue to acknowledge that ALL of the versions of the game are viable options and none is necessarily a replacement for another.  I also hope they continue to at least maintain the live and let live attitude towards the clones and OSR material.  I see this as all potentially being a hell of a great time for being a gamer whether you are old school or not.  I do think it wo...

OK, I just sent in my entry for the Wizards contest .  I am a little nervous as it said it uploaded the file but I haven't seen it in the gallery yet so I hope I didn't screw anything up.  Here's the piece I submitted.  Go look and vote for your favorite piece!

I told yah I've been busy!  Here's the latest cover piece Daisey and I did for Expeditious Retreat Press's Advanced Adventures module The Doom of Red Rauthim .  I've got a few more to do for Joe Browning and I'm also hard at work in trying to complete my entry for the Wizards of the Coast A Series contest .  Then back to Delve! 

Heya gang, I'm still alive and kicking.  Most of my free time has been given over to doing art.  Here's one of my latest for Expeditious Retreat Press's Advanced Adventures line named Bitteroot Briar .  I've got plenty more to keep me busy so keep an eye out for more!

OK, so I finally managed to log on and check out what is avilable so far.  I'm stoked about what I've seen so far.  For Christmas, I was excited to recieve a Kind Fire HD and have proceeded to load all 32 GB of that baby up with digital comics and gaming pdfs.  I gotta say, WotC's release of all this new material is making me decide exactly how I need to manage content on my Kindle.  Anyway, it is a good thing that now I have too much to choose from.  I recall WotC making this announcement back at GenCon 2011 but have since forgotten about it.  Am I afraid of what this means for the small press guys that make Old School stuff?  Not really.  I mean the hard core old school gamers have been supporting the small press guys for years and they still have their origial books.  The release of the old stuff to a newer audience means that new generations will get exposed to a type of gaming that us older folks know and love.  Releasing it as digi...

Why the hell would they release their back catalog.  Are they frigging crazy?  Hehe, of course I'm just kidding.  Once the servers as RPGNow recover from the gold rush, I suppose I'll go check it out. 

Here's a peek at my latest work for Joe Browning at Expeditious Retreat Press for an adventure entitled:  Redtooth Ridge

Hard to believe it's 2013.  2012 was a very busy year in which I learned a lot.  I would have liked to be more present in the blogosphere and Google+, but I was otherwise occupied.  I released Delve!  issue 1 and learned quite a bit.  I'm working on Delve! issue 2 and learning quite a bit.  I have a lot of art commissions for Expeditious Retreat Press which are fun and time consuming (so between Delve! and my art, that's mostly why I've mostly been absent).  I need to get my game on more this year.  I have a willing group, now I have to carve out the time.  This year I'd like to work on more on my writing and design.  I feel pretty comfortable with my process for creating visual art and have considerably decreased my production times so I'm working on developing a process to increase my writing and design output.  We'll see how that goes.  I signed up for a Deviantart account and will start putting some of my work on there....