Three 'Species' paintings that I made for D&D's new Revised Player's Handbook – Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs!

i’m so sleepy. i’ve been sleepy since i was 25 and yet i soldier on

[Art VS Artist 2023] '23 was a really good year for me art-wise! I landed some awesome projects that'll be coming out next year, and got to push into some new territory for both style and medium — can't wait to show what I've been working on lately ☺️

While I'm currently too busy to make BG3 fanart (the game is good!), I'm happy I got to do some promo work for their Early Access patches :D

Climbed a mountain yesterday with my partner and got married this morning, feelin' prettyyy good

it's #PortfolioDay and I'm an illustrator, so look upon my wares :v I illustrate book covers, TTRPGs, card art, & promo art! You can find my stuff at my site mikepape.com, including a mailing list if you're looking for my private commission availability. For commercial work, email is in my bio!

“we’d go bankrupt if we paid our workers what they’re asking” yeah me too, that’s why I do not get to have a company

Mask of Many Faces

tried to romance Gale and he just showed me his house in the metaverse

I played the muscle in a small character detective agency, this is my Diving Beetle themed gnome Artificer, who is an ex navvie.

I'd been asked if one of the characters here was a reference, and I can now confide in y'all that almost this entire scene is full of NPCs and PCs from my own D&D games over the years, jammed into one place :D

The Opera House from FF6 / Voxel Art

got my first actually-tailored suit for my wedding next month, and dang I'm feelin' handsome >:j

remember everyone, if the image is never leaving a computer/phone screen (ie. being printed onto a piece of paper), the DPI truly literally doesn't mean anything. Free yourself of its shackle

Since I’ve started also drawing digitally, I’m realizing it’s a similar thing to typing versus hand-writing. I feel like working on paper slows to a pace where my mind can actually process what I’m putting down and make certain choices.

A painting I did last year for Wizards, specifically to envision the 'Smoldering Corpse' tavern from Planescape! I got to do a ton of little vignettes for this one, and I had a great time with all the little stories :>

Valeria, Keeper of Sagas: for 'Injuries and Vile Deeds' @lonecolossusgames.bsky.social #art

‘The Hierophant’ painted for the Woven Path tarot.

Devotee of Lolth

Pretty thrilled that I can check off The Witcher from my list of shows I've wanted to build for ✅ Nothing like a good pair of boots with a dagger holster 👏 (I also did some work on the skates Ciri wears at the beginning of S3! ⛸️ )

Repeat illustration client coming back to you for 3rd/4th time? Ask for more money! 1) they're used to you, and knowing what to expect has value 2) inflation exists, your wage needs to go up over time I've had a few publishers refuse after years ('our rate is our rate'), which is a sign to move on

a fun guy

Hi, I joined #illustration #art #fantasyart

my brain reading this after barely having one weekend in the past 6 months: "no but after THIS week it's DEFINITELY gonna slow down for a bit"

First post here on bluesky :) 🎇Starfall🎇

This is the way because it actually contributes to the decorporitization of language and turns "tweet" into a genericized word, which is an intrinsic linguistic good

Devotee of Lolth

Just finished running a ~9 hour session of in-person D&D (first meetup after 2 years/75 sessions of playing via webcams), and dang it feels so good

QT Show me how you draw men! ~ Fellas, guys, bros ~

Waukeen, Faerûn's goddess of coin and trade

Trick, a Tiefling seer from a few years back :>

Just ended off an email with "Hope that helps!" out of genuine kindness, but now that I look again it almost certainly sounds like the most passive aggressive shit in the world lmao oops

in the tradition of vaguely posting about my painting blunders: sometimes you spend 4+ hours painting a whole wall mosaic pattern in a very specific perspective only to step back and think "hmm, maybe I should change the viewing angle"

Characters with Horns over the years ('20-'21-'22-'23, respectively) ;D I remember when that first one popped off online folks were very "Tiefling Barbarian? Wow, novel!" and look how far we've come

One last book cover illustration (for now), this time for Kimberly Lemming's novel 'That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human' — third in the same series as the last two covers!

fellow 30s non-drivers — I took like 3 driving lessons and I know how to drive now, it's easy actually

A little ghost collector (and the sketches that lead up to him)

I was tasked with creating the 'Ultimate' card art for Darrington Press' new tabletop game Queen By Midnight, featured at GenCon! My first cards :D

a halfling doing some dungeon delving

Another new book cover this month! This one is a follow-up from the last book, written by Kimberly Lemming :D

Bladesinger

A Dragonborn I painted last year, plus the 3D sculpt I whipped up to inform my sketching :}

hey if you're migrating all your art over to a new social media platform, it's a great time to use Glaze on all your pieces :v

An old Warlock painting featuring an alien/celestial patron

Cover illustration I recently did for Orbit Books! First of a set. [The book is 'That Time I Got Drunk and Saved A Demon' by Kimberly Lemming]

Hi, I'm Mike and I do Fantasy/TTRPG illo :y #portfolioday

I almost exclusively post finished paintings these days, but I do love the sketch phase

Me telling my D&D friends that I'll draw their characters once my freelance clears up