Gilkey Warlocks RPG – Pius Westcombe

This year is the ten year anniversary of the short story I did for Gotham Academy issue 17 titled 'Whatever Became of the Gilkey Warlocks". It was a tale about four friends at the boarding school who find a hidden room to play the RPG Serpents & Spells in 1984 during whatever the Bat-verse's version of the satanic-panic was. (past blogpost about the tale here: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2016/04/gotham-academy-short.html)

As a fun exercise I decided to do character portraits of each of the Warlock's RPG personas since they were never seen in the story. For this post I'll be breaking down the art process for Davey Kurtz's Serpents & Spells character: Pius Westcombe.

The Gilkey Warlocks are based on my friends and I back when we were younger and more active as RPG-ers. Davey Kurtz is the Gotham version of my friend Mike Davis. His character Pius Westcome (a name arrived at using a school he attended and his street name) is described as 'tiny gnomish illusionist' and it's his incantation of the spell 'animated shadows' that causes the trouble for the friends when unknowingly under the effects of Jonathan Crane's fear toxin.

I started with a pencil sketch on copy paper that I scanned in to Photoshop to add some color blocking as well as pasting in a few stock shapes to become his staff and poof of magic.

Like the original Gilkey Warlocks pages, I decided to do these in pencil. Though I did opt not to do as much rendering and tone to keep it less messy and quick since it's just a fun exercise. A printout of the color-blocked sketch was taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol and on my Huion lightpad I was able to do a clean drawing using a mechanical pencil with HB lead.

The shading and texture was added to certain areas like his striped pants, boots, and quilted harlequin cap. The poof of magic got the most value range of rendered pencil to try and make it something more etherial and not just a 2D shape.

With the drawing finished I scanned it into Photoshop to start the painting process. The first step of that is called 'flatting' where flat colors are laid in to establish all the color areas. On a more technical level, the pencils were on a layer set to multiply (which treats white as transparent, black as opaque and any % in between as that % of transparency) The colors were all put on a layer underneath that one.

Pius's colors were inspired by the purple and gold school colors of Whittier Middle School where Mike and I first met. They also seemed to be a good wizardy palette.

For the final colors, I tinted the pencil art to be a warmer sepia (except the magic poof which I color balanced to be purple) and did some painting as well as some dodge and burn tool work (Photoshop's holdover tools from being a photography retouching program that allow over and under exposing areas with a brush). 

To get the magic to be more flashy I added a few painted layers on top of everything set to various layer modes to get that glow effect.

That's one Gilkey Warlock RPG character down––I'll share another in about a month's time...

Soren: Daggerheart RPG Character

My RPG friends from childhood have reunited to roll some dice again. Jesse Glenn got inspired to run a newer RPG from the folks at Critical Role called  Daggerheart. We've had two sessions so-far, a character creation session and then the first part of the adventure. I've posted art process for my character and Mike's character (see links at the bottom of the post)

For this post I'm sharing my drawing and the process of making the art for Nick Kowalcyk's character Soren.

Soren is a Drakona (Dragon person) Seraph who wields a divine sword for his dragon god Azhdaha. Nich gave a me a lot of free reign on the dragon design parts (he asked the horns not be too big or crazy) and focused more on his skin tone being muted earth colors (and an eye that has a pupil of flame that I couldn't show well enough in a drawing this size).
I looked at several references for poses of human knights from RPG artists before settling on drawing this readied stance I could add my dragon head drawing to. The horns, sword, and crossbow were images/3D assets I pasted in as shape holders to make life easier, and the same for painting in a quick tail shape.

The layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of Stathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion lightpad I was able to use the printout below as a guide while I inked on the surface of the bristol. I used a 0.7 nib Copic Multiliner SP pen for the whole thing.

The texture of the mail armor was the daunting part, how do space that so it was more open in the lighter areas and more dense in the shadows. To offset those textures I wanted his other armor bits to reflect his mountain upbringing with warm quilted bits and fur lined bracers/shin guards.

I scanned the inked art into Photoshop and started the color process. This first step is just to separate the different parts of the drawing as different flat colors, a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines.

As I said, Nick asked that Soren's skin be muted warm earth tones, which gave me some room to do richer warm tones for his other clothing and a cool green/grey for the armor.

At this stage I also added in color holds (areas where I want the ink lines to be a color other than black) to Soren's pupil and dragon spots.

The final colors were rendered using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock brush that also adds a pebbling texture.

Drawing your RPG character (as well as the other players in your party, if you happen to be the 'artist' of the group, is one of the real pleasures of playing an RPG and part that I certainly missed.

I look forward to playing more with my old pals and I'm glad we have these images to help get us in the spirit of our characters and have a unified idea of the visualizations of this adventure we all make up together.

Below is a group shot I assembled of our characters together:

If you missed the process art posts for the other two characters here are links:

Caledon Spargan: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/09/caledon-spargan-daggerheart-rpg.html

Winnifred Cloverdale: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/12/winnifred-cloverdale-daggerheart-rpg.html

Winnifred Cloverdale: Daggerheart RPG Character

My RPG friends from childhood have reunited to roll some dice again. Jesse Glenn got inspired to run a newer RPG from the folks at Critical Role called  Daggerheart. We've had two sessions so-far, a character creation session and then the first part of the adventure. After we made characters I drew my character and posted about the art process here: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/09/caledon-spargan-daggerheart-rpg.html

For this post I'm sharing my drawing and the process of making the art for Mike Davis' character Winnefred Cloverdale.

Mike's character is a halfling war wizard. Mike had done some quick doodles of her with a punk pixie haircut and a houndstooth scarf. I asked him about what other details I should incorporate. He told me about her hallowed axe, a leather strap armor skirt, and a pouch of cards she uses to cast her spells. 

Taking all of those bits into consideration I started drawing her on copy paper. It took a few drawings of her head/face before I was happy to merge them into another drawing or two of her body and gear, all assembled in Photoshop and tinted different colors to keep the drawing bits clear from one another. I warped a houndstooth pattern into the forms of her long scarf. 

The above layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of 300 series Strathmore bristol. On my Huion lightpad I was able to see through the bristol surface down to the printout to use as a guide as I inked. The inks were done with Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 nib mainly).

Beyond the struggle I have with drawing/inking any human face the other challenge was the houndstooth pattern. I decided to isolate part of that pattern almost like a rune on Winnifred's hallowed axe. Most everything else was rather straightforward inking-wise.

When the inks were scanned into Photoshop I could start the coloring process. That first step is called 'flatting' and just about filling in the various areas with flat colors (no rendering, gradients, or textures). Mike told me Winnifred's hair was blonde and that he always loves green/olive incorporated into his character designs. 

At this stage I also established color holds, which are areas I want the inkwork to be a color other than black. They are on the houndstooth, here eyes, freckles, axe runes, and the smoking magic trail (though by the end I also did some on her eyebrows to soften them up a bit.

The last step was to do all the color rendering adding highlights, shadows, and textures to the base colors. This was done with Photoshops's dodge and burn tools.

Drawing your RPG character (as well as the other players in your party, if you happen to be the 'artist' of the group, is one of the real pleasures of playing an RPG and part that I certainly missed. I still have yet to share Nick's character: a Drakona (Dragon person) Seraph which I hope to share soon along with all of the characters together. 

Caledon Spargan: Daggerheart RPG Character

It has been years (decades) since I've properly played an RPG. My friends and I all lament not rolling dice together, but getting our schedules to synch up, the distance we live apart, and the age old 'who'd going to run it?' have been hurdles we've not yet gotten past. But recently my friend Jesse Glenn got inspired to run a newer RPG from the folks at Critical Role called  Daggerheart. 

So-far our group (which happen to be the same friends I made into The Gilkey Warlocks) have gotten together to make our characters. Here is mine Caledon Spargan. And below I'll break down the character art for him.

The character is a Fungril (mushroom person) Ranger (specifically one who specializes with an animal companion). I struggled a bit to find the balance between humanoid and fungus in the face especially, and while searching mushroom types I found turkey tail mushrooms a great inspiration and used them to inform a beard as well as the feet of Caledon.

I drew his body on one sheet of copy paper, and then on a Huion lightpad, I placed another sheet of paper over that one to draw his clothing. The owl was drawn last and was done using reference of a great horned owl photo. The drawings were assembled in Photoshop and I added in a grappling hook (listed as my secondary weapon on my character sheet) with a photo and some quick digital rope drawing.

When I was happy with the layout drawing, I printed it out and taped it to the back of a sheet of Stathmore 300 series bristol. On my lightpad I was able to use the printout below as a guide while I inked on the surface of the bristol. I used a 0.7 nib Copic Multiliner SP pen for the whole thing.

There was a lot of little detail that I probably should have used a smaller nib for, but I wanted the challenge of using a light touch with the 0.7 on the face and lichen details on his clothes.

The other trick was to add just enough texture to each garment or his skin to make it a different material without overwhelming the piece and focusing the heavier handed ink to the feet.

I scanned the inked art into Photoshop and started the color flatting. This is just to separate the different parts of the drawing as different colors, a professional coloring-in-the-lines. To the left side I just used whatever fake colors I quickly selected to get the flats established. 

Then on the right you can see where I landed with my final base color choices. There were many variations in between (going with red/orange for the mushroom bits and green for the armor. Then back to green mushrooms with warmer brown leather...until I got to this blue and green combo I was pleased with. At this stage I also established color holds (areas where I want the inkwork to be a color other than black) for the mushroom spots on his skin and for the outlines of the armor lichen.

I got from the pencils to the end of the flatting stage after one sitting––it reminded me of back when I used to do Discovering Dragons, and it felt good. But I waited till the next day to render the final colors. I did so using the Dodge and Burn tools with a stock textured brush.

Drawing your RPG character (as well as the other players in your party, if you happen to be the 'artist' of the group, is one of the real pleasures of playing an RPG and part that I certainly missed. I hope to draw the other two player's for this adventure: a Drakon (Dragon person) Seraph and a Halfling War Wizard.

TMNT RPG Illustration

The TMNT RPG is being Kickstarted for a reprint/remastering! To quote the campaign: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other StrangenessThe best-selling role-playing game is back, in beautiful full color with new art by TMNT creators Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and more!" I am thrilled that I got to be one of those 'and more's to create a new full page color piece for the book.

The Kickstarter is fully funded (and hitting stretch goals), but it ends Nov 28th, so there's still time to back it and get in on this reprinting of the TMNT RPG: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/palladiumbooks/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-and-other-strangeness

I played the hell out this RPG in middle school and high school. D&D was banned in my house, so this was the first RPG I ever played. I loved the mutation character creation process, and my friends and I used this RPG to flesh out characters and ideas for Cats Trio. 

The folks over at Palladium wanted an illustration that was more than just TMNT fan-art, something that spoke to the RPG itself, random mutant animals or characters and settings from the canned adventures in the books. I had always loved these three separate illustrations by Eastman & Laird from the original book, so I opted to make them into a party patrolling some derelict space.

I redrew each character in my own way, adding gear and clothes from the RPG as well as from the original illustrations. These were done in pencil on copy paper and then assembled digitally. I found 3D reference for the opossum's gun, the porcupine's goggles (still visible in this layout), the weasel's compound bow, and the setting of a rusted out train. 

Over printouts of those models I penciled my own versions, adding my own details and scratches and dings. To help me see everything's individual forms, I did a quick color blocking before sending it off to Palladium & Paramount for approvals.

The Layout was approved to move forward on. I printed out the above layout onto copy paper and taped it to the back of a sheet of 14" x 17" Strathmore bristol so I could ink the piece on a light pad. I use a Huion A3 lightpad, which is fairly big, but this whole piece wouldn't fit on it all at once.

I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.5 & 0.7 nibs mainly) to ink the piece. I think I spent most of the time on the train, because I knew the concentration of lines to depict the rust and wear would set a darker value for the 'background' and I could then ink the characters afterwards making sure I didn't add too much texture to their forms so they could still be seeing against the train.

When the inks were finished I scanned them and started the coloring process by placing in flat base colors for every form. Some of these colors were already loosely established in the layout stage, but here I needed to start dialing in on the value ranges for everything.

I struggled with the color for the rusty train, and instead of sitting on this step for a night, I went straight in after this flats image was saved to figure out a painted color blend of grays, purples, and oranges that would make the train look less like a cardboard cutout.

For the train, I relied on several layers that I used the paintbrush tool (rather than the dodge and burn I rely on for most all of my rendering) and I painted a shadow layer (set to multiply) to help block in all those geometric shadow transitions. The characters were rendered using my normal method of a stock textured brush and the dodge and burn tools.

Below you can see the final art again, and I want to remind you to visit and consider backing the Kickstarter:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/palladiumbooks/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-and-other-strangeness

RPG Hardcover & Boxed Set Video

The 2nd edition of the Mouse Guard RPG Hardcover Rulebook and the Boxed Set are now available through your local gaming and comic retailers (if they didn't stock a copy, they can still order one for you through Diamond).

To make it clear what is included in each of these products is and what is needed to play, I made a video to explain:

RPG Info from David Petersen on Vimeo.

Something I didn't go into in the video is what the differences are between 1st and 2nd edition. Luke Crane outlined these on the Burning Wheel Forum for the Mouse Guard RPG:

"We've been gently tweaking rules and reediting the book, both in the text and art. It's been my pleasure to have David involved at every step of the process.  [He]...sat with me as we recreated all of the patrols using the revised recruitment rules. It's been great to work so closely with him.

I tried to keep the changes to Mouse Guard is minimal as possible. I like Mouse Guard. It's light and open, while providing enough structure that the game moves along without too much effort. The main areas that changed:

Conflict: Thor & I simplified the individual team and multiple team rules. It's all very straight-forward now.

Wises: We gutted wises and ported over the systems from Torchbearer. This necessitated some minor changes to the Traits rules, too.

Recruitment: I rejiggered Recruitment to make it faster and to make the characters slightly more skilled to start, with a solid base of skills."

Cards: Weapon, Action, and Condition cards and their rules/clarity in the Boxed Set were also updated and significantly improved.

More 2nd Edition RPG Blogposts

Hardcover Rulebook Art Process

Boxed Set Cover Art Process

New Card Art 

RPG Promo Art Process Blogpost

2016 Appearance Dates coming soon.

Mouse Guard RPG Promo Process

My Italian publishers for the Mouse Guard RPG asked me to create an image to help promote the game being available there. And since the 2nd Edition recently was released here in the US (and the Boxed Set going up for sale soon), I decided to make a promotional image that would work here as well.

The Mouse Guard RPG is one of those most-asked about items from fans. I'm very proud of what Luke Crane created as a way for friends to get together, and share the duties of storyteller as they create their own adventures of mouse daring-do.

So, for today's blogpost, I'll go over how I created the artwork on the left, as well as a version with different text in English.

I knew I wanted the image to feature dice as a landscape. And since Mouse Guard has it's own special dice, I opted to use those. This pile of three gave me enough to have some surfaces for characters to be, but also feature all three unique sides and symbols. I positioned these a few different ways before coming up with this arrangement and taking a photo with my iPhone.




For the characters, I drew three. I'd planned to draw the three from the 2nd Edition cover of the RPG. But I decided to only draw two. Now I can't recall if I was thinking that drawing the grasshopper would give the piece some visual variety and improve it....or if I was just lazy and didn't feel like drawing the mouse with the sword.

These were all drawn on a sheet of copy paper.

Using the help of Photoshop, I put the drawn and photographed elements together. I also did a Google image search to find a decorative banner piece I could lay in (I manipulated the tails of it to fit my format). Doing this composite step allows me to make proportion and size changes to the drawings. I can quickly see if the mice should be bigger or smaller, or fix anything I drew out of proportion (It also allows me to only draw half of the bow and then mirror a duplicate on so it's symmetrical).




The Photoshopped composite is then printed out on copy paper and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my lightbox I can see through the  to the printout and ink on the bristol surface like the printed lines are my pencils. I used Copic Multiliners to ink with. And as you can see, I didn't ink the text in the banner, but separately, once in Italian and again in English.

Below you can see the final colored versions again. Please feel free to use them online to promote the Mouse Guard RPG (at your shop, for a local game you are running, or to show your local store how much you want the game)

2015 Appearances:

Art-Bubble Comics Festival: Copenhagen: Nov. 14-15

2016 Dates coming soon.

Hogwarts RPG Character illustrations

I've been playing a home-made Hogwarts RPG with some artist friends  at conventions after the con-floor closes. The system is a loose adaptation of some of Luke Crane's Burning Wheel mechanic of 6-sided dice rolled as pools. 1-2=failure dice, 3= 1/2 success dice, 4-5= successful dice, and a 6 is not only a success but can be rolled again to possibly add more successes. The Game Master sets an objective number for a task/obstacle/spell (ie: 3 successes) and based on their traits, their year level, house bonuses etc., the player rolls a certain amount of dice to try and achieve that objective. Most of the game isn't about rolling dice though, it's about solving puzzles, interacting with other players, unfolding a story, and meeting Non-Player Characters (NPCs).

An artist's favorite part of playing an RPG usually includes drawing the characters. And I'm no exception. So each session, I work on creating a visual for the players for at least one of the NPCs. For today's Blogpost (celebrating the date students should be departing Platform 9-3/4 and boarding the Hogwarts Express for the first day of school) I'm sharing the Character portraits for our adventure so-far.

Lukas Hadley: I'll start with my student NPC. Lukas is a Brave, Ambitious Mischivious 2nd year Gryffindor. While the other players start at 1st year, I created a 2nd year who would be able to reasonably show them the ropes or explain things to them in the game, but without being so advanced as to just be able to do difficult tasks for them. I made him a Gryffindor for two reasons. 1) I'm a Gryffindor and he's my representation in the game, and 2) Because they are in a different house, he won't always be there to help. Lukas had a pet toad named Olaf at the start of the adventure...but more on him later.

Theodore Thelonius Thadwick III: Theodore is Adam Withers' character (and this is his illustration of him). He's a short Compassionate, Clever, & Studious Ravenclaw first year. His family, who bully him a bit, are all Gryffindors, and he was relieved to be sorted into the house where "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure." He has a pet pygmy owl he calls Captain Hootley and can often be found studying the daily prophet, books in the library, or his own notes to solve the mysteries of the adventure.

Symphony "Sparks" Chamberlain: Symphony is Comfort Love's character (and this is her illustration of her). Symphony is a first year tough, mischievous, leader who is not happy about being in Ravenclaw or even coming to Hogwarts at all. Her parents were supporters of you-know-who, and after his demise and their placement in Azkaban, she went to live with relatives just before coming to Hogwarts. She'd rather be with her Mom and Dad who she "knows" aren't evil. She's been in detention a few times, docked house points, and even summoned to the Headmaster's office for a talking-to. But, Symphony isn't giving up her idea that Hogwarts is a prison. 


Johnny Claire: Johnny is Jesse Glenn's character (and this is his illustration of him). He's a Mischivious, nimble, charming Ravenclaw first-year with a pet cat named Toblerone Bone. Johnny has purchased banned fireworks from Lukas, wandered the corridors at night, and burgled the Defense against the Dark Arts professor's office with Lukas taking a grey and wrinkled hand of glory. In the most recent session, Johhny found an old slip of parchment in his borrowed homework texts about a mirror on the 4th floor.

Jack Hume: Jack is Nate Pride's character (and this is his illustration of him). Nate started playing the game a few adventures in when Jesse couldn't join us. We explained the discrepancy with Jack being the patient zero of a Dragon Pox outbreak as soon as he arrived at Hogwarts. By the time Jack was getting well, the Jesse's character Johnny had contracted it and was in the hospital wing getting treatment. Jack is a compassionate, nimble, good-flying first year with a pet toad.

Gallus Draganov: Our game is taking place the first full school year after Harry's Parents are killed, when he is still a baby and Voldemort was "less than the meanest ghost". Snape has just arrived to teach this year, and so he is not the head of Slytherin House. I created Prof. Draganov to take that mantle. He is also the Defense Against the Dark Art Professor. The players have found that he is from somewhere in Eastern Europe that speaks with a vaguely Russian accent where he was an Auror (Dark Wizard Hunter). I wanted him to look cold and dapper. 

Silvanius Kettleburn: In this time period at Hogwarts, Hagrid did not yet teach Care of Magical Creatures. Up until Harry's third year it was taught by Professor Kettleburn (He retired to spend more time with his remaining limbs). There is some information about him through various Wikis and Pottermore, but I didn't find much of a description of him (other than the specifics of which limbs he is missing). So I blended Col. Mustard from Clue (1972 edition) and Warwick Roost from my Eleanor Oddbody pitch. Baby fire-crabs are crawling on his hat and shoulder to help illustrate his subject.

Baby Griffin: In the course of the adventure. A wounded baby griffin is found on the school's grounds. The players are trying to figure out what caused it's injuries and if it has any link to some muddy footprints that lead out from an upper window in the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor's office. What is known is that the griffin ate Lukas' pet toad Olaf. Lukas has no love lost for the beast, which is being co-cared for by Prof. Kettleburn and Hagrid. Theodore (Adam's character) has christened the Griffin "Feathersby"

Margot Pebblebrook: This 6th year is the female prefect for Ravenclaw and she's also the captain of their Quidditch team. She is tired of the players talking chances that would ruin Ravenclaw's chances of winning the House Cup. In one session, Nate Pride's character, who is good at flying talked to her about possibly seeing if the rules could be bent for him to play on the house team...but since I don't want to contradict the Potter books, no first year will have played on the house team before Harry for about a hundred years and Nate's character Jack has become the equipment manager (giving him access to that equipment, including school brooms). Note: I went with the book's coloring of blue & bronze for Ravenclaw instead of the movie's blue and white/silver

Aaron A. Aaronson & Kelvin Slydil: With a school full of young witches and wizards, the players need to have some other character names/personalities to bounce off of. These two were characters I didn't give any forethought, but invented in the moments students were needed in the adventure. They are a bit stereotypical in their archetypes. Aaron is inexperienced and excitable while Kelvin is aloof and snotty.




Filius Flitwick: The familiar and diminutive Charms Professor has shown up many times in the adventure so-far. Not just because he's one of the player's teachers, but because he's also the Ravenclaw head of house. I tried to blend together both movie versions of the character (He was played by Warwick Davis, but after the 2nd movie underwent a dramatic makeeover/re-design) along with my own ideas about Flitwick.

Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore: At the start of the adventure, after the players and their fellow arriving first years traveled across the lake and into the Great Hall for sorting and the start of term feast, it was Dumbledore who gave the exposition for the adventure with his notices and speech. He introduced the teachers and waxed on about how the wizarding world had much to celebrate and recover from with the death last year of Voldemort. And on one occasion, so far, a player has been sent to see the headmaster's office.

Minerva McGonagall: So-far in the adventure, McGonagall's role has been to sort the first years and a few interactions in Transfiguration class. However, I think she could become a move important NPC as the sessions go on since she is both deputy headmistress and also head of Lukas' house (and therefore the disciplinarian when he ends up in trouble). For my drawing, I tried to avoid the Maggie Smith look and was instead inspire by photos of Margaret Hamilton, the acress who played the Wicked Witch of the West (as well as Ms. Gulch) in the 1939 Wizard of Oz.



Severus Snape: Besides Potions classes, Snape's most prominent part of the adventure has been when he filled-in for an absent Professor Draganov in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Symphony (Comfort's character) didn't care for his lesson, and so she wrote out suggestions on how he could improve his teaching...and presented it to him the next day at a meal in the great hall. Dumbledore, in a timely fashion, interrupted and escorted Snape off for a nightcap before he could really let Symphony have it (though he did turn the note to smoldering ash in his fingertips).

Rubeus Hagrid: The most enjoyable NPC for me to play. Having listened to the audio books (both Fry and Dale) I mimic the voice as best as I can while using the character for a bit of humor or help to the players. He's been excited to watch over and care for the wounded baby gryphon. This was my 2nd take on drawing Hagrid for the adventures. I abandoned an earlier version about half-way in because the expression and overall hair shape was just not who I saw as the character.



Argus Filch: The crotchety, student-hating, and gnarled Hogwarts caretaker has popped up a few times in the adventure, mostly to catch the players out-of-bounds in the castle or roaming around at night. For my drawing of him, I used reference from the actor who played him in the movies: David Bradley. I couldn't really think of any visual way to improve on that actor's portrayal of Filch, so I went with it.



Pomona Sprout: As head of Hufflepuff House, she's had little to do so-far in the game (No players or NPCs are Hufflepuff students), but she has made an appearance in teaching the players lessons about magical plants like Dragon's Snare. Part of the trouble of roleplaying Hogwarts lessons, is that Rowling doesn't elaborate on what students learn in several classes at various years, so unless I have a specific need for play players to know about a spell or plant, we often gloss over those lessons. For my depiction of her, I wanted to shift away from the movie actress to a friendlier face like that of character actress Pert Kelton (Music Man).



Cuthbert Binns: His classes in the books are described as boring and dull, so we don't spend much time roleplaying out anything happening in his class...usually it something like "In the afternoon you move from class to class, in History of Magic Binns droned on about a conference of troll lawmakers and it was briefly made entertaining when an escaped turtle sporting a teapot for a shell came meandering into the room from a transfiguration class." I looked at Michael Palin for my depiction of Binns.

Xanthus Reynard: A business man in the publishing of magical books and tomes. He also collects rare books and, at times opens up his usually locked shop for used books and parchments in Hogsmeade called "Reynards Rare Tomes and Scrolls". The players have yet to meet this character (though he's been referenced...so if Adam, Nate, Comfort or Jesse are reading this, it's their first glimpse of him.

Ragnod: This goblin is hiding out on one of the small islands in the lake. The 1st year players saw a light flickering somewhere across the water when they crossed the lake in the boats with Hagrid on their first night at Hogwarts. After finding a magical way of summoning boats once used for the now-defunct house crew teams, the players discovered this crusty and salty diminutive goblin with a campsite working away on goblin-made craft-works...notably defying the Code of Wand use from 1691 by crafting & testing wands himself.


Death Eaters: As this is taking place the year after Voldemort & Harry's parents were killed, there are still Death Eaters on the loose. Sure, many of them have been sent to Azkaban, or are on trial, or in hiding from Aurors...but that's not to say that a few brazen ones couldn't don their hooded masks and cause some chaos. And a few have been brazen enough to test the school boundaries when not making a mess of Hogsmeade.

Oleg the Salamander: in the latest session, the players found it odd that Lukas had been sneaking around with fire, most recently in a lantern he'd tuck away between classes). They discovered that to replace his deceased toad Olaf, Lukas had pilfered a salamander used for third year Care of Magical creatures classes. Salamanders will only live as long as the fire they are born from continues to burn. So Lukas keeps his new pet alive by keeping the flame lit in the lantern.


Vidad Treepens: The wandmaker I made up back when I started making and selling wands is an anagram of my name "David Petersen". Vidad has yet to appear in the RPG, but I know that he has a shop in Hogsmeade, and with so much going on with Ragnod and his wandlore, I felt it would be good to have a true wandmaker available to the players. For the portrait, I just used my own face for reference, gave him a hat and apron like the ones Alistair wears in Legends of the Guard (my printmaking mouse proxy in Mouse Guard) and a bow tie that I often wear in honor of my grandfather.

!BONUS!

The 1st pencil version of Hagrid was my Art Drop Day piece for this year:

ArtDropDay 15 from David Petersen on Vimeo.

2015 Appearances:
Long Beach Comic Con: Sept. 12-13
Baltimore Comic Con Sept. 25-27
New York Comic Con Oct. 8-11
Art-Bubble Comics Festival: Copenhagen: Nov. 14-15