In lieu of buying ads, the folks behind the Bullet♥︎ Kickstarter have decided to spend that budget on commissioning original art for their game! This is an idea I love and not just because I am one of the artists they approached. I'd love to see more companies take this approach honestly and they don't even have to come to me!
Bullet♥︎ is a “puzzle-driven, real-time, SHMUP-inspired board game featuring awesome anime-style artwork and a magical cast!” Heck it even includes Penny Arcade's very own Anne-Claire!
It features an assortment of heroines all with unique abilities and when it came to my artwork, they let me pick whichever one I wanted. I ended up going with Zuri because I liked her ability to control paint and thought I could have some fun with that. You can see my finished piece right here:
(Click here for a nice high res version!)
I know some folks like to see how the sausage gets made and I did record a few parts of this process. For something like this I generally start out with lots of little thumbnail sketches. Zuri has a sort of hoverboard so I tried to find some cool skateboarding poses for reference. Here’s a look at some of my thumbs for this piece.
Next I’ll take a few of the ones I like best and do more refined sketches. These are sent over to the client and once they pick their favorite I start inking. You can see that entire process in this video!
So thank you to the folks at Bullet♥︎ for the opportunity and please take a minute to check out their Kickstarter!
-Gabe out
