A Whole New World
On Colour, Collaboration and Covid
Image by @terrymarksart
As many of you may know I am an avid roleplayer and well-regarded Game Master. My campaigns are often wild and wacky, almost always emotional and, more oft than not, become a highlight of mine and my player's (I hope) week. These campaigns are built using my homebrew system based off of Ash & Clockwork and so far have been well recieved. My players often leave sessions excited for what comes next and it is not unusual for us to discuss the sessions for quite a while after they have ended. With all of this backstory however, does come a point.
A couple of years ago now I was given the pleasure of being introduced to Terry Marks. A truly lovely person and an artist with an inate sense of emotion and colour, Terry joined my campaign just prior to the beginning of the first Covid lockdown. At the time. the group had been meeting for regular weekly and sometimes bi-weekly sessions. When the lockdown hit then, it created a shift that hit us all hard. I still remember the last in person session of that campaign before the lockdown. An epic showdown inside of the pages of the Book of Kells as a party member was given the truth about her past. It was a great session and a high note to have before the shift, but it didn't really prepare us for what came, next.
We struggled, as most groups did, when the lockdowns started. We grew isolated, and organising sessions became a juggling act of family and work committments. The delays between sessions started to weigh things down and the end of that campaign wasn't anywhere near as good as it could have been. One good thing did come out of it all however, Terry started to draw campaign scenes.
Where before we would be treated to a doodle or two, Terry made use of the online sessions to create beautiful sketches and colour drawings that made us laugh and smile in a way that ther whole party needed back then. As that campaign drew to a close Terry kept going developing more and more intricate images, perfectly capturing the essence of characters and NPCs alike. We were also treated to a few hints at a possible larger project. Terry had started to draw Tarot cards that reflected the party.
Time passed, a new campaign, new characters, a new setting and back in person. But that didn't stop Terry. Making use of flashcards, we were treated to snapshots of sessions in easily digestible images. I had liked Terry's style for a while at this point, and these quick sketches only served to solidify that opinion. It was for that reason that when I was approached with the possibility of a collaboration I jumped at the chance.
So, for the past several months, Terry and I have been collaborating on creating some very special pieces of work. All available here with notes and information on the design process, you can find a plethora of stunning images all based on the world I have created. With a pen and a tablet, Terry has been able to bring locations and characters to life in an utterly unique fashion.
The best part however is connected to the special image that tops this post. We have created a sample set of The High Arcana that Terry started work on all that time ago. With a personalised font, home-drawn frames and a stunning interpretation of the Scientists logo for the back, as well as some truly beautiful pieces of character art just like the image of Madra and Echo pictured above, these cards are nearly guaranteed to be a stunning set.
At the moment we are testing the water to see what the public opinion settles on, but there are plans in conversation to build a full set of the High Arcana in future. For now, though I encourage everyone to go and take a look, you won't regret it.