D&D: Dread | Metal Master (2003)
Hey, it’s a job
For projects like D&D, we’d often get approached to see if we had availability on a book, be given the schedule and asked about how much work we were willing to take. I’d usually reply with some total page count’s worth of illustrations, which would be split up by the Art Director into small spots (~1/8 page), quarters or halves, with larger interior spots being uncommon until 4th edition, during which we got those nice 1.5 pagers. You could try to ask for sizes or types of images, but with a book full of illustrations to commission and every artist wanting the larger slots, such requests were basically understood. The AD would then collate the responses and then send out assignments. And then, with a mix of excitement and dread, you’d look over your assignments to see what you got. It was usually a mix of cool stuff that you got into D&D to do, and...other stuff.
Other stuff could be anything, but it wasn’t going to be anything that would make your portfolio. Sometimes it was just silly or visually weird, sometimes it was both and an excessive amount of work, as well. Occasionally it was weird but simple. Such was the case with these disembodied skeletal arms, which could also wield weapons.
