Old Hermit’s Gambit | Scorched Earth (1997)
Layers before digital
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The original art for Scorched Earth is available for a limited time.
Shadowfist was a wild ride, mixing up Kung Fu movies and other sci-fi and action movie tropes. So the assignments could be nearly anything. It felt like the time in general, really, as the number of new games that were appearing were each carving out narrower and narrower niches, but all together, a young illustrator could really find anything they wanted to paint. That certainly narrowed down again over time.
Once again, a taller than necessary piece done for myself. In the magical circlet, in the card you can see 3 small items floating there between his hands, which correspond to three different other illustrations I had done for Shadowfist, including the Red Monk character I discussed elsewhere. These were painted actual size on acetate and stuck to the painting to be photographed, and then removed and discarded. They were part of a request for the illustration that I thought detracted from the final painting, so I decided to leave my final painting without them. I employed this trick a couple of other times in those years, including on two Magic paintings.
Some of the Shadowfist cards were printed in circular frames, and I think in only one case did I try to paint a circular illustration. That was too much trouble, so I just decided to paint out to a rectangle or square and design the crop into the composition. Also, framing circular images was going to be a problem if any of the originals sold. And since I was already used to painting beyond what was necessary, it didn’t feel like a waste.
Here, the nuclear explosion that is about to scorch the earth is reflected in the soldier’s visor.
