Legend of the Five Rings Art
November 2011
21 posts
Recently I've been really enjoying the art produced by some of your new artists Tony Foti (whom you've already covered), Jason Juta (like what he's done with Rising Sun Blade and Nightingale Blade) and Alayna Lemmer. Can we expect to see more from them in the future (not just continued use, but increased volume of art per set) and is there any chance they'll ever attend some of the cons/tourneys for fans to meet and appreciate?
Those are some solid artists and we use them the best we can. But yes you should see work from those three on a fairly regular basis as for more those are artists I give as many as they like usually which is in the 2 or 3 per side typically. Tony has been a bit busy with other projects the last few months. As for attending events, I know Alayna was at Gen Con this year. Con attendance isn’t a topic that comes up a lot with our artists we tend to be so busy with getting the work done. I hope they go though, Cons are amazing.
What's the deeper connection between the cards Disgraceful Conduct, Economic Manipulation, and Bayushi Toshimo? Are those really mantis?
Scorpion cleaning up a Kolat branch of Mantis that a Master Coin wanted out of the way. Who’s the boss? I dunno. Both probably got what they wanted out of it.
I made all of that up, I didn’t write the descriptions. But if I had thats what I’d be going for. It may have been Jorge’s idea he is a player and often comes up with creative ideas like that and loves Scorpion.
Having just gotten my Herald, I have to say, I am loving the Clan Champions' art, and it's nice to see Drew Baker got to put Daizu back there behind Kisada Jr. But what about the ominous temple-looking structure on the third to last page?
This?
mantis, crane, and scorpion... but no unicorn champ love?
I’d make an excuse but MW3 came out yesterday and I blacked out… tonight is L5R work so look for Naleesh and Kisada
could you compare and contrast what it is like working with an artist like Drew Baker vs. a company of artists like IFS?
So Drew is a funny example because he requires next to no art direction. He knows the world so well, and has been at it so long he does his own research I pretty much tell him who it is or what they do and he gives all of us his fine work. Studios tend to ask a lot of detailed questions which is actually really fun because it can trigger new ideas and helps you get them the source images they need to be successful. Drew tends to turn in as late as he can with finals where as most studios crank it out fairly rapidly due to their business model vs a freelancers. This allows a studio time to do a few more modifications than say Drew. Both tend to be very helpful in those corrections, Drew tends to not need many or any. Studios its rare but since we often give them higher numbers of cards statistically speaking they end up needing a few more corrections here and there. Studios have a point of contact that all dealings are done with, Conceptopolis has Aaron, Gong has Angga ect and in many ways the process is so streamlined its like dealing with a single artist.
you mentioned you have art as your phone background. I have often wanted specific art pieces as my computer desktop background, but few artists have 'computer wallpaper' quality images of their art available. I understand the risk if images are too high quality, somebody might take it and make prints themselves (unfair to artist) but I personally would be willing to pay a small fee for hi-def scans like that *points at this page's background*. Is there an official policy on art distribution?
We tend to leave that up to the artists on most cards for pretty much the reasons you mention. Many of them are not involved with the L5R Community so they don’t even know that anyone beyond us is interested in high ress copies. The company policy is that in general we release some high ress images for desktops but it tends to be champions, strongholds and the like.
