FANTASY NEEDS TEETH, SCALES AND BAD INTENTIONS

Your warriors have statistics.

Your monsters have special abilities.

Your ancient citadel has six pages of lovingly researched history and a wandering-monster table capable of killing a horse.

Now they need pictures.

Brad McDevitt Stock Art – Fantasy Collection 12 provides 25 pieces of fantasy artwork for writers, publishers, game designers and Games Masters who need professional illustrations without commissioning every image separately.

Inside you will find castles, monsters, villains, magical objects, strange mystics and several creatures that appear to have been assembled from the parts left over after a particularly reckless evening at the sorcerers’ guild.

The artwork is available for use in personal and professional projects, subject to the terms of the included licence.

INSIDE THE COLLECTION

The collection includes:

• A blood-red castle

• A sinister brazier

• A grotesquely deformed noble

• A serpent queen

• An old-school monstrous skull

• An Amazon statue in colour

• An Amazon statue in greyscale

• A cursed sword

• A blasphemous sister

• A wizard surrounded by planets

• A severed finger

• An elderly orc chieftain

• A ninja zombie in colour

• A ninja zombie in greyscale

• Dracula’s bride

• A desperate battle scene

• Nightmare eyes emerging from darkness

• A sinister sorcerer

• A barbarian reptile-man

• A blind mystic

• A feral centaur

• A collection of magical tomes

• A New Age guru

• A sinister psychic

• A strange and elaborate demon

That is enough material to illustrate heroes, villains, monsters, encounters, artefacts, locations and all those awkward spaces in a layout currently occupied by the words ART GOES HERE.

MONSTERS WITH PERSONALITY

Generic fantasy artwork is plentiful.

Characterful fantasy artwork is another matter.

Brad McDevitt’s illustrations have the immediate, expressive quality of traditional tabletop gaming art. His creatures look strange, dangerous and occasionally ridiculous in precisely the right way.

The old orc chieftain looks as though he has survived enough adventurers to become bored with them.

The reptile-man looks capable of tearing through a mercenary company.

The serpent queen is surrounded by enough symbolism and menace to support an entire cult, dungeon or campaign.

The ninja zombie answers a question nobody sensible was asking—and immediately suggests half a dozen adventures.

These are not merely pictures of things already described in your manuscript. They are images capable of suggesting new things to write.

A cursed sword becomes the centre of a scenario.

A severed finger becomes the only surviving clue.

A sinister brazier becomes the heart of an occult ritual.

A blood castle becomes somewhere the characters know perfectly well they should not visit, and therefore somewhere they will immediately begin making travel arrangements to reach.

ART FOR INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS

Commissioned artwork remains the ideal when the budget and schedule allow it.

Independent publishing, however, frequently involves trying to produce a professional-looking book while three invoices, two unexpected expenses and a printing quotation take turns kicking the art budget in the kidneys.

Stock art offers a practical alternative.

This collection can be used for:

• Tabletop role-playing games

• Adventures and campaign supplements

• Bestiaries and monster books

• Fantasy fiction

• Independent magazines and ’zines

• Character and creature profiles

• Magical-item collections

• Digital publications

• Personal campaign documents

• Gaming handouts

• Blog posts and promotional material permitted by the licence

Use one illustration to complete a short adventure or draw upon the entire collection across a larger publication.

A strong image can break up a dense page, establish atmosphere or give a minor character enough presence to become memorable.

Sometimes the illustration is decoration.

Sometimes it becomes the reason the encounter exists.

A COLLECTION OF ADVENTURE SEEDS

Almost every piece in Fantasy Collection 12 can become the beginning of something larger.

Who built the Blood Castle, and why does it appear only after sunset?

What burns within the sinister brazier?

Was the noble born deformed, transformed by magic or deliberately remade?

What kingdom does the Serpent Queen rule?

Whose finger was severed, and why has it not stopped moving?

What does the blind mystic see that nobody else can?

Why are the planets circling the wizard?

What is written in the magical tomes?

Why has Dracula’s bride travelled alone?

Who taught the zombie ninjutsu?

The collection can therefore serve Games Masters as well as publishers. Select an image, place it before the players and begin asking questions.

The answers may produce an encounter, an antagonist or an entire campaign.

COLOUR, GREYSCALE AND CLASSIC LINE ART

The preview contains a mixture of traditional black-and-white fantasy illustration and selected colour or greyscale variants.

Black-and-white artwork remains particularly useful for role-playing publications. It reproduces clearly, fits comfortably into text-heavy layouts and evokes the classic visual language of tabletop gaming.

Colour pieces can provide emphasis for important characters, artefacts or chapter openings, while greyscale variants offer additional flexibility for print and digital publication.

Use the version that best suits the page rather than attempting to force the page to suit the artwork.

The layout has suffered enough.

READ THE LICENCE

The illustrations are provided for personal and professional use under the terms of the attached licence.

Read the licence before publication and ensure that your intended use, alterations and credits comply with its conditions.

Some pieces may also appear in other Brad McDevitt collections where they suit more than one genre. A vampire, mutant, mystic or reptilian barbarian may be equally useful in fantasy, horror or science-fiction artwork, and the themed collections are assembled to remain useful in their own right.

You can explore the complete Brad McDevitt Stock Art range, including fantasy, horror, historical, modern, science-fiction and urban-fantasy collections.

The manuscript is finished.

The monsters are waiting.

Stop leaving blank spaces and give them something horrible to look at.