MAGIC DID NOT DISAPPEAR. IT MOVED INTO TOWN.

The old monsters have adapted.

Werewolves ride motorbikes. Wizards haunt nightclubs and back streets. Demons wear modern clothes, priests carry weapons and creatures from folklore have discovered that cities provide excellent hunting grounds.

Brad McDevitt Stock Art – Urban Fantasy 3 provides 25 pieces of urban-fantasy artwork for publishers, writers, game designers and Games Masters looking to populate the modern world with magic, monsters and people who know entirely too much about both.

The collection combines contemporary characters with supernatural creatures, occult figures and modern interpretations of classic fantasy monsters. It is suitable for everything from paranormal investigation and supernatural horror to occult action, monster hunting, modern fantasy and gritty street-level campaigns.

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

INSIDE THE COLLECTION

This collection includes:

• An elegant female monster

• A modern hag

• A heavily armed priest

• An immortal lover

• A modern demon in colour

• A modern demon in greyscale

• A contemporary elf

• A modern troll

• A monstrous panther

• A punk psychic investigator

• A sabre-toothed werewolf

• A sinister scarecrow

• A sinister shaman

• A tattooed bruiser in black and white

• A tattooed bruiser in greyscale

• A tough biker woman

• A modern wererat

• A werewolf in colour

• A grim and heavily armed priest

• A modern clergyman in colour

• A grinning ghoul

• A contemporary wizard

• A mutant woman in colour

• A mutant woman in greyscale

• A primitive or feral supernatural figure

That is enough artwork to illustrate monsters, investigators, supporting characters, villains, hunters, cultists and several people who insist they are merely going through a difficult phase.

THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE MODERN WORLD

Urban fantasy thrives upon collision.

Ancient creatures inhabit modern cities. Magic operates beneath electric lights and security cameras. Supernatural feuds continue through nightclubs, tower blocks, underground stations and anonymous industrial estates.

The characters may carry mobile phones and firearms, but the things hunting them are older than civilisation.

This collection provides artwork suitable for:

• Urban-fantasy role-playing games

• Paranormal investigation

• Modern occult horror

• Supernatural action

• Monster-hunting campaigns

• Contemporary dark fantasy

• Psychic and magical thrillers

• Games about hidden supernatural societies

• Independent magazines and ’zines

• Horror and fantasy fiction

• Digital publications

• Personal campaign documents and handouts

Use a single illustration to complete an adventure or draw upon the entire collection to establish the visual identity of a hidden supernatural world.

MONSTERS HAVE MOVED WITH THE TIMES

Classic monsters do not have to remain trapped in ruined castles and mist-shrouded forests.

A werewolf may belong to a biker gang.

A troll may work as criminal muscle.

An elf may have learned to move through the modern city without attracting attention.

A hag may occupy a neglected flat at the end of an ordinary street, dispensing curses, drugs and questionable advice to anyone desperate enough to knock.

The artwork in Urban Fantasy 3 helps bring traditional fantasy and horror creatures into the present day without stripping away their menace.

These figures look as though they belong in a world of alleyways, cheap flats, crowded bars, occult conspiracies and violence beneath the sodium lights.

They are not fantasy characters awkwardly holding mobile phones.

They are creatures that have learned to survive here.

HUNTERS, PRIESTS AND INVESTIGATORS

Not everyone in the collection is a monster.

Some of them are the people trying to stop the monsters.

The punk psychic investigator offers a ready-made protagonist, supporting character or reluctant medium. The armed priests suggest churches and occult orders that have taken a practical approach to supernatural evil. The biker woman might be a hunter, criminal, survivor or somebody who has simply had a very long evening.

These illustrations can be used for:

• Player-character portraits

• Monster hunters

• Occult detectives

• Exorcists and militant clergy

• Psychics and mediums

• Supernatural criminals

• Members of secret societies

• Recurring allies and enemies

• Victims who prove considerably less helpless than expected

A strong character image can suggest attitude, history and personality before a single word of description has been written.

Who trained the armed priest?

What does the psychic investigator see?

Why is the biker carrying that weapon?

Which of them knows that the apparent victim is actually the most dangerous creature in the room?

Sometimes the illustration answers a question.

More often, it gives the writer better questions to ask.

SHAPESHIFTERS AND STREET MONSTERS

The collection includes several werecreatures and beastlike figures, including a wererat, werewolf, sabre-toothed werewolf and monstrous panther.

These can represent isolated predators or members of larger supernatural communities.

Perhaps the wererats control the tunnels and forgotten spaces beneath the city.

Perhaps the werewolves have divided the surrounding districts into territories.

Perhaps the sabre-toothed creature belongs to an older bloodline believed extinct.

Perhaps the panther is a shapeshifter, summoned guardian or escaped experiment.

Use them as:

• Predators stalking a neighbourhood

• Members of supernatural gangs

• Guardians of occult sites

• Enforcers for hidden factions

• Player characters

• Victims of transformations

• Ancient creatures adapting to modern life

• Evidence that something is changing the local supernatural population

A single monster provides an encounter.

Several suggest an ecosystem.

An ecosystem suggests politics, territory and the possibility that the characters have unknowingly walked into somebody else’s war.

OCCULT FIGURES AND MODERN MAGIC

Urban fantasy requires magic that feels at home in the modern world.

The collection includes a modern wizard, sinister shaman, immortal figure, psychic investigator and several supernatural characters whose precise nature can be adapted to suit your setting.

They may be magicians, spirits, cult leaders, immortals or things merely pretending to be human.

The modern wizard might operate from a cramped apartment filled with books, computers and ritual equipment.

The shaman might negotiate with spirits inhabiting abandoned factories and roadside shrines.

The immortal lover could be a vampire, faerie, revenant or ageless manipulator who has spent centuries becoming extremely good at telling people what they want to hear.

These images can support stories involving:

• Magical conspiracies

• Occult investigations

• Hidden supernatural communities

• Ancient rivalries in modern settings

• Psychic phenomena

• Cults and secret religions

• Forbidden rituals

• Immortality and its consequences

• Magic surviving beneath ordinary life

Urban fantasy works best when the impossible feels close enough to touch.

Preferably without touching you back.

COLOUR, BLACK AND WHITE, AND GREYSCALE

The collection includes a mixture of colour, black-and-white and greyscale artwork, including variant versions of selected illustrations.

This gives publishers greater flexibility when constructing a book.

Black-and-white pieces work particularly well within traditional role-playing layouts, reproducing clearly and sitting comfortably alongside text.

Greyscale versions offer a softer tonal range for digital or printed projects.

Colour artwork can be used to emphasise important characters, introduce chapters or provide visual anchors within a larger publication.

Choose the version that fits your layout, print requirements and budget.

Do not force a page to accommodate unsuitable artwork merely because it happens to be available.

The page will remember.

PROFESSIONAL ART FOR INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS

Commissioning bespoke art remains the best way to obtain precisely the image a project requires.

It is also expensive.

Small publishers, independent designers and self-published writers rarely have unlimited art budgets, particularly when producing shorter supplements, adventures or experimental projects.

Stock art offers a practical alternative.

It can help you:

• Break up dense areas of text

• Illustrate monsters and characters

• Establish a consistent atmosphere

• Complete an otherwise finished layout

• Improve the appearance of smaller publications

• Release work that might otherwise remain unfinished

• Build a reusable library for future projects

• Reserve commissioning funds for the most important bespoke pieces

One good illustration can transform a page.

A collection of them can provide the visual foundation for an entire game line.

IMAGES THAT CREATE STORIES

The most useful stock art does more than fill space.

It inspires material.

The sinister scarecrow might be the guardian of a forgotten urban garden.

The grinning ghoul might haunt hospital corridors and underground tunnels.

The modern demon could be a corporate fixer, nightclub owner or influential public figure whose charm becomes significantly less persuasive once the skin begins to split.

The tattooed bruiser might be a supernatural enforcer, experimental subject or veteran hunter.

The mutant woman could be the victim of magical contamination—or its first successful adaptation.

The artwork can be used as a source of adventure ideas:

• Choose an image

• Decide what the figure wants

• Determine what stands in its way

• Give it a connection to the player characters

• Allow everything to become much worse

That is enough to begin an encounter, scenario or campaign.

READ THE LICENCE

The artwork is provided for use in personal and professional projects 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 also appear in other Brad McDevitt collections where they suit more than one genre. Urban fantasy naturally overlaps with horror, modern gaming, fantasy and science fiction, and a werewolf or psychic investigator may be useful in several different sorts of project.

Each themed collection is assembled to provide a useful range of appropriate artwork without requiring customers to purchase unrelated packs.

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

The city is crowded.

The monsters have learned to blend in.

Your manuscript needs pictures.

Invite them inside.