Art Trade Roundup 2012: Art Tradeier

Cometh the hour... no wait I already used that one. Anyway, welcome to part 2 of my art trades round up for 2012 (sort of), I've already discussed in my last update my thoughts on the highs and lows of doing the trades in general, so with this update lets get things going already. Below are the pieces I got from those artists that did respond to my trades, a big thank you to all of those people for taking the time to take my ideas for a spin, It's always greatly appreciated.



All links below go to the direct image on the artist's page. All characters were created by me unless otherwise stated. As with last time, if any artist has any objection to me linking them here, then let me know and I'll take it down.




First up was my trade with PanikSura, and, I've got to say, her rendition of Carnack was so close to how I pictured him it was unbelievable. Great stuff. As a funny aside, Tom Hardy's appearance in Star Trek: Nemisis was apparently the inspiration, and thinking about it, I think the guy would make a great Carnack, especially after seeing him as Bane in the Dark Knight Rises.




Next up KaciKay took on Sakari for her Fifteen Faces project. She never asked for anything in return, which was a shame, since I always like trying to do something to show my gratitude. Hopefully giving a big thank you here will go towards that.




Then the ever reliable Klerrik decided to offer art trades, and you know I wasn't going to miss out on that. Sharp, timely and original, It's always great working with Klerrik, but I'll stop heaping my praises now before I get carried away. It seemed only fitting for Klerrik to have a go at Jocasta this time, since he'd already done his own take on Katie last year. Once again, though he deviated a lot from my original designs, what he came up with worked so well, and I'll probably end up incorporating a little of his design into future renditions of the character.




And out of the blue, General Ebonrose drops her rendition of Damon in return for a trade I did last year. Long overdue, but never unappreciated, It's moments like this that remind me that trades are always worth the time. Damon of course belongs to fellow dnd player Jamie.




In return for my trade with Bluesoulber, is this striking rendition of Zantir, looking every bit as threatening as a dark elf should.




Lore-Necha took on Cardia in return for my trade. I got apologies that the image was a bit low quality, but I don't mind. Its a great, sharp image. Cardia also belongs to Jamie.




A time jump later and yet another one of Jamie's characters, this time Nero by Taurus-Chaoslord. This is the first independent rendition I've seen of my design for the character, and I'm glad to say I think it works pretty well.




Finally, finishing off all our Player Characters, is Nazrin, by Magicpotion. She's missing her signature jacket of course, but the rest of the pic was so solid that none of us are worried about that. Nazrin belongs to another one of our players, Simon.


And that about wraps things up. But what about the future? Well, as my (sort of)'s earlier indicate, I'm up for doing art trades at any time, but I'm currently working on getting designs down for all my characters so that, in future, artists can pick and choose which characters they'd like to do. Maybe this would encourage more popularity with my trades, maybe more people would respond, maybe not. Lets stay optimistic eh.



In other news, I'm off to New York Comic Con next week dressed as Jesse Custer from Garth Ennis' Preacher. SEE YOU THERE PILGRIMS!

Art Trade Roundup 2012: Art Trade's Big Day In

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Or something. This update marks the (sort of) end of this year's series of art trades. If I had to sum up my experience this year, it would be to simply say that my opinion has not changed from the last, and below I'll sum up why.


I had two rules I told myself I would follow this year, which made it a slightly different experience than last time. The first I followed easily enough, the second less so.

- Trades were to be on a more irregular basis, as and when I saw an artist available who was interested, rather than hammering them out over a series of months like last year.

- I would not start work on my side of the trade until the other artist had finished or at least showed some indication that they'd started work on their end.


The second rule may seem a bit harsh and uncaring, but is a direct result of having done so many trades last year and only getting a portion of stuff in return. I scrapped this rule after a while for two reasons; one being that a friend of mine had convinced me that doing the trades, even without getting something in return, would show me to be a reliable artist. The other reason was that if the other artist also has a similar policy then nobody gets anything out of this.

As such, the following happened:

- Just like last year, there were a fair few artists who never got back in touch. As I've discussed in previous posts, If it can't be done, an update or acknowledgment is all I'm after. Being ignored makes me just feel as though my time is being wasted.

- The trades I did get back this year were all astoundingly good. This isn't intended as a knock at the traders from last year, far from it. I'm grateful for anyone doing me a trade or request, but I noticed that doing trades on irregular basis meant I had a broader pick from artists who were better suited to the styles of the characters.

So, in summary, art trades are great for doing something new, interesting and outside your comfort zone, and It's great fun when you see a character rendered in someone else's style. However, when you get no response for your work, It makes it difficult to want to carry on doing them.

So, after all that, lets go ahead with my contributions this year. Images link to larger versions over at Deviantart. Characters all belong to their respective requesters unless stated otherwise.



Uglypanda's asked for “something involving zombies,” and I was in a musical mood so this is what I came up with. Unfortunately the trades did not get off to an optimistic start, and I didn't hear anything in return.



A while later came this black and white piece of Jolene, PanikSura's character.




Working with Klerrik again, I have a go at one of his Gutter Brother's. A good opportunity for playing around with light and shading.




I really enjoyed doing an action shot with Hades for Hellyacross. Alas, It seems a lot of the ones I really enjoyed doing rarely get a response. I may chase the artist up on this at a later date.




Next up was Humele for Bluesoulber




And in quick succession, Dany for Lore-Necha




More experimentation with skin tones, which I've been doing a lot of this year, with Thalassa for Magicpotion.




Back to a more standard piece for Intissaria of their character, Violet. Still awaiting a response for this one.

And finally, rounding it off with a Warhammer themed character, Josephine for Taurus-Chaoslord

Come back shortly for a round up of the, frankly, great pieces of artwork I got in return.