It's art I tell you

20 November 2025

Ian Miller

The recent John Blanche post I did put me in mind of an old book I bought many moons ago, Realms of Fantasy by Malcolm Edwards & Roberts Holdstock.

This illustrated fantasy art book published in 1983 by Paper Tiger, contained descriptions of ten seminal fantasy works. With each of the chapters (and associated work) illustrated by a different artist.

For Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, this was illustrated by Ian Miller.
Below are some of the illustrations from the book, well worth a look if you can find, though long out of print.

11 November 202512 November 2025

John Blanche

I’ve always liked the painting by John Blanche, they’ve a sort of decadent feel about them.
Here’s a few I’ve chanced upon.

7 October 20247 October 2024

DungeonDraft – An affordable map-maker

If you’re looking for an affordable map-making tool for RPGs suitable for use with a VTT a good contender is DungeonDraft which comes for an affordable $19.99 which weighs in around €20.

While it doesn’t offer the same rich variety in terms of assets out of the box as say for example Inkarnate. There are many free assets available for it on CartographyAssets which closes the asset gap quite quickly.

The fact that it’s a once off payment rather than an ongoing subscription means it quickly pays for itself. Can recommend enough if you’re looking to create quick maps for VTT sessions. Added to which there is nice integration with Foundry VTT if that’s your thing.

Here’s two examples of maps I’ve recently used in RPG game made only using the default installed assets.

The Blacksmiths Shop

A section of a village the party recently visited showing the local Blacksmiths store and accommodation. The store having a open stall window at the front with the smithy to side and family quarters behind.

The Old Watchtower

A point of interest the adventures had to explore was a recently abandoned watchtower and the mysterious cavern linked to it below. Where the recent disappearances of villagers connected in some way to its sudden abandonment? Probably not.

12 December 202312 December 2023

AI Art Wallpapers

One of the things I like about AI Art is the surreal images it can generate which make for great wallpapers and general backgrounds.

Here’s a selection of fantasy themed images I’ve used for wallpapers or visual aids for use in roleplaying games.

21 August 2022

Return to MidJourney

Here’s some more images generated using the image generating AI MidJourney.

There’s a sort of otherworldly feeling about what it generates.

For some reasons eyes remain a problem in the images which have been generated.
With that in mind I thought I would try some landscapes to see how the AI would handle those.

9 August 20229 August 2022

MidJourney – AI Drawings

I’ve recently taken to playing with MidJourney to create AI generated drawings. They’re certainly impressive if not a little unworldly.

Here’s a few created on a theme of the games we have been playing, namely 1920s Lovecraft mythos related.

1920s investigators with torches in a dark cave

This time I tried to get one for Rock and Agatha using “1920s male and female investigate haunted house”

7 May 2022

Bad DnD Art

I’ve been playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons with a group for friends for the last year or so.

Starting with the starter campaign “Dragon of Icespire Peak”, followed by the first half of “Out of the Abyss” and then into one of smaller campaigns while the players level enough to tackle either the second part of the Abyss.

For the start of the sessions I’ve taken to capturing what happened previously in image form.

Allow me to present in crude pictorial format our story so far.