A Daily Jaunt Through the Planes (Farewell)
As the week ends, I find myself back at the beginning of my work for the role-playing game, Planescape. The first color illustration you see in the Player’s Guide, found in the original campaign setting, is of a halfling showing his adventuring companion how to make the portal to another plane open.
So I thought it would be fitting to redraw this one from 1994. It was one of the first finished images that I created for the line.
Ang and I went to see Sting in concert down in Florida during the time that I was working on Planescape, and I remember that I really liked how he had reinterpreted his old Police songs. It showed that the music was original and could be played in many variations but still be the same tune. I have felt that in redrawing and sharing some of this early work of mine has been like that – there were obvious technical advances on my part as an artist over the years, but the design ideas and imagination that went into the imagery for this game still held up over a decade later…and I am proud to have been a part of it.
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Dude? Sting, really? Me too. Good on you, mate.
you have def. become a staple in all of our artistic lives T.
the growth you have seen as an artist inspires us all to no end. you have been a dream come true for all of us hopefuls who still hang out in the childrens books just to find some cool drawings. i learn new things each time i come to your site or pick up your books. i can honestly say that i wouldnt see illustration the same way without having been exposed to your work.
thanks T.
You know, I’m another one of those amazingly inspired people by stuff like this. I dunno if it comes through in the kinda art I can produce now, but this stuff easily sets a mark to strive for, both in it’s ability to perfectly capture the feel of a particular setting or story as well as set the artist apart in his own way–you look through fantasy artists and the majority is pretty much one after another Frazetta or Vallejo imitator and then DiTerlizzi pops up and it’s like–whoa!
Heh, and now I’m having to scour the web to see if I can buy those few Planescape books that I hadn’t been able to acquire over the years. They’re honest-to-god treasures so far as I’m concerned, and I still pull the setting out for D&D games now and then, and don’t ever plan on stopping.
So now, like, I don’t suppose you, Mr. Tony, can now come out and say “Just kidding about that ‘nostalgia’ stuff–this is for Planescape-does-4th Edition, baby!”, by any chance?
Hey Tony! I haven’t seen your art in a while outside of taking my kid to the bookstore. I heard you were revisiting Planescape from somewhere on the internets and thought I’d stop by.
Nice work! It’s fun to see these reimaginings, especially since I remember the originals so vividly. I hope you do more “fan art” stuff!
P.S. You remember a loooong time ago when you said I sounded like a “frustrated artist?” Well, about three years ago I left database programming to work on video games, and actuallly did some concept work for my most recent project! I’ve always remembered those two words; so thank you for that.
Really nice to see redrawings of your old planescapean art. Love it.