Tomb of Annihilation Concept Dump
Welp, I think this was announced in October (?) but after 2 and a half years, I get to share my concept work on Tomb of Annihilation!
Doing a concept push at Wizards was basically a childhood dream of mine and not a day goes by that I don't look back on those three weeks ever so fondly! Got to jam with brilliant writer Adam Lee and veteran mastermind Richard Whitters as well as partner-in-crime Daarken Lim.
Felt like a little kid dreaming up booby traps and dino encounters. We even had some preliminary doodles from Pendleton Ward to work off of, and lemme tell you that guy knows his dungeons. Mike was focused on a lot of the Tomb designs and some awesome were-pterodactyls and goblin totems whereas I was pretty into the Jungle and Port stuff. Hope yall enjoy!
The last week of the concept push was all about keyframes. This first one is a Gnome Merchant Lord welcoming you to Port Nyanzaru.
It hasn't aged well, but at the time this was one of the more impressive paintings I had ever made in a day.
Second Keyframe: Entering the Jungle
really fun to just paint one of those classic D&D parties setting off on an adventure
Keyframe 3: Zombie T-Rex
after "albino dwarves", I think "zombie t-rex" was the most exciting phrase uttered on the first day. He's also got zombies in his belly! The tomb key frames were handled by Mike!
MAGE
One of my favorite pieces from the whole 3 weeks, I imagine this is very close to the kind of character I would enjoy playing in this campaign.
In continuing with the trompe l'oeil theme, his cape has a giant spooky face on it to ward off dinos.
FIGHTER
Took a pass at the classes through the lens of Chult. First one I did, I don't remember where we landed on the gun vs. no guns debate.
The side cape draping over her shoulder is very Orientalists inspired (as are the rest of the class designs)
WIZARD
yer a wizard 'Arry
WIZARD 2
Playing around with more Middle Eastern vs. African influences
CLERIC
this one has a bit of a Saracen vibe
Merchant Noble
had a lot of fun on this one, I later made him a Gnome cos why not
Liara, the Flaming Fist
mercenary captain of Fort Beluarian, a military outpost on the coast of Chult
they were kind of into this version where the Dwarves used carved onyx slabs and dyed black mud on top of their white matted dreads to appear like skulls from far away
Once I got over my dwarf obsession, it was time to tackle the Tomb of Horrors. I read up on some of the OG material and fell in love with the "green devil" motif. Don't walk through that door if you value your life...
there's a three-armed Gargoyle in those tombs somewhere...tried incorporating the screaming green devil motif to this guy
"what if...what if you have to cut the zombie's head off and use its helmet as a key?"
I was pitching the idea that the walls of the tomb had this sort of modular brickwork where Tomb Servants could just replace cartridges in the walls to refresh traps XD
this image cracks me up because I spent so long making it look like a freaking IKEA manual and its so dumb.
This is how i pictured one of the many servants of the tomb, in this case a dwarf turned null, now operating traps and spooking explorers
Ras Nsi sketch 1
he's sort of a big bad lich guy I think
Ras Nsi sketch 2
benevolent/neutral forest spirits
because there needed to be at least a couple things in the forest that weren't trying to kill you
Froghemoth! One of the demi-gods of the jungle, worshipped by some
Dino mounts for traveling through the jungle. Looking at this now that Triceratops would just get crushed under all that...
The Aarakocra are a bird race living in an aerie above the canopy of Chult. I imagined them to be noble but intimidating