aaronmiller

GUEST ARTIST: MICHELLE RAPP

I'm excited to share our next guest artist, Michelle Rapp! You folks probably know them better than I do. Aside from the cutest pottery, you might know them by this fantastic homage to Gustav Klimt. 

A consummate lover of books, tea, food, and instant speed kill spells, Michelle is a person of many passions. When not plotting to take down the patriarchy or cuddling cats, she throws pottery, paints, knits, and keeps her child from accessing too many sharp objects. Though she has taken illustration and graphic design courses through UC Berkeley extension, she considers herself mostly self-taught. When she enters the battlefield, create a treasure token!

Contact:

• kilnfiendpottery@gmail.com
• www.kilnfiendpottery.com
• Mastodon: kilnfiendpotter@kind.social
• X/Twitter:  @kilnfiendpotter
• Blue Sky: kilnfiendpotter

Orc Army Token

Hey all!

I've got the Or Army token ready to go. Soon you can unleash the horde!

The original is oil on canvas paper at about 6x10".

If you know some friends that would love this let them know to sign up before the end of the month.

Orc Army Thumbnail

Here's my plan for the Orc Army. It's a mess but it's all the information I need to move forward. A warlord sounding the war horn as the horde marches on to glory.

Guest Artist - Alex Ngo!

Alex Ngo is an Illustrator from Southern California. He graduated from California State University, Long Beach, with a BA in Studio Art. Alex then furthered his art training at the Watts Atelier in San Diego, studying the fundamentals of drawing and painting for another four years. In the fall of 2021, he began his career as a freelance illustrator. Since then Alex has worked with a variety of clients across the fantasy and Sci-fi genres.

You can view more work at: www.alexvngo.com, www.instagram.com/alexvnart

I have been working with Alex as a sort of mentee for quite a while now. He's been really working his hardest and always showing great leaps of improvement. I'm excited he accepted my invitation to be a guest and boy did he deliver. He's sharing with you all a wolf token.

Posting soon will be the Orc Army sketch!

July Update

Hi everyone!

I'm getting through a bit of an insane schedule and getting back to whatever is normal I guess. Maybe a tad less insane before GenCon? 

I'm actually catching up with a ton of sketches and just shipped the Angel tier packages last week. And the Collector tier this week.

I have my next guest artist lined up. And we're both aiming for a wave close of August. And that's always the last day of the month. Feel free to toss out some ideas. I'm itching to paint.

If you're going to GenCon be sure to stop by and say hi. I'll be in my own booth! 

My niece returns!

When I asked Kalin if she wanted to draw something for my Patreon she wanted to know what to draw. I gave her a short list and she just attacked that list and drew every option I gave her. You all get to benefit from her prolific work. 

I'll be adding some of these Mite Tokens to the random tokens. These will be a bit on the rare side. If you want one and didn't get one in your pack you might want to pick one up in the shop once they are available.

Some of you might be asking if my niece getting paid. She shall be showered with art supplies and books for the foreseeable future. 

Alternate Art Myr

For this alternate version I skewed all the reds to a golden yellow-orange. A bit of an emergency droid now. Use with caution.

This will stand in for the sketch version. There was no sketch since I painted this directly from life.

Guest Artist - Max Bare!

Max Bare is a Chicago-based cartoonist and illustrator. He has been published by Lion Forge (Rolled & Told), Scout (By the Horns), and Really Easy Press (Scally-Ho!). He is also the creator of the self-published middle-grade comic HERO BEARDS. Max collaborates with his wife Melissa Sue Stanley on illustration for packaging and comics as marketing for brands like Revolution Brewing.

Max is also a fan of the commander format.

You can find more about Max on his website and see a ton more of his amazing work.

• https://maxbareart.com/

Max made us a Horror Token based on one of my horror tokens. I love it and equally never want to see it in person.

1/1 Myr

Here's your upcoming Myr token all tricked out in its frame.

You'll notice the little accent above the Y. This is the Welsh word for ant. And it's a perfect name for these small automatons. 

_______________________________________

On May 2 I'm launching my next Kickstarter. It's geared towards D&D players but I've also got a set of tokens on there just for my Magic-playing fans. I'd love your support.

To kick things off Monday I'm having a pre-sale of a lot of the artwork from the sets. I'm giving you all 24-hour access to the store before it goes public. I'll send out a quick message Monday morning with the password.

There will be over 50 originals to choose from.

Mouser Myr

I'm so excited this is painted now. I didn't think I'd have time to work on it until next month but it turns out it was entirely necessary to do. When working on projects that don't have me sitting at the easel with oils I find it really helps to work on something like this to get out the "forgot how to paint." This tends to happen to us if we step away from the easel and painting. It's not true but it just sometimes feels like it. And I was feeling it after working on 10 illustrations that didn't involve oil paint. I needed to sit down and paint something, anything. And this was the perfect project to dive into for fun.

You can see here that I painted this as a still life. I set up a box and some lights and added a few extra items to make it more interesting. I chose nuts to give the myr some size context. I also debated if I should maybe spray paint it chrome or leave it as it is. For this piece, I think it was best as is. 

I hope you guys like it. Next up should be more info about Max, our Guest Artist as well as another token from my niece, Kalin. I guess that's sorta like a bonus guest. I gave her a list of things to work on for the initial spot and she painted all of them. So, I'm going to share them all with you guys.

I do hope to see some of you in Minneapolis next month.

Myr!

I'll be painting up the silly toy for a new Myr token. 

Commander Mechanic posted about it and I just had to get one, paint it, and add it to the other wind up toy tokens I have. What a perfect find.

Commander Mechanic's post:

https://twitter.com/CmdrMechanic/status/1642712746381701120

I think I'll get it painted this month. I have a ton of work and launching a Kickstarter on May 2. This might be a case where I have the wave launch before the painting is done. I know it's unusual but not uncommon. Regardless I think this will be fun.

On the Kickstarter note, I'll be having a presale for all the original artwork the week prior to launch. I'll give you all a 24-hour opportunity to snag any favorites for being patrons. More info to come.

March of the Machines Art!

A few cards dropped in the past few days. I wanted to make sure to share the new art with you all.

The Shivan dragon is up for auction first. 

I've been out of town a little bit for a break and my group of artist friends all met up in Las Vegas and headed west to Death Valley. I'll share some photos soon.

The trip ended right as Tyler Walpole and I needed to set up for C2E2 in Chicago. If you're going it would be great to see you there.

I'll have news soon on our next token.

Badger token complete!

Hi all,

I'm freshly back from Magic 30 Philly and hit the ground running this week. I'm excited to share the art for the Badger Wave.

I spent as much time deciding on how this guy was going to look as I did painting it. I struggle with costuming. I know it's difficult so I tend to really think about things and seek out a lot of images to look at.

Have you guys been enjoying Brother's War and All Will Be One? I can't wait to share the new art I'll have for the commander sets.

I'll have some sketches and such available tomorrow night on Whatnot.

Tune in at 8:30 central if you want to bid on one of these proofs.

New paintings coming soon!

I've got a ton of stuff to prep for before heading out to MagicCon Philly next week. I've also been working on a fun commission that will be awesome as one or maybe two new cat tokens. 

And while that's going I'll work on a badger-themed portrait similar to the rhino token for the next wave. The cats will be after that one.

If you're at all interested in my process the above is the first stage. This is a little more advanced than where it started. Usually, I scribble stuff on my iPad until the theme or story starts to unfold.

I did a few rounds digitally and just because pencil and paper were handy I jotted down another idea that the client liked.

I scan these in and bring them into Procreate. and end up with the sketch above. I'm working on the drawing now where I start gathering all my references and finding all the details I need before I start painting.

Every painting is like tending a wild garden. 

I'll have more news and art to share about a week after I get back from Philly. 

If you're into D&D 5e I'm plugging away at all the art needed for the new campaign for what I'm calling "ready reference" or a deep cut in Latin, a "vade mecum". The first one I did was for druid wild shape cards. This next one will add an expansion to that set as well as cover a bunch of spells more classes use such as find familiar, conjure animals, find steed, pack of the chain warlock familiars, summon elementals, and health potions. There will also be another set of exclusive tokens. And a few other fun things. It's been quite an adventure making fun and useful things for players.

Enjoy the day and thanks for reading.

Aaron

Whatnot auction this weekend

My first big whatnot auction!
Saturday, January 28, 7 PM CST

That’s 5 PM PST, 1 AM Sunday GMT, and 9 AM Sunday in Singapore

Mark your calendar and set your alarm.

I’ll have some of the following:

• Artist Proofs
• Sketches
• Original Art
• Creating an AP painting live
• Giveaways

New to whatnot?
Signup with the link above and get $15 off your first order.

I hope to see some of you there.

Forest Dryad

Hi all!

I'm pleased to share with you folks the final art and design for the Forest Dryad token coming to you. 

Before painting, I looked at a lot of dryad artwork out there. I wanted to push past expectations for myself. I wanted to have some fun with colors and see how I could use Howard Lyon's reference together. I think you'll all agree this worked out well. 

Earlier in the week when conceiving the idea I knew I'd need better references than what I could Google up. I took myself to the craft store and found a bunch of flowers to work with. I needed more reference because of the angle I was aiming for by having the flower budding from her head. That's quite an unusual angle that most folks are not taking of any flowers in general.

Here's the art without the card design. It's oil on a 9x12 panel.

Forest Dryad Sketch Card

While I'm painting away furiously at my easel I wanted to share the sketch version with you all.

I'm pretty excited to share the final, I believe I should have it for you all tomorrow. I did go to Howard Lyon's Gumroad page and got a reference pack. I picked Tessa Fairytale. Howard's references are great. If you need some be sure to pick some up.

Here's the pencil sketch as it is.

This has been such a fun process that I'm sure there will be more.

Guest Artist - John Sumrow!

I'm excited to share John's work with you all. I think you'll really enjoy using this cat token.

John Sumrow is a freelance artist focusing primarily on the fantasy, horror, & science fiction genres. His vibrant, painterly works have graced the covers of rock bands, tabletop role-playing games, and horror novels.

He has worked on multiple projects with Chaosium Inc. and their popular Call of Cthulhu tabletop role-playing game. He has done two covers for the psychedelic rock band Monster Magnet from Red Bank, New Jersey. Recently Sumrow has achieved a childhood goal of getting his ink into the pages of ANALOG Science Fiction & Fact magazine. As a young creator, he dreamed of contributing to the words of his favorite authors, Robert Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and so many others.

2022 was a standout year for Sumrow as he was Genghis Con’s Artist Guest of Honor. He also contributed to Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu Cults of Cthulhu book, which won gold at The 2022 Ennies for "Best Game Supplement".

Passionate about creativity, Sumrow spends a good chunk of his time spreading the gospel of living creatively in any and all endeavors - for everyone. He will be the first in any group to say - Go now! Crack that sketchbook, clay, or knitting! Good or bad, end the day with something wonderful and new you’ve made.

Sumrow Links!

• Portfolio: www.johnsumrow.com
• Patreon: Patreon
• Instagram: instagram.com/sumrow/
• Facebook: facebook.com/sumrow

Thank You!

Thanks for another year of your support. 

I wanted to share all the fun we've had for the last year and all the tokens created that I hope you're enjoying.

While I only had 7 waves for the year there have been almost 2 new tokens per month on average to add to your collections.

I've been most excited each wave to share a new artist with you all and share the spotlight with my guests artists. They've all been wonderful to work with. 

I'll see if I can think of some new things to shake things up a little for 2023. If there's things you love about what you get, let me know. If there's things you don't like so much, let me know.

infinitokens

Hey everyone,

While I was at the Salt Lake Summit I got to meet the creator of infinitokens. We had chatted previously about sharing these with you and it just worked out they had just the right amount left over from the event. 

Everyone in the Goblin Shaman Wave is getting one in the pack as one of the "random tokens". 

If you have these already then you know how cool they are. If you don't, now you'll able to play with one. You just need to supply your own dry-erase marker. They are a great addition to any token collection.

Enjoy and have a great holiday!

Guest Artist - Aaron Radney

Hey folks I wanted to share with you the Guest Artist for this wave - Aaron Radney.

I admit it's pretty cool to share the same first name!

Aaron Radney is a St. Louis-based fantasy illustrator who loves stories, world-building, and how they intersect in illustration. His focus is on bringing characters and heroes into fantasy by drawing heavily from non-Eurocentric inspirations for his characters and worlds. Currently, most of his work has been for TTRPGs including Backwater: the Southern Gothic Tabletop RPG, Into the Motherlands, and Sandy Pug Games.

You can find more of his work here:

• http://www.aaronradney.com
• Twitter - twitter.com/aaron_radney
• Patreon - http://www.patreon.com/aaronradney

Aaron wanted to create a new piece for the project and we chatted about this months ago. We worked together a bit on it and I'm proud of the work he's created. I'm looking forward to seeing further work from Aaron. 

I love the concept of the Wizard coming through a portal via a painting.

Goblin Shaman

Yesterday I shared the thumbnail and after that post I got busy.  And today I'm sharing the final art for the Goblin Shaman Token with you guys. Maybe I really wanted to paint another frog.

The original is 8 x 10 and will be available later today on Every Day Original. It goes live at 10:30 AM EST.

Painting like this is always a bit like doing something fun and dangerous at the same time. There's a certain level of stress involved that is balanced with the fun and carefreeness of painting. Tipping one way or the other too far and I would have to start over or wait another day.

Tomorrow I introduce our Guest Artist, Aaron Radney!

Woven Path Tarot

I mentioned previously that the artwork for the new Nightmare Horror was for a tarot deck. Well, that deck is now being Kickstarted!

If you wanted to know more about it or get that card and all the others in its tarot form then head on over and check out the campaign.

Kickstarter Campaign

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/changelingart/the-woven-path-tarot 

Guest Artist - Erin!

Erin (they/them) is currently attending art school with plans to major in Illustration.

D&D and other TTRPGs have been huge inspirations for their art, and they enjoy exploring how typical fantasy elements can be combined with modern-day aesthetics. The combination of fantasy vs. reality can be seen in their art and the characters they create, and it's something they'll keep expanding on in art school. After college, they'd like to become a concept artist and create their comics.

Erin is another former student of Mike Wildspeaker, who we all know runs a Magic club at the school he teaches at.

Erin is painting us a Wizard Token. I'm already getting a sense they belong in New Capena or even the Dresden Files. The work in progress is great already. I'm looking forward to the final.

Follow them on Twitter: twitter.com/togetiiic 

Doom Counter

I'm happy to share the Sketch version of the artwork as a Doom Counter. And like most sketches, this will be exclusive to patrons and the Member Only Shop.

As soon as I cropped in the art and typed in the headline you guys were spot on with this being a great Doom Token.

Our Guest Artist will be Erin, a former student of Mike Wildspeaker. I'm looking forward to sharing their art with you all soon in the next post.

If you're planning on going to SCGCon Columbus please swing by the table to say hi. Bring cards to get signed by all the artists there. 

Have fun playing Magic!

Nightmare Horror peak

Hi all,

Wanted to stop by to share what the next token will look like. Feels fun and just right for the type. Thanks again to the fans out there making this possible.

I'll have to look through my stuff to get sketches for the Doom Counter sketch version.

And I'll announce our Guest Artist soon.

Thanks all!!

Nightmare Horror Wave

Recently I posted this painting as part of my 100 days of fantasy paintings I’ve turned into #mtg tokens. And I asked what token would this be if it were to be a token since it hadn't been made into one. I had some great answers and I think the one that stood out was the X/X Nightmare Horror. That's pretty accurate for the IX of Swords.

I painted this as part of a tarot deck that maybe should be coming out at some point. Normally I steer clear of projects like this. I liked the theme which was tapestries. That sparked an idea and I wanted to paint this. I know the spark came from when I used to work as a mural painter and faux finisher. My boss used to paint these faux tapestries for clients. They were gorgeous and that memory spurred me into making this painting. I really wish I had photos to share of those murals.

For the sketch version, I'm torn between a Doom Counter and a Splinter Token. You guys can let me know your thoughts here or in the Discord group.

I'm planning on this wave closing at the end of September giving folks a break for August. That also gives me time to work with the guest artists I have planned. I do a fair amount of coaching and critique with the artist that wants it. I don't have a mentorship program and this is the closest it will be for a while.  

SCGCon Columbus

I'll be in Columbus the first weekend of September. I hope to see some of you there. The last one I was at was great and seemed like all the players were having a great time.

Magic 30

I have no idea if I'm going or not. The event planners have not given artists or vendors much time to plan and only opened up applications the day tickets went on sale. We have no information on what we might be charged or how big the space is. Reed Pop is running it and in all the years of doing Magic events, this is the first where all the artists that might like to go were sent an application to fill out that was pretty informal and degrading. It totally reminded me of this Shelly Winters story:

It took place late in her career, about the time she hit age seventy. She had a string of auditions with directors and casting directors who looked like children to her and who, she felt, were not showing her the proper respect. She was, after all, Shelley Winters. So when her agent sent her to meet one particular gentleman who was casting a new feature film, she went prepared. She sat down in the casting director's office, right in front of his desk. After some pleasantries, the man said to her, "Now, Ms. Winters…remind me what you've done." Shelley Winters reached into a big bag she'd brought with her, pulled out an Academy Award statuette, and slammed it down on the man's desk. "That was for The Diary of Anne Frank," she announced. Then she pulled out another Oscar and put it next to the first one. "And that one was for A Patch of Blue. Now, why don't you remind me what you've done?"

I'd like to go. But for now, and for all other artists, it's a wait-and-see situation. If you're going I know you'll have a blast. It's just very hard to plan with so little time.

Skwirl's Patreon

If you've been following the wild shape Kickstarter or at all into D&D I'll be creating a separate Patreon for my character Skwirl who draws beasts to gain his wild shape ability for it. I'm still figuring out the reward structure. I'm trying to keep the Patreon page simple and see where it goes. It won't just be for druids, just the hook for the idea.

Post GenCon!

Hey everyone! 

Just back from GenCon and still recovering a bit. I had my patience pushed to its limits and I think I passed the test. (Is anyone out there an art restorationist?)

Traffic was shut down on the way making a 3-hour trip almost 6. The new covid policy required a wristband that vendors had to wait in line with attendees. Who makes these horrible decisions?! And the next morning after set-up all my paintings fell off the wall panels. One was seriously damaged. But I tell you I just rolled with the punches. (therapy seriously helps, if you need it, go get it.)

On the flip side, it was one of my best GenCon events to date. I got to actually play D&D at GenCon. That feel like I finally did it right. I had an amazing time and not enough time to see everything and everyone I wanted to.

Dragon Wave will be shipping soon. I'm still waiting on some metal tokens. But I'll be able to get started on packaging up tokens very soon. 

I have great guest artists lined up. I do not have anything for myself lined up. Let's see what happens between now and the end of September.

I do have a few playmats from the eBay booth to share. I also have a few pins as well. 

thanks to everyone that stopped by to say hello! <3

Dragon Treasure

The painting for this wave came about in the wild things for projects outside the customary commissions of making art for games like Magic.

I had crazy limited time to make a painting and I had a few ideas to try on this painting. First, I had just been invited to try out Midjourney, the AI program that's been making news and creating interesting computer-generated art.

I threw some dragon ideas at it and got back nothing anyone could call a dragon. But, I could see the blurry image hidden inside the mess—the spark of an idea for me to run with.

Because I could "see" a figure I need a figure to paint from. Normally I'd have time to get a costume and hire a model. Not the case this time. So Howard Lyon's reference stock to my rescue. I have been watching Howard make some amazing reference packs. I messaged Howard to ask if he might have something that fit my description. He had a few packs in mind and after downloading I found a few that could work great.

I had an idea and some crucial references I was able to get to work. Normally I'd create a drawing but with time tight I just went right to work on the canvas.

When working on linen I prefer to tape it to a board and have it stretched or mounted later. 

If you're going to GenCon grab one of these playmats at the eBay booth. It was an exciting journey to make this painting. I can't wait to try it again.

Guest Artist: Kota

A former student of Mike Wildspeaker who's doing some fantastic work with his game club.

Kota (They/He) is majoring in Illustration. Enjoys playing D&D and other RPG-style games. Aspires to work as an illustrator for anything fantasy related when graduating college.  

Originally getting into art from watching Cartoon Network at a young age and wanted to design characters for shows. It was originally a fun activity but has developed into something grander.

Kota will be illustrating an Angel Token for us. Quite the popular guest option. I love the direction this one is going and is sure to be a fun addition to any collection. We're looking at the sketch above. I can't wait to see the final.

I'm excited to add support to future illustrators.

You can follow Kota on Twitter

• https://twitter.com/bestjesterr 

Rhino Wave update:

The tokens are in and will be going into the mail over the next week or so!

Kickstarter Update:

The campaign is going well and we're super close to another stretch goal. At 200 backers I'll be adding a few exclusive homebrew beasts to the deck. We've already unlocked the free sticker and NPC card. And don't forget there are some exclusive tokens available as add-ons.

• Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aaronbmiller/skwirls-5e-wild-shape-cards-core-set-of-50