For this, my first post of the new year, I’d considered delving into the collapsed and cratered landscape of social media. But there’s no sunny upside to that, is there?

That particular ouroboros would seem to be in the destruction phase of its cycle and I don’t have anything especially helpful to add. Short of noting the absolute shipwreck of it all. Sunk to the briny depths.

I’ve been working to shake off the malaise, though. If you’re feeling similarly, I hear you!

So! Now what? Well, what better way to slash through the doldrums than with sea monsters?

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Embark on a thrilling cooperative voyage in SEA BEASTS, a vibrant yet relentless Ocean Crawler! Play as Vikings sailing cargo through treacherous, beast-infested waters to fortify your struggling tribes! Unleash your blood rage to conquer the horrors of the deep and prove your legacy!

Sometime ago, the intrepid sailors over at Littlest Lantern reached out to me about creating art for their new, sea-faring board game.

What’s developed over these many months is a dizzying clash of massive, salt-soaked beasts and battle scarred vikings all vying for power and glory over the cold, dark sea.

I’m terrifically proud of the dozens of creatures and the many player characters for the game. An absolute delight working through beast and viking alike.

Littlest Lantern concluded their amazingly successful Kickstarter not too long ago and in celebration of that, they commissioned a new cover for the game.

First! A look at the original cover.

And a look at some of the thumbnails I’d initially done for the project. Usually, I like to provide at least three separate, distinct directions with my thumbnails. But every now and again I get on a roll.

For this cover I did a whole bunch.  I genuinely liked them all and would’ve been happy to take any to final. Still, I had my favorites. Particularly, middle right and bottom center. Well, as you can probably see, middle right became the first cover! But I always wanted an excuse to take a crack at the other one, in particular.

When I got word that they wanted to go forward with the next one (and that they wanted my other favorite) I was excited and a little anxious. I had high hopes for it, of course, and I wanted it to be an even grander piece that the first. A worthy follow up to reflect what I’d learned over the course of the project.

And so I set to work expanding the thumbnail from the original square to something that would wrap around the box.

Pictured above: a rough time.

From there, I knew I wanted to draw big. The cover needed to be massive and I don’t like working small, when I can help it. And so I drew each of the individual beasts on 11″ x 17″ paper and scanned the lot of them.

After that, I took them into Procreate on the iPad. (Desktop version, when, Savage Interactive?)

Pictured above: another rough time, assembled.

Then each of the beasts and various elements painted up and colored…

And next thing you know, you’ve got a whole new cover!

If you’re interested to keep tabs on the game you can here or follow Littlest Lantern.

As for me, I’m sinking back into the depths of my project calendar and doing battle with beasts of a different kind, mainly, fighting to get things off my plate and out the door.

Until next time!