#ranarh

I tend to surreal or even dark imagery on my own, so it was an interesting challenge to paint this romance YA novel's cover for Lena Kowalewski. I discovered while painting the covers for the weekly serial Tantalus  (magical college with student relationships) that romance situations are so far outside my comfort zone I can barely see them, and I took this as a learning opportunity.

"Dark Mambo" Cover - My second cover for author Christopher Brewer's dark stories about the detective Alice. Dark Mambo takes place in a Voodoo setting and deals with addiction, so there is Baron Samedi, lord of the dead, dancing with no other than addiction itself. It was a lot of fun using such garish colours. I'm told dolls aren't even a big deal in voodoo magic, but they make for cool props for sure.

The new artbook is coming! I thought long about making another sketchbook after my first collecting the works of 2017, but it was nice to see them all printed and bound in one place. The 2018 Artbook will contain: sketches and speedpaintings. Commissioned works. Contest contributions. The written bits I made for environments. Traditional media. Digital works. It's at the printer's right now, and will be available as print (in German) and PDF download (in English). Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/JSLArtShop Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/ranarh

"Many of the city's old buildings were still to be found scattered in the forest, notably the medical buildings, as if they had healing powers of their own."

My first speedpainting in 2019, based on an ink pen sketch as so often.

"Only elite patrols were sent so far as the fifth perimeter. The environmental dangers were not only lethal, but so well hidden that most perished smiling."

Created as interior illustrations for the regional expansion of ShadowRun for Hamburg. There was also a really cool pack of extras with small maps as player handouts and NPC cards. I always liked that there are so many regional expansions for the awakened world, and living not so far from Hamburg it was special fun to dress it up in cyberpunk chic. See both illustrations in my Artstation account, https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0X3LRw

It was almost a shock to find out exactly how many characters there would be after the dA forum job offer already said there would be a few, but it all was so lively and fun that in the end, I am very happy I had this commission.