First project, first artist hire: I got lucky. In a world of people posing as artists using AI, I found a real talent on Artstation. The image that caught my eye was not fantasy at all. It was this one.

We talked about the project and he was onboard, and never disappointed. We started with a druid subclass, the Warden of the Grove. I described him as sitting on a branch, surrounded by birds, even with a bird on his head. Zen and calm were the keywords. This was the first sketch I received:

We moved the bird on the right because of the banner of the future card, and focused on making him meditate. Here is the result:

This character looks like a mix of Yoda from Star Wars, and Dohko the Libra Knight from Saint Seiya. I’m very happyp with this druid. 17 more illustrations to go for Volume 1 of Fearless…