TEXT: cubicle7games.com
  Welcome to the fourth edition of our 
  Developer Diary: the Artists’ Edition.
  JG O’Donoghue and Sam Manley, two of Cubicle 7’s amazingly talented artists discuss their favourite 
  pieces from The Enemy Within, share their creative process and illustrate exactly how they create art for 
  these campaigns— from the brief, to the themes, initial sketches, the approval process and much more.
  Sam Manley
  JG O’Donoghue
  
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  Sam Manley
  Sam is currently working on The Enemy Within and Age of Sigmar. He has previously provided artwork 
  for Cthulhu Tales, World War Cthulhu, Cthulhu Britannica, The Laundry, Lone Wolf, the Doctor Who Card 
  Game, The One Ring, Adventures in Middle-earth, and WFRP. Warhammer had a huge impact on Sam 
  as a teenager when he played the game, but he was really drawn into the world through the amazing 
  artwork. Sam is a self-taught digital artist, and time allowing, dabbles in oil and scribbling with ink. 
  Grim and Perilous 
  It seems apt to start with a piece titled: ‘Grim and Perilous’... The brief for this painting was to convey a  
  downtrodden,  moody, oppressive-feeling street that our heroes are trudging through. Joy is definitely not 
  sparked in their hearts here. Anyway, they’ll take centre stage, but the world of the scene around them is 
  every bit as important.
  We nearly always need a sketch to start — some very small pieces might not need one, if they’re 
  simple and not plot-critical, but otherwise a sketch is always produced. The sketches need to be approved 
  by C7 and Games Workshop before we can move on to the painting stage. Here, I felt that a closed-in 
  setting better captured the feeling of an Empire street than a more open and spacious, desolate (almost 
  Hopper-like) feeling would. Tighter-packed buildings put together in a rather ramshackle manner, bent 
  wooden beams and awkwardly-placed repair works are an Empire staple, so they had to be included!
  Lighting is always important in setting mood. In this case, that mood needed to be overcast, grey and grim 
  — really hammering home an atmosphere so thick you could slice it. So, that’s established, I’ve an idea of 
  how I want the scene to look, but now I need to think about the  characters. When we depict heroes, we 
  usually don’t show all of them as they can crowd out all but the bigger scenes, and they’re not all going to 
  be in the same place at any one time anyway. So the choice over who ends up where is normally 
  influenced by who hasn’t been seen so much recently, and who makes the best compositional sense given 
  their body shapes, attitudes and clothing colours. In this case, I definitely wanted the Witch Hunter, face 
  obscured, head bowed, trudging forwards.The Slayer to her right made an excellent counterpoint to her in 
  
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  shape and colours. Bringing up the rear, I felt a taller character worked better, and also someone who had 
  a visible stride would read better at a distance — robes would more than likely just obscure the gait — and 
  so the Captain made the team. Then it was on to the background characters. These people are always fun; 
  out in the streets I could depict a disreputable array of fanatics, unfortunates, and other Empire denizens 
  you certainly wouldn’t want to run into! I took inspiration here from previous Warhammer titles, in 
  particular, John Blanche’s and Dave Gallagher’s wonderful illustrations in Death on the Reik. In my sketch, 
  I rather liked the foreground woman who is staring right at the viewer, and the strange little moon-faced 
  familiar (who’s having probably the best time of anyone there), grinning and perched up on the roof at the 
  edge. I made the ground muddy, added some indications of rain, ensured we’ve got those all-important 
  Warhammer symbols so we’re firmly rooting details in the Empire, and the sketch held together.
  Okay, so it got approved without any major changes. I was cleared to progress to the painting stage. The 
  shapes are all working together, the roughly scrubbed in tones more or less as I want them — it was 
  succeeding as a black and white composition. The painting might be the longer stage relative to the 
  sketch, but most of the difficult work is already done. However, colour choices are still very important; 
  naturally we’re leaning into more drab colours, with some kind of contrast to draw the viewer’s eye. You 
  know that overcast light you sometimes see in the late afternoon? Where the sky’s dark but there’s still a 
  stronger light coming through? That was the idea. If I anchored the whole thing as dull yellow, I could then 
  move to reds, greys, even dull greens, where I needed them, and my piece would remain cohesive. The 
  darker toned Witch Hunter and the more brightly coloured Slayer both stood out against the paler 
  background for different reasons , and the edges of the picture could be allowed to fade into more 
  unified colours to keep the focus on the more centrally-located contrasts. A final pass was to make sure 
  the scene looked properly wet, and it was sent for approvals.
  Now, I did have a change or two to make before it was finished-finished (not a Skaven, I swear!). The 
  biggest one was a note about what to do with the Slayer’s hair! Originally, I had it sagging a whole lot more 
  in the rain, but that was deemed a bit to 80s-looking, so I lifted it back up a bit. Little revisions are 
  common: small tweaks to details, things that need minor changes to convey the right impression. With 
  that sorted, Grim and Perilous was finished!
  
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  Red Moon 
  The Red Moon Inn, seen previously in Fatshark Games’ Vermintide, was a double-page tavern scene, 
  that means there’s a whole lot to pack in! In fact, Fatshark kindly shared some of their existing art assets 
  with us  — so C7’s Red Moon Inn was directly based on theirs! It had to feel busy, so a good number of 
  our heroes and a lot of supporting background characters were called for. I was trying to keep the feeling 
  of the interactions and lighting somewhere between that of Gérôme and Caravaggio. (Well... you have to 
  aim high, right?) Once again it was a sketch first, and the more complex the scene the more critical it is 
  to make sure that the main elements are clearly readable at this stage. The time limit on this one was also 
  very tight, a day to draw and three days to paint.
  The big challenge was trying to get the sense of scale right:  it’s a wide scene, but we need to show some 
  of the height of the inn without leaving a whole lot of boring space towards the top of the image. Fading 
  to a darker colour toned up there helped, as did using the chandelier (bit of a grand term for what it is, but 
  let’s just roll with it…) to anchor the composition; almost like a halo under which the rest of the scene 
  unfolds. With most of the details more or less suggested by the existing Fatshark version, I could focus 
  more on the patrons  — obviously we needed a decent spread of our heroes, a greater number than Grim 
  and Perilous required, but we also needed a cast of varying other characters. The foreground dwarf, who 
  we see from the back, functioned to help lead the eye into the scene, giving some additional depth to it 
  (a technique called repoussoir, literally ‘to push back’). We have someone sturdy-looking behind the bar, 
  we have shady dealings going on under the top-left balcony, a couple making their way into the main hall, 
  a chap at the table who doesn’t really look like he’s living his best life right now, a slumped soldier at the 
  
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  bar, and we can see various other ne’er do wells in the room at the back. Now, I love getting to dig into 
  moments like this — who are these people? In my head, I tell myself little stories about them as I work. 
  I think you can plant the seeds of a lot of tales by making background characters visually interesting, in 
  body language or details. Here, one man has animal skulls strapped to him; one’s wearing an eyepatch 
  and is pointing at someone in the room; the couple walking in look a little more upmarket than everyone 
  else; the slumped soldier — are they down on their luck? Drinking to forget… something? Each of them 
  has dozens of different possible stories to tell, roles to play in different adventures, depending on how the 
  viewer might choose to interpret what they see.
  Alright, changes… again, minimal. I think originally our Slayer was holding an axe and a pint, and that was 
  changed to be two pints. And, with that, it was on to the painting! Colour choices here were, again, 
  reasonably simple to figure out: candlelight ensured we had warmth, and everything else got keyed in from 
  there. I really didn’t want to make the shadows too cool this time (generally if you have warm light you 
  have cool shadows, and vice-versa), as I felt the shadows didn’t need that much attention, other than to 
  define the light. With that established, I could take time to render the piece, add little shots of colour where 
  areas were otherwise appearing too homogeneous (such as the green feather in the slumped soldier’s 
  hat) and bring it to a finish. As with Grim and Perilous, and with nearly every painting, the critical choices 
  happen earlier on.
  
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  Caught  
  Ah, Caught. Caught was a little different, as the character had already been drawn as a black and white 
  portrait piece by another artist: Victor Leza. Caught was also set up to be a corner piece, one of my 
  favourite compositions to work on. Corner pieces allow a bit more flexibility in terms of how they’re laid 
  out, as a full rectangle doesn’t have to be filled. You do, however, have to make sure that whatever part of 
  the image is jutting/fading out into the rest of the page isn’t jarring — too  colourful, overly smooth, overly 
  fragmented, or anything like that.
  The idea of Caught is that the main character, Philippe, is leaping up from a table and scattering the 
  contents of it, including a deck of cards (the backs of which had also been previously painted), and he’s 
  firing his pistol in the general vicinity of the viewer, if not quite at us directly. Well, that means drama! And 
  drama, visually, means angles and diagonals. There’s beer spilling; cards flying in all directions, some 
  close by and some further back, at all kinds of orientations; and we can see movement in the tablecloth 
  and the angle of the table itself. (Have you noticed a pattern yet? All three of these paintings have some 
  kind of drink spilling or being tipped out of a tankard.) But Philippe, he’s the star of the piece, and he 
  needs to be making a grand gesture. So, arms out stretched to create tension around his shoulders, pistol 
  forward, curve in his back, furrowed brow and he needed to be yelling — really going all-in on a 
  snapshot of a moment of action. He’s wearing opulent clothing, and to keep cohesion to his surroundings, 
  in particular, the chair he’s knocking over should also hint at that to some degree. At least, his clothes and 
  the furniture shouldn’t be totally plain. (Nevertheless, on closer inspection, you’ll notice  the tablecloth is 
  tattered and stitched up in places… opulence in the Old World doesn’t last long!) A coaster and another 
  tankard were sketched on the table, an indication of a stain that’s probably more beer, and the sketch is 
  finished. Now, there was a request to change the angle of the arm and the pistol, to point a little more 
  diagonally. That adjustment was made and the new version is quickly approved without any further 
  tweaks, so it’s time to move on to painting this piece!
  Colour here needed a bit more thought than in the previous two pieces. With a corner, there’s often less 
  obvious visible light to work with. Your background is the page background, so your opportunities to 
  directly depict light sources are a bit more limited. Anything struck by a strong light source that isn’t 
  visible has to be handled carefully or it looks out of place on the final laid-out page. Philippe already had a 
  dark-toned coat, so I wanted the lighter colours of his skin, the tablecloth and the tankard, to contrast with 
  that. But, both to keep attention on it and to fit in with his status, the coat needed some colour to it. Red 
  felt out of place, perhaps not providing enough variation in the piece, but a deep blue juxtaposed nicely 
  with the warm colours everywhere else.
  One of the things I like to do, when possible, is to reference other parts of the Old World in my paintings. 
  Here, I took the image of the shrine of Sigmar from the WFRP 4th edition core book as inspiration to 
  illustrate the back of the cards in the deck.  It’s the same idea with repeating clothing patterns or repeating 
  motifs like skulls and hammers and twin-tailed comets — you’re keyed in to the world through callbacks to 
  other images, and that reinforces in the painting a sense of place in the world. This is obvious when it’s a 
  main figure, but I think it’s important to carry that through into less overt elements, echoing designs in 
  quieter places. Maybe it’s not the first thing you spot, but perhaps the second, or the third, and there’s 
  quite possible something new to see as you flip through the book multiple times.
  
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  When I sent in the painting, it came back with a request to make more of the smoke. That was simple 
  enough to add, and so Caught was complete!
  
  JG O’Donoghue
  JG is currently working on The Enemy Within and The One Ring: The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game 
  2nd edition. JG has previously provided artwork for WFRP Rough Nights & Hard Days. JG’s interest in 
  fantasy art started as a pre-teen. He then spent many years working in archaeological illustration, 
  reconstructing heritage sites, mostly in Ireland and the UK. But he never gave up his interest in fantasy, 
  and was always reading about it, playing RPGs or sketching when he got the chance. 
  Power Behind the Throne companion cover 
  Middenheim, probably the most fun city in the entire Reik, and I got to illustrate it! The previous cover 
  illustration by Ian Millar is stellar. It gives a great sense of the scope of the city and unique way it’s 
  situated. So, as  you can imagine, it was a fun challenge to try and keep the spirit of the original but do it 
  in a different way.
  Image 1
  It starts with, as you could probably guess, the text. I go through the old and new text looking for ideas, 
  things to fill the image out, finding out what is around the city, and the parameters I need to keep. Not all 
  this is immediately useful, but having them in the back of your mind can lead to unexpected directions, an 
  example of this is the chair lifts that show up later. 
  After reading I jump onto the sketch phase. Sketching, in this case, is really an exercise in divergent 
  thinking — casting the net as wide as time allows and hopefully something surprising or exciting will show 
  up. This is often very important in a big image like this, as your first few ideas are often your most 
  predictable. I keep these early stages to just line, as it’s super simple and allows you to explore, giving just 
  enough of a gist of an idea without expending too much time in the process. As you can see, the thinking 
  behind it was seeing how the city might look from various points of view gathered from the text and talking 
  to the team. Then looking seeking what kind of interesting compositions will come out of the angles, their 
  perspective and the elements of the scene. 
  Image 2
  Now it’s time to exercise some convergent thinking. I take my favourite of these rough sketches, the ones 
  that have the most potential but also show the city in the best light and work them out a little more.  But 
  still keeping them simple, just lines, as they are usually just for my eyes and the producers, so they don’t 
  need to be pretty. At this point, I present the options to the producer and we discuss which one to bring 
  forward. The first was picked as you get a scope of the city, it has a nod to the original and has those great 
  bridge designs. At  this particular selection stage, there is always something a little sad because there are 
  a few of them you would like to see as finals, but alas it’s just the way the cookie crumbles. 
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  Image 1
  Image 2
  Text elements from the Enemy in Shadows Companion cover were used as placeholders for initial sketches.
  
  Image 3
  Now on to painting! Here is where the image really starts to take form. We begin working on translating 
  the rough line idea into a more fleshed out idea. I’m thinking a lot here about a sense of space and ways 
  of hinting at that; some examples being value shifts (change from darker to lighter) and receding sizes. I’m 
  also thinking a lot about  silhouettes and shapes, which are so important to a good design. A cool-dusk 
  palette was chosen at this stage, to be balanced later by opposite complementing colours for the lights, 
  like yellow and orange. It’s often best to start with overcast top-down lighting and keep the directional 
  lighting to later. 
  I knew at this stage I wanted the city to be full of mist and mostly silhouette as that just felt right for the 
  storyline.I also wanted to add snow — as what is more Middenheim than that. But also atmospherics like 
  snow or rain make images really come alive by adding movement. These atmospheric touches often offer 
  fun ways to give an image grounding, like reflections and blending shapes together.
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  Image 4
  Here the design of each building is pushed further to make it more ‘warhammery’; choosing the materials 
  that the buildings are made of and showing the history of the site. Breaking out of my limited thinking I try 
  to create abstract shapes and see what comes out and then render that somewhat later. Working from 
  abstract is essentially you pulling from your mental library developed from years of studying and ingesting 
  various architectural  styles and other visual aspects of the world. I’m also starting to add a more 
  interesting lighting here. These kind of pinpricks give the idea of many eyes watching you, which again 
  fits perfectly into the theme of the story. All old buildings usually tell a story and have a history. This image 
  shows a mix of the dwarven bridge structure with later human layers added first in stone, then in wood 
  and finally in half timber. The articulation is mostly in the roofs here and the materials. Each gate is given 
  its own character (most are named) — which is often the case with historical gates. 
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  Image 5
  Big jump here. We submitted the last image to Games Workshop and they send back their comments. 
  For instance, that there were too many bridges for Middenheim, so we removed some. Also the scale was 
  wrong with the gates, they needed to be much larger. It was also decided that the gatehouses were too 
  close to the viewer, and so gave too much weight to that part of the frame and overshadowed the city 
  itself because of it. 
  But here, you can see the piece coming together. The earlier rough ideas drawn from the silhouette are 
  given more form and realism, here is really where the knowledge of light and shadows, materials and 
  reflections come into play. We have taken off the design hat at this stage and thinking more like an artist 
  or illustrator. The lights are given more form and used to hint at the street layout, and small details are 
  suggested. Here is where your imagination goes into overdrive as you imagine the city and its inhabitants 
  going about their daily lives in the midst of a snow storm. You can see the colour is also fleshed out with 
  better worked out lighting. I am thinking  of the beginning of the story and the main cast of characters. I’m 
  there with them as they gaze up at the city and the task before them at the start of their adventure.
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  Final Cover
  
  Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd © Games Workshop 2019
   Final Cover
  After another round of feedback from Games Workshop, various changes were suggested: the city’s scale 
  was still not large enough, there wasn’t enough detail in the city itself, some aspects had to be developed 
  further and there was also a balancing problem with not enough visual interest in the right hand of the 
  image. This latter was solved by adding more snow caked crows and hinting at a path over the mountains.
  It’s always funny how much that little extra bit in the end adds, especially aspects like props which are 
  often left out, but it’s these things that make a place feel lived in. For example, some tents used to cover 
  traders who hawk goods to people coming into the town or for the guards to seek cover from the snow. 
  Also here we get to use some of that extra research mentioned at the start. I came up with some ideas as 
  to how the elevator lift may work. You can see the large machine strapped to the last chunky gate before 
  the town. 
  Some of those lights’ evil-peering eyes are developed — giving the idea that these buildings are somehow 
  alive. And the blue and orange-yellow contrast is pumped up, giving it that extra push beyond what would 
  be possible in real life and making this more fantastical. This stage is a lot of fun in its own way, earlier 
  stages are more about ideating, but here you get to dig in and give into that perfectionist in you, who 
  wants to give that final coat of paint to something. But obviously this needs to be balanced with time, and 
  a lot can just be suggested rather than detailed out. An example being the rim light on the characters in 
  the bridges.
  Hi All, I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at the creative process for The Enemy Within and 
  we look forward to sharing more insights in similar editions in the future. The completion of the companion 
  is a real priority for the extended team and we appreciate your continued patience, we really can’t wait to 
  get it into your hands! Our new WFRP Producer will be joining us very soon and we look forward to 
  introducing him. Keep an eye on our website and social media for more updates!
  cubicle7games.com
  
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