Happy 2019!

A new year means a fresh start for everybody, including me! I’ve taken a long 2+ year hiatus from Citadel and a lot of art work in general, however after several months of planning and organizing, I hope to return to comics-making in earnest this year…starting immediately! I hope you enjoy my annual holiday illustration with this post, obviously inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A year on from the release of it’s final DLC pack, it’s still an inspiring game to me and I think about it frequently, even if I’m no longer booting it up regularly.

My wife and I have had many adventures this past year including my first ever trip overseas to her homeland, Thailand! I picked up much inspiration on the journeys we’ve had and the adventure now continues, hopefully on paper as well as in life!

Ink on Bristol, colors in Photoshop CS6
Original illustration is © 2019 Randall Drew
All Rights Reserved

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Master of the Sword

Doesn’t matter which Zelda game it is, but the feeling associated with finally obtaining the Master Sword is always satisfaction!

Pentel Pocket Brush, Copics and Prismacolor on card stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2015 Randall Drew
Link is © Nintendo

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Line of Sight

Drawing someone…er…drawing back a bow string is a challenge, I definitely used some reference for this sketch card of Link!

Penmtel pocket brush, Microns, Prismacolor and Copics on card stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2015 Randall Drew
Link is © Nintendo

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Arrows of Light

Princess Zelda once again blessing the arrows with the light of evil’s bane!

Pentel pocket brush, Microns, Copics and Prismacolor on card stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2015 Randall Drew
Zelda is © Nintendo

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Heavy Lifter

I sure wish I had a pair of titan mitts to lift heavy things with.

Pentel pocket brush, prismacolor and copics on card stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2014 Randall Drew
Link is © Nintendo

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Triforce of Wisdom

A wise choice was made by this Kickstarter backer for a Princess Zelda sketch card!

Pentel Pocket Brush, Microns, Prismacolor and Copics on Card Stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2014 Randall Drew
Zelda is © Nintendo.

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Swing to the Link

Another Link sketch card for the KS campaign. That shield is a little dinky, but then again the one you start with in LTTP is basically useless anyway!

Pentel pocket brush, prismacolor and copics on card stock.

-RD

Original Art is © 2014 Randall Drew
Link is © Nintendo

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Impa

Princess Zelda’s personal guardian, teacher and international woman of mystery!

Pentel Pocket Brush, Prismacolors and Copics on card stock.

-RD

Original Art is © 2014 Randall Drew
The Legend of Zelda © Nintendo

KickStarter Sketch Card – Hero of Time

There were a LOT of Link requests for sketch card rewards. A LOT of Link. I mostly stuck to the SNES version Link to the Past design, but occasionally shook it up and pulled a different generation of our favorite green-clad hero!

Pentel Pocket brush, Mirons, Prismacolor and Copics on card stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2014 Randall Drew
Link is © Nintendo

Beyond all expectations

This week Beyond Mode 7 officially became a reality! I picked up the print run and boy do these things look snazzy! The quality is superb and I cannot wait to start sharing these things with all our backers, and then very soon with everyone else!

Rewards posters have also been printed, including a bunch of Blair Shedd’s amazing Legend of Zelda print and the bookmarks are printed, laminated and just need to be trimmed down to size. A lot of this work I’ve been able to do by-hand on some great machinery and it’s really made for a personally rewarding experience.

Citadel is still unfortunately on indefinite hold as I still have to wrap up sketch cards and rewards commissions, but I do still plan on having Chapter 2 ready to go in-print for GraniteCon (Where BM7 will also premier!)

Finally, Jesse and my application for MAGFest 13 this coming January is in! We hope to get a table this year again and bring BM7 directly to the fans who inspired the book to begin with! So exciting!

-RD