Ranarh's Art Blog

Aaron McQueen is a fantasy/sci-fi writer I have been working with since 2019 on various projects; initially he hired me to illustrate the two weekly serials he was writing at the time, and we have since moved to novel covers that I also create the typography for. The serials were lots of fun to do, albeit at a breakneck speed of two per week (I also redrew some previous covers). Therefore they were done in a fairly sketchy style. "Exiles" was a fantasy setting with some non-humans and a high power level; "Tantalus" was a science fantasy setting about cadets training to fight off an alien invasion with magical technology. I actually read all of it, and Aaron was a very forthcoming collaborator. They were published via the author's Patreon page. Some of my favourites from both serials: We then continued to work together on novel covers, all wraparounds although they were pretty character-centric. Foxglove even got a repaint later because we wanted a different prop...

I have been working on the series of horror novels for Christopher Brewer since 2018. Most of them have titles that include "Dark", but I don't really have to take care of any layouting since the author is commissioning me from his own pocket; it's entirely unsure if the publisher will use the artworks, but fingers crossed. Nevertheless, I am having a lot of fun because our collaboration is quite creative. They often show the main protagonist Alice in danger, the depictions are very symbolic and I am to include certain elements taking cues from tarot and mythology. The greatest challenge certainly is that I need to show horror story artwork without making it unshowable despite subjects like cannibalism, child abduction, and abuse in marriage. Going all out gory might be simple, but I enjoy finding more subtle yet creepy ways of showing a visual synopsis. The next highest challenge is the format, which is much more "stumpy" than others. I haven't read any...

In 2018, I was contacted by Tobias Hamelmann, then editor of the German edition of the ShadowRun role-playing game published by Pegasus Spiele, about illustrating "Grimmes Erwachen" an adventure compendium book with a fairy-tale theme. In the ShadowRun world which is cyberpunk at its core, a cosmic event caused classic fairytale races to reappear, like dwarves and trolls, so the setting really lends itself to fairy-tales. I was given a very loose brief for the cover and complete freedom for the black&white interior. I decided to create illustrations with some graphic abstraction and a decorative border to replace the standard one. Grimmes Erwachen cover artwork I was since then invited to create covers and interior artworks for the books Neo Noir, Alpträume, Budenzauber, and Schattengeschäfte, all published by Pegasus Spiele. Every time I was given almost complete freedom about style and content of the images, which I happily used to experiment freely and used a slightly ...

Three covers for the first three books of TJ Muir's fantasy novel series, Book 1: On Borrowed Luck; Book 2: Before the Luck Runs Out, and Book 3: Between Luck and Magic. Patrons have learned some more about the first on Patreon , and the trilogy will be released shortly.

Bob Sellers Jr. just published his book Blood-Lines. The collaged cover includes one of my illustrations. Take a look: Amazon.com Blood-Lines and Bob's blog

My roleplaying character Ranarh was one of my first attempts at digital painting back in the day. I finally got around to repainting the intro cover; the story started out on the volcanic planet Helvite, which was rife with these bunny-things called fremai. More background and the previous version are available to my patrons on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/JenniferLange

My standard sketchbooks are bound in grey carton that is great for working on. This is the A5 portrait format I use when going out. I digitally mock up the head-with-hands, and sketch it in charcoal on architect's vellum  - you can see the sketch at the top. After priming the sketchbook's cover with white acrylic paint I use a brown watercolour pencil for sketching, and then dab in first strokes of the colours I want. I have cheap acrylics left I use instead of my artist's grade paints, so I won't be sorry when it eventually gets beaten up from travelling. I work on the glass pane of an old picture frame, which is easy to clean, and I can put my sketches under it, like here: I'm going for garish colours, so I use the paints straight from the tube, expertly titled "brown" or "orange". Wonder why I want to get rid of them? I cover the entire thing in a thin wash of orange and apply reds and yellows with palette knives. Every now and then ...

I invented films for a sci-fi rpg with a character that loves cinema, the bigger the explosions the better, and while I was typing away at their blurbs, it struck me that I should also have posters. So, I proudly present the current film roster of the home cinema of February 3004:

I recently designed the album "The Biography of Me" by Keith Sudano , of which the cover can be seen here.