Here's the third and final part of my tutorial walking through the process for this illustration.

I hope you find it useful.

( Crazy vertical scroll tutorial behind the cut )

The witty puns and nerd comments are already running thick on blogs and message boards over the news that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax died this morning. Like it or hate it, his creation changed the face of games. Whether you like storytelling freeform, tactical number crunching and miniatures, quest-style video games or MMORPGs, Dungeons & Dragons trail blazed the terrain for them all.

It's not very vogue to brag that you're an RPG player. The cliché of the unhygienic socially inept dork exists, but RPGs are far more than that. At its core D&D (and all other traditional role-playing games) give a framework for creatively collaborating with your friends in a way that few other things allow. Instead of passively waiting for content on TV or button mashing through a set story in a video game, role-playing games are as vast and varied as the people involved in them.

Some of my fondest memories growing up come from playing D&D with my brother, a common ground we could understand even as he became a teenager and I was still finishing elementary school. The games evolved as we did, from simple fantasy beat-em-ups to elaborate political stories with rich character development. After Joe left for University I met new people and forged strong friendships through RPGs - folks who wanted to tell entertaining stories and interact with each other. Sometimes games didn't go well, but it was still a good time far more often than it was bad.

If you've never played them or had bad RPG experiences, you may not see that potential or feel that they're a worthy past time. Find a good group and your opinion will rotate 180 degrees. They can be as rich and textured as you want to make them.

I'm ecstatic to have some of my artwork in the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Monster Manual coming out this summer. The fact that I get contribute, even in a tiny way, to a hobby so near and dear to me is an honor.

D&D is part of what made me who I am. I'm proud to say that.

Thanks for everything, Gary.