flame-broiled unicorn and dragon drenched in awesome sauce 2025-11-30T10:31:27Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/ Ward W. Vuillemot 2025-11-30T10:31:27Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/the-tale-of-sora-a-dragon-princess/

Long before Time learned how to tick,there lived a tiny dragon princessin the folds of the night sky. Her name was Sora,for she was born from the blue-black breathof the heavens themselves. The Great Universe Mother kept her close,held in the curve of her palm,until one day she whispered: “Go. Find a heart to guard.Warm…

2025-03-02T09:38:24Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/battle-at-the-cliff/

I started playing, off and on again, Magic The Gathering at our local game store, Secret Lair at Chelan. I still find it a bit surreal that our little hamlet has its own gaming store, but here we are and here we are happy. I love trying to give myself projects, and so I thought…

2025-02-02T13:05:08Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/root/

Last weekend I started a new campaign by a local DM and sadomasochist (I’ll return to this in a bit) at Secret Lair of Chelan, and is only appropriate I started a new character, Root. Background to Backstory I have a confession to make. I was half tempted to just roll a Level 1 and…

2024-08-24T16:20:56Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/his-most-noble-highness-prince-meriendor-fardove-prodigal-lord-of-the-night-sky/

I recently did my first art commission for a near and dear friend who wanted a portrait done for a character they are role-playing. Aren’t RPGs awesome?! Here is what the client gave me to help cement who their character is. My character is His Most Noble Highness Prince Meriendor Fardove, Prodigal Lord of the…

2024-08-14T19:11:54Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/kazumichi-magus-kensei/

I recently started an IRL game with folks local to me at a newly opened gaming shop, Secret Lair at Lake Chelan, in our hometown of Manson, Washington. For the past many years we’ve played entirely virtual table-top (aka VTT), and so actually getting together around a physical table to sit down is quite a…

2023-03-15T15:39:00Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/night-at-the-threshold/

Normally I’d not post the following on this art site; however, given I created some original art assets for my group’s D&D sessions I thought it might be fun to share. For some quick context, this post outlines the first half of a two-shot submodule I created for our ongoing, weekly D&D group. We are…

2022-11-27T00:19:41Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/30-years-in-the-making/

30 years ago I tried to create a masterpiece. Discover whether I did or not. Or more precisely, learn how I took that “masterpiece” and made it better. And if not better then at least different.

2022-09-11T16:16:42Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/attack-of-the-artistic-ai-bots/

Earlier this month it was reported that an AI bot by the name of Midjourney took first place in art competition held in Colorado, quickly creating a storm of comments spanning the spectrum from welcoming our new benevolent overlord artists to the downfall of society (or at least art) as we know it. No matter…

2022-07-11T21:08:29Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/erel/

I’m back at playing D&D with a new group of folks, and as such it’s time to create a new portrait for my character. While I considered playing either Stone or Unnis – given this is a more role-play heavy group (versus the min-max tactical approach in my other groups) – I also thought it…

2022-01-01T12:19:50Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/fey-eladrin-in-four-seasons/

I created these set of portraits of a Fey Eladrin for a character in an online D&D campaign. Given that these creatures, relatives of elves, change their appearance to one of the four seasons per game session, I thought it would be nice to have the portrait changeable to match the current game session’s season.…

2021-05-11T19:31:24Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/viking-buck/

I’ve been following The Tavern of the Thirsty Buck on Instagram for awhile now. I’ve found a lot of the photo shoots they take are a great place for inspiration and reference. While I do not do fanart per se, I nevertheless thought it would be fun to take one of their photos as foundation…

2021-05-04T17:31:04Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/kailynn/

Kailynn is a half-elf who comes from an affluent merchant family only find herself on the road after a devastating loss of both her husband and child whom she has buried both. Now without family, but through her tragedy, she has found a new purpose to find and heal those in need. After consulting with…

2021-04-27T06:08:26Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/fey-eladrin/

Forgotten Realms’ Eladrin including fey elfs who, after centuries of living in the Feywild, have adopted to their new existence including the ability to change their appearance to fit their mood, assuming characteristics of the season. It’s a great concept, especially as an artist, as it gives me a chance to portray a single character…

2021-04-22T20:34:39Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/unnis-kilyax/

As with Stone, I started playing a bit of D&D 5E after supporting Camp D&D Online on Kickstarter. Whereas Stone is a bit of a stretch for me as a melee fighter, Unnis is entirely my jam: magical glass canon. Given that I’ve not played D&D since the 2E, I opted to go with Dragonborn…

2021-04-18T19:59:20Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/stone/

I recently started playing D&D 5e on Camp D&D Online after backing it on Kickstarter. I tend to play magic users pretty much any chance I get, so for a change of pace I thought I’d play a melee character. For point of reference, some 35 years ago was the last melee character I played…

2021-01-19T17:01:01Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/radiance/

I recently completed this piece, while partly in recognition I sorta suck (technical term for not good) doing horse bodies, largely inspired by my UX design team who have everyone who joins the team draw a unicorn. I love unicorns! I have a site dedicated to them and dragons; even if I do tend to…

2021-01-01T16:21:22Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/knight-and-her-mount/

As it’s a new year, first and foremost let me welcome you to 2021! And given I just completed a piece, I thought it would be a good thing to welcome in the year by writing a bit. In particular, I wanted to go a bit deeper into my digital process as its built upon…

2020-12-04T23:12:31Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/the-case-of-the-curious-filmmaker/

My good friend, Matt Seilback, approached me a few months ago with a passion project of his. Matt and I met at my previous employment where he and I immediately found in each other kindred spirits. From the outside we are an unlikely pair, he a devote Christian and I an ardent atheist. And yet,…

2020-06-19T12:03:47Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/weeks-decades/

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin I’m not the first to post this quote … but I like it. It’s a good reminder that we are quite likely living through a pivotal inflection point of our country. That our tomorrow, whatever it will be, will…

2019-11-17T21:25:35Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/great-dangons/

“Two Great Dan’gons and Their Owner” is a bit of humorous portraiture of our two Great Danes, Kumo and Sora, along with a guest appearance by me, albeit posthumously. Hopefully it’s not too hard to find me tucked away there in the picture. The whole idea for this picture originated, ironically, from a picture I…

2019-07-04T10:48:09Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/artist-resource-no-17-trent-kaniuga/

Trent Kaniuga is a professional artist who works in “the industry” where the industry is all things fantastical. Cuz his art is fantastic! Get it?! Oh, you’re no fun. 😛 In all seriousness, Trent has been contributing and influencing professional concept artists for the past two plus decades. And he more so, he has spent…

2019-07-03T13:40:26Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/product-over-process-what-is-art/

I thought I would take a moment to share my thoughts that have been percolating for awhile now. In particular, I wanted to address something I’ve heard or otherwise read online around the lines of “what is art?” or “is that legitimate art?” or even “does this constitute cheating in art?” I thought I would…

2019-07-01T19:36:34Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/dragon-warden-a-more-critical-eye/

A few months ago I attended Norwescon where I participated in an artist workshop. This is where you can show your work to other artists to get your work, well, critiqued. And you also get to participate in someone else’s workshop. All in all, a lot of fun. This year, in particular, I found it…

2019-04-20T11:10:48Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/norwescon-artist-workshop/

One of the great things at Norwescon is in recent years is the addition of an artist workshop, or otherwise a critique of your work by both other artists and folks in the art field such as art directors, collectors, et cetera. I participated last year for the first time, not entirely knowing what to…

2019-04-19T10:48:36Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/norwescon-42-artshow/

I made it (again) to the Norwescon artshow; but barely, by the skin of my teeth. I have no idea why my teeth have skin on them; note to self: look that up. It’s maybe not too surprising that I’m pretty euphoric at the moment. It’s a pretty strong show this year, certainly the strongest…

2019-03-21T18:40:19Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/sabrina/

Back in February of 2018, I happened to be at CR Sandidge sipping on a glass of wine while sketching. As fate would have it, Miss Caris was also there to visit her mother, Athena. Now, for folks who don’t know me, I tend to fill in my time doodling things like eyes, trees, fantastical…

2019-01-05T11:03:30Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/level-up-2016-to-2018/

I’ve wanted to go back to some of my older pieces and re-do, largely born out of both a dissatisfaction with my treatment of the subject and a desire to see if my skills are sufficiently “leveled up.” Ironically, I keep psyching myself out worried that maybe I have not grown enough to warrant the…

2019-01-04T12:36:59Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/artist-resource-no-16-imaginefx/

If you’ve looked for 2DArtist on the magazine racks or in the Apple App Store, I’m sorry to say that it folded sometime in 2018. But no worries, there is something new (to me) and you on the block: ImagineFX.

2019-01-02T17:23:37Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/art-fundamentals-no-2-values-vs-color/

This post is much more one of a pragmatic conversation on whether to “glaze colors over values” or “directly paint with colors”. Before I get further, let it be known that I don’t think you can take the strong form of this argument, in that it is perfectly fine to side on either side of…

2019-01-02T13:55:07Z https://art.wardvuillemot.com/artist-resource-no-15-color-gamut/

If you happened to grab a copy of Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painer by James Gurney then you may recall a reference to an image’s color gamut. As useful as that information is, more useful is having a tool that generates a color gamut for you to work from. And fortunately, there…