Let’s face it, one way or another your game of Hell for Leather is going to get gory. I mean blood is going to be pumping and limbs will be used as weapons. It’s all fun and games until some one gets hurt.. Scratch that. ONCE someone gets hurt.. especially if that someone is you.

This week’s image will be used to illustrate one of the many ways your character suffers in Hell for Leather. When you slip up there’s a bunch of ways you can be punished, my favourite being when you get a TRAUMA. This is not a mishap or a wound that can accumulate into something grander, this is something that’s going to make the rest of your character’s life miserable. It’s your moment to shine—where you get to be as brutally bloodthirsty as you like!

In this example the character has tried to confront a guard and disarm him. He decides he has messed up and got wounded in the struggle:

The guard shouts “Hey you, you little shit, come out where I can see you?” I start to go into a rage, mouthing off obscenities. “You wanna say that to my face you ape-faced mother—” CRACK! A steel baton shatters my cheek. I feel the blood spilling out of my mouth like warm tea and I collapse to the floor blacking out.

I knew I wanted to get a bloody mess into this image. Something utterly cruel and violent. I started with a simple sketch to get my composition. It was important to get a lot of movement early on. Once I’d picked my final composition I worked on getting the face to be kind of half way between intense pain and knocked out. I pushed the expression as far as possible and then splashed some blood about.

If you like splashing blood then come back next week for some more Art of Hell for Leather. J Out.