Here’s some more making of art work for “Hell for Leather”, the game where Murder = Extra Dice.

This week’s image will be used to illustrate the standard CO-OP end game (aka the Finale). Unlike the Deathmatch, mentioned last week, the Finale involves collaboration to overcome certain death and escape the Network.

This aim of the Finale is to get out alive, live to fight another day, and all that. However this is Hell for Leather and if you go up against the Network it’s going to do everything it can to end your existence in a brutal and undignified way. You may be the greatest player but when the dice start stacking you’re going to make a mistake and once you do, you’re out. The beauty of it is that your sacrifice may not be in vain as your death will give your brothers in arms a little breathing space before the Network crashes down upon them again.

In this scene the player has walked head first into an ambush, has failed his roll, collapsed the stack and must end his days in a glorified manner while his friends watch in disgust.

You are trying to tug me back into the elevator, but I ignore you, screaming like the devil. I feel cold metal press against my temple, but before I realise what’s going on it’s too late. There is a bang as my blood spatters the elevator door . Now Adolf Hitler steps forward with a bloody grimace.

For this piece I was given the brief along with the tag: “Point Blank”. I wanted to use this image to give you some sense of idea of how tense and excruciating it can get when you’re in the Finale. You’ve got to throw some dice and stack others impossibly high knowing one mistake means certain death.

I started once again with some simple lines and a rough composition. I wanted the hand to feel strong and the face to feel upset and terrified. A juxtaposition of the power of the Network and the futility of the Player. Once happy with the composition I worked into the face. I found it difficult to draw the hand from imagination so I drew my hand in the mirror using pens and erasers wrapped together to form the rough shape of a gun. It only came together at the end once I worked into the background quickly adding splashes of grey to add movement.

Next week you will witness how I’ve used an image to help illustrate Scene Setting. See you then. J Out.