Bringing on the Green Knight

I have long been a fan of Arthurian legends. I really enjoy getting into the roots that prop all of these tales up, from ancient Welsh mythology to old tropes that different cultures would trade about in their oral traditions. It’s a lot of fun for me, and I’ve been wanting to do my own book of Arthurian tales since I was about 20.

With David Ayer directing the new Green Knight movie for A24, I was able to geek out a bit about the story of Gawain and the Green Knight, one of my absolute faves. It has just a little bit of everything peppered into the story, from impossible contest to ridiculous trading games. And woven throughout is the concept of honor, and what honor, or a life without honor, would mean to any knight of the Round Table.

I drew my own rendition of the Green Knight, which you can watch with the video I have attached to the story. I also tell the beginning of the story, which finds Gawain rashly choosing to agree to a game with an obviously supernatural being.

The AMAZING On Again, Off Again Art Blog

Hi. My name is Leigh. I run Grimmleighs, and have been for the better part of a dozen years been trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

The fact that I am nearly fifty-two is making this hard to deal with.

I have spent a lot of time either developing Grimmleighs as a art site to show off my monster creations, which can be popular and makes me pretty happy.

The rest of the time, I try to make Grimmleighs a place to showcase my love of miniature painting, which can be popular and makes me pretty happy.

I’m like a freaking pendulum in this regard.

Over the last two-ish years, though, fate has treated us to a pandemic, and life has treated me to a scorched esophagus from an ulcer that has been percolating about in my guts for most of my life.

The pandemic lit a fire under my ass, it seems, while the scorched esophagus has chosen my path. With my guts damaged, I can’t paint miniatures for very long without ending up in excruciating pain. I also can’t lay on my right side very well, but I’ll survive.

That pretty much kills the blog space as a place to post miniatures that I have painted.

So, welcome to my AMAZING on again, off again art blog.

I hope you enjoy my monster creations, they make me pretty happy.

He’s late for a date.

With my newly rekindled love of sharing monsters, I have also launched a YouTube channel and have been posting stories and time-lapse videos of my art. Here’s the first one, it’s a fun little story about a forest princess:

She’s going to be late for everything.

I hope you enjoy! This is a challenge for me as I am easily distracted. But I really like drawing monsters, so I hope they make you as happy as they make me!

Cheers!

Your friend Leigh.

Spell Art, part One

My fixation on fantasy games and high contrast drawing continues. I decided to start drawing up image art for different types of spells, the first of which is for Absorb Knowledge. I dig this freaky little spell, the idea of a wizard just psychically consuming lore really gets my weirdy gears turning!

Absorb knowledge

I’m going to figure out a design that will use the art for spell cards, most likely for Frostgrave, but I figure these spells are pretty universal to fantasy gaming.