Gareth Sleightholme / hesir
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hesir.bsky.social
Gareth Sleightholme / hesir
@hesir.bsky.social
200 followers 140 following 43 posts
Freelance #comics #TtRPG #Illustrator #Educator based in #Hull, #UK. Find my #TtRPGArt #FantasyArt, #myth & #monster #comics @ http://hesir.artstation.com & http://ironshodapecomics.com and my TtRPG writing @ https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/375079
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hesir.bsky.social
In York today, making a #flatbow from a stick, in amongst some trees, hatchet, draw knife, little fire, all the mod cons.
A stick of oak, as it was at the beginning of the day. Before I hit it some with a little hatchet. Cutting in the main shape using the hatchet. Refining the the shape / "Tilling", using the draw knife. The not quite finished product. Plenty of sanding and oiling to do yet.
February 2, 2025 at 6:18 PM
hesir.bsky.social
Oh, & this, a bit of #Tolkien fan art "So [Gandalf's] doubt slept -- but uneasily. Still [he] watched and [he] waited."
Showed this at Oxonmoot back in Sept', & handed a few postcards of it out too. Detail pics of some fun background elements, inc. amongst other things a familiar looking kerchief.
Gandalf the Grey sits in Bag End as Bilbo makes the tea, sometimes between the end of "The Hobbit", and the begining of "Fellowship...". He watches his friend with no little worry, while the hobbit nervously checks his pocket. ...in the background of the image is a framed painting, based on the postcard Tolkien said had influenced his own image of Gandalf in the beginning of the work on the wider LotR Legendarium. Again the shape of the wizard's staff is styled after the elvish rune for "G". The books on the shelves have some familiar design shapes to their spines, plus a small carving of an ancestor perhaps? The hobbits hand nervously moves towards his pocket to check on "the trinket" there.
November 24, 2024 at 10:01 PM
hesir.bsky.social
Seeing as I can't show you any current work (for all the usual reasons) here's "Space Truckin'!" a toybash / kitbash project for my new(ish) a side project #anotherDMcrafter - you can see the full build on YouTube here > youtu.be/jttn85NTRXg?...
The Space Truckin' project just prior to priming. You can see some of the scratchbuild greeblies including the washing up liquid bottle tops as front thrusters, the marker pen lid as a rear facing engine, and the cable tie as a ladder. The underside, this was a lot of fun to do. Both sets of wings there came off an old Revell Tomcat model. The back of the vehicle showing the big side engines, marker pen kids, with old super glue tube lids fitted inside them. Old electrical wire for engine piping. Side view showing the additional greeblies on the left side. And the windows after having the the printing mask removed.
November 24, 2024 at 8:22 PM
hesir.bsky.social
If you see this post a monster!
A Toy-bash, made from an old Skylanders toy, some melted plastic and bits and pieces of other broken toys... Now some sort of awakened tree elemental.
November 16, 2024 at 9:49 PM
hesir.bsky.social
The Ravenser Odd comic written and drawn by myself for the Hull Maritime project is now free online!
You can find a downloadable PDF at the bottom of the article on the Maritime Hull pages, here:https://maritimehull.co.uk/whats-happening/news/news-new-comic-tells-the-story-of-ravenser-odd
The cover art for the comic, it shows a scene of a man Peter At See, discovering the shipwreck on the sandbank discussed in the story. Plus the two young investigators Lily and Jacob, and the crows that act as a Greek Chorus of sorts. Interior art from the comic, just showing how much art is in there. More interior art, here Lily and Jacob wander around the Hull art gallery and chat about the island.
May 17, 2024 at 11:57 AM
hesir.bsky.social
Just around the corner... best I start framing stuff up.
A poster for a pop-up exhibition in Hull, show casing some of my fantasy art/TtRPG art. The image shows the flying ship image from one of my paintings along with the title "Unfinished Worlds" and the somewhat vague/flexible dates "December through January". Hopefully the image can do a lot of heavy lifting for this show (pun very much intended).
November 30, 2023 at 12:54 PM
hesir.bsky.social
...Aaaaand we are here! #TBF23 Hope everyone has a great weekend @ThoughtBubbleUK ! See you in #DSTLRY hall, Table B34 - #comics, #fantasyart #prints & my very last copy of my #100Drawings #sketchbook
Sarah and I behind our table at Thoughtbubble this morning. The table full of comics and prints, and two new banners behind us. One filled with black and white comic art, the other with colour TtRPG paintings Open black and white comics, laid out on our table. Five colour TtRPG prints... Depicting fantasy scenes of flyings ships, adventurers, dragons, monsters etc. The front cover of my b/w sketchbook "100 Drawings".
November 11, 2023 at 10:17 AM
hesir.bsky.social
Ordered some new (and one repeat) print sets to take along to #ThoughtBubble (and in prep for a solo exhibition I have coming up).
One of my choices might have been crazier than the others... I'm really just printing stuff I like I guess.
We'll see I suppose?
- fantasyart ttrpgart ttrpgartist
Five A3 prints arranged on a table, clockwise from top left: an image of several adventurers standing at a dockside dominated by a flying ship, a female knight seems to negotiate with a shopkeeper over a deck of cards, a cityscape made of tombs and mausoleums, a strange gigantic creature stalks a human warrior I'm hiding and finally a horse riding warrior rides to the aid of two warriors attacked by a dragon. Low angle of one of the previous prints: showing a warrior hiding behind a rock as a strange looking giant stumbles through a lightning riven landscape toward them. Detail of the upper section of one of the prints from the first image. We can see a great mausoleum on top of which is a huge sculpture of a knight on horseback. Detail of one of the prints in the first image. A rider in armour rides toward a dragon as it clambers over a rock, the horses hooves kicking up dust.
November 10, 2023 at 12:08 AM
hesir.bsky.social
New Banners ready for #ThoughtBubble #TBF23, this coming weekend.
"Arrr... look for me at th' sign o' the flyin' galleon!"

Plus, a new blog post over on IronShodApeComics(.)com

"...starting something new before finishing the last thing(s)". ironshodapecomics.com/blog/

#Comics #Ttrpg
Me stood in front of my new event banners. It's been nearly a decade since I had the last one done, so it's about time, and at least this time they show off the art a little better and it even looks like I admit to doing colour work too! The map to find us at Thought Bubble TBF23. Table B34, DSTLRY Hall. Sarah and I at last year's event... In front of the old banner. That flying ship image, I've had more A3 prints done of it, so, if you know some one who likes D&D style stuff, let 'em know. The image itself shows a party of adventurers finding out they may have inherited a ship, that has more unique features than they expected.
November 8, 2023 at 2:33 PM
hesir.bsky.social
So, see you all at Thoughtbubble / TBF23... and hello to our future table neighbours! We'll be in the DSTLRYhall, Table B34 ...see you there! - Comics!
Promo artwork showing the location of our table at the upcoming Thought bubble Comic Con in November this year... Promo artwork showing the location of our table at the upcoming Thought bubble Comic Con in November this year... Promo artwork showing the location of our table at the upcoming Thought bubble Comic Con in November this year... Sarah & I at last year's TBF22 comic con.
September 22, 2023 at 1:27 AM
hesir.bsky.social
So I guess in the meantime I might also post on here some of the other "creative" stuff I get up to. Stuff I do to give me a little step back from the day-to-day painting & drawing (which I love of course), that allows for a little recharging whilst still being creative, just in a different way...
As an extension of being a D&D player, DM, I'm also a ln avid scratch model-builder. I love trawling fleamarkets and junk stores to find interesting nonsense to build into my cardboard flying ships and other TtRPG scale nonsense... above is one of a number of works in progress, the hull of a flying galleon, made out of delivery boxes and found objects... It definitely stems from my background as a designer in the theme park and visitor attraction industry where model building was a big part of my day-to-day process... above, me holding a working card model for an animated casino window with an animated fan of playing cards, and behind me the actual device based on my scale version... ...and then there's music. I've always dabbled. And I've collected a bunch of noise making devices over the years as part of that. But never really taken it anywhere beyond the odd open mic (a few years back now). But recently, again via the DMing of tabletop games (particularly online) I've started to pull together bits of music for fun and to create soundtracks to go with some of the art I also create for those games... I've even begun to collaborate with a friend on some of that, which is a lot of fun. ...mostly it's things with strings. And I'm happy to have a crack at playing anything, but strings are a fave. The photo above was taken round at my friend El's house, trying to get something tuneful out of his Welsh Harp... a fabulous looking and sounding bit of kit...
September 21, 2023 at 9:55 AM
hesir.bsky.social
There's definitely less impetus on here to post & update, & that gentler less pressure-full atmosphere is great. But being in that showcase lull, that working on stuff you can't show or talk about brings, can feel isolating, like you're sitting on the edge of a discussion you want to be part of. 1/2
Me, sketching, outside somewhere... possibly Hull. Me again, sketching on Humber Street, Hull, sometime before it all began its journey towards gentrification... Me, yet again, drawing at an exhibition of playing card designs I was a part of, Inna shopping mall in Hull. A somewhat romantic, fantasy image of the artist at work (done for a personal project based on the painter of a magical card deck). This is me, working away at the canvas, in a cluttered dark room, with the sun of world outside hazily filtering through the window... or some such idea, laughs.
September 21, 2023 at 9:09 AM
hesir.bsky.social
Four years today, Sarah and I got ourselves married... it's ace. So is she. Here's to many more years!
My wife Sarah and I at her son's wedding. My wife, Sarah, and I at in Croatia on honeymoon. Stood in front of the Giovanni Smirich sphinx at the Villa Attilia, Zadar. My wife, Sarah, and I at in Budapest. My wife, Sarah, and I being rockstars at The Dram in Hull, Rock afternoons there were the best...
September 19, 2023 at 11:51 AM
hesir.bsky.social
"There's only twenty-six here...?" - The Antiquities Dealer
Continuing to follow the progress of my occult deck/artifact through various hands. Here a band of adventurers hope to identify exactly what it is they have, and what it's worth. From "The Weird Deck of Many Wyrds" on DMsGuild - TtRPG, D&D
This image of a party of three adventurers trading in a deck of cards for money or other supplies was used in the DMs Guild supplement I designed in the appendices, where I looked at the origins and alternative uses of the deck and the process of locating and trading in rare item/magic item "shops". And that those sort of establishments might not be that easy to find. The Dealer, a play on the notion of A dealer in antiquities, and a dealer in cards... I think in my original sketches he was a creature of some kind, but evolved in the drawing to become more and more human. In the background, behind the principle armoured adventurer, we can see a second, moving through the store, looking at the various objects on display... one of which, I'm a glass case in the foreground seems to resemble a Cthulhu like statuette. Detail - A Dwarven character, wearing an eye patch inspects a curious object.
September 12, 2023 at 9:38 AM
hesir.bsky.social
Hey, I'll be at BridComicCon on Sunday. See you there! #Comics #MakingComics - ironshodapecomics.com/blog/ -
September 8, 2023 at 9:21 PM
hesir.bsky.social
"Let's just try this one last door..." - Just trying to get the feel of your typical #dungeon-eers stumbling from locked door to locked door in search of #loot then almost tripping over hoard of #treasure, but somewhere in amongst it is that powerful & not necessarily “friendly” artefact. #Ttrpg
A party of adventurers try one last door and stumble onto a vast treasure hoard of coins and artefacts. Detail of two of the adventurer's, one with the key to the chamber door. One of the party, a goblin, spots a seemingly innocent looking lute amongst all the gold and treasures. The magical deck, The Weird Deck of many Wyrds - https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/375079
September 8, 2023 at 5:02 PM
hesir.bsky.social
Four #Fantasy #Wagons, designed for #TtRPG in game #travelling or as TtRPG adventure plot devices. - 3D fly-throughs youtu.be/u8AWBvm7k5A?... #wagon #ArmouredWagon #Carriage #Yurt - designs for a pseudo-medieval (#DnD style) overland wagon train. #Vehicles
An ornate wagon, showing large wheels that can be adjusted by removing "chocks" to create an all terrain triple wheel combination. Style to fit in with pseudo-medieval TtRPG adventure imagery. A strongbox/armoured wagon, with mounted crossbow stations, archers balustrade and footplates for additional guards along the side. A simpler carriage style wagon. A vast "royal" or embassy yurt or yurta, designed to be pulled by a team of great oxen/auroch or some other large beast.
September 8, 2023 at 4:40 PM
hesir.bsky.social
Just got back from three and a half days at Oxonmoot (Oxford Tolkien seminar), and that after 12/13 days in Germany on The Mosel (amongst other places). Lots of ideas rushing around in my brain, and lots of notes and ref photography to sort through... So, in the meantime...
The beautiful old buildings in Pünderich on the Mosel river. A strange old tavern attached to the foot of the Rathaus in Aachen, Germany. A view from above the Mosel, Germany, from our fave breakfast spot of the trip. The edge of one the buttresses of Barad-dûr... Only joking, ...looking up at the old Lincoln College Library building, Oxford.
September 3, 2023 at 7:32 PM
hesir.bsky.social
....aaaaand we are on our way. Heading to Oxonmoot! So to celebrate, here's a work in progress on a Tolkien piece - "Thuringwethil in the court of Sauron on the Isle of Werewolves". ...plus a couple of details. More description again n the Alt Text. - LotR Silmarillion
A dimly lit hall, appointed much like a dungeon of sorts, on the left are several wolf, or werewolf like creatures, on the right two distinctly different types of orc, one more goblin like the other taller, in a hood with armour. At the centre is Sauron in his "fair" raiment, though here it might be slipping somewhat, and beside him, about to leave on leathery wings, his vampire-bat like messenger, Thuringwethil. Who Luthien once disguised herself as when travelling in the region of Sauron's "Isle of Werewolves". A close up of those werewolves, which in Tolkien's world appear less like human shaped wolves and more like malice filled dire-wolves... There's also some sort of troll in armour in the back... And finally a detail close up of Thuringwethil herself, recently fed by the look of it. Tolkien really suggests these vampire creatures, into which Sauron himself at one point transforms, are more batlike than the typical aristocratic vampire of post-gothic lit. But I'm a huge fan of the designs in Bram Stoker's Dracula and so perhaps fell into that a little... I imagine her being gifted a collar much like the one I have Annatar in my earlier portrait and the Klimpt-esque one in my Tevildo image... Perhaps less of a gift, and more a collar of control like an early version of the rings.
August 31, 2023 at 10:31 AM
hesir.bsky.social
Just a few days until #Oxonmoot... Anyone on here going?
#Tolkien #Silmarillon #LotR #RoP #Oxford "#Aragorn captures #Gollum"
A black and white, somewhat stark render of Aragorn emerging from the shadow of a thorn tree in the marsh, and rushing upon a surprised Gollum still reaching for a coney, set as a trap. The painted version of Aragorn emerging from the shadow of a thorn tree in the marsh, and rushing upon a surprised Gollum still reaching for a coney, set as a trap.
August 28, 2023 at 10:45 PM
hesir.bsky.social
Talking of creatures...Here be Dragons! And some of their many possible chin options...
- illustration, fantasy art, TtRPG art, comics -
This is Glaurung, at the point (no pun intended) of being mortally wounded by Turin from the story of Hurin and his ill-fated children in Tolkien's Silmarillion, just as he steps across the gorge where Turin and his friend had his themselves. His friend can be seen lost to the waters in the centre background... I wanted to go with a more serpent or "worm"-like form than my usual forms, as per the description. This was done for a personal project looking at special feats allowing TtRPG players to use mounts and cause heavy damage to specially chosen, enemy creatures... This one leaning into the travelling Dragonslayer trope. In the image you can see that two characters have already not fared so we'll, and are struggling to get out of reach as a third combatant, mounted on a horse with lance rides in to save the day... Maybe. This one is a little stranger, a six limbed dragon,with wings made of billowing red smoke or fumes of some kind, as a barbarian warrior approaches them. A bunch of dragon heads created quickly using the "pareidolia" technique.
August 26, 2023 at 4:50 PM
hesir.bsky.social
But yes, I do like drawing/designing "freaky", disturbing, discomforting creatures a lot... More descriptions on the individual images in the alt text - TtRPG, DnD, illustration, monsters - These were done for one of my own campaigns as creatures found in a "badlands" setting, called The Vorn.
"When assassins discover other assassins have been hired"... Here a human, giant millipede hybrid, stumbles upon a rival humanoid and fairy folk team. Sketch - A giant magical being, hunting humans in the wasteland (you can see the humans in the centre/foreground). More monstrous sized creatures with human figures in the foreground for scale. The first (left) a creature with too many eyes, and lightning rippling around it as it walks, and a scream that turns regular creatures to clouds of blood vapour... The second (right), a Jotun/spider-form hybrid with wizards in some sort of howdah, welding it's own weapon. Sketch in progress - a large troll in a control harness, and a siege engine like mini-fort on its back... Probably filled with goblins, bandits, orcs or some such... Chasing some freaked out humans.
August 21, 2023 at 3:53 PM
hesir.bsky.social
Here's some more images of that Cironuppe, or Spine Marten creature - ttrpg, DnD, design, illustration - (content warning - the alt text goes into a bit more detail, but also discussed these fantasy creatures in captivity and the fantasy arena).
The Spine Marten as it is normally seen. A seemingly unaggressive if wary creature that moves about in huddled groups of five to ten individuals, some with cubs. ...if riled, defending young, of if dealing with a large solitary "rogue", that snout might curl up to reveal boar-like tusks and teeth, and there spines will raise in a peacock like threat display. Their cubs are highly sought after by wasteland and wilderness trappers as they can be trained, raised and bred to be used in the great fighting arenas of the cities of the coast. Some of the larger males give as good as they get in the arena, but it is regardless a sad and inevitable fate for these captive creatures...
August 21, 2023 at 2:55 PM
hesir.bsky.social
I'd like to think not alm the creatures I design are terrible or hideous, some are just very "creaturish" perhaps, and some, perhaps at least two, could be seen as downright cute?!?
- TtRPG, DnD, Roleplaying Games Illustration -
The Matanuda - Big elephant sized draught creatures - like a large, oversized, northern tamanduá/anteaters They can be decked out with long feeding tubes usually decorated with bright paint or ornately carved, and hung in groups along their along their flanks. As well as being fitted with a howdah, panniers or a yoke of some kind. I guess I based them on a cross between an anteater/aardvark, a European badger, and an oversized sloth. The Cironuppe (si-ron-oo-pay) / Scowl Bear or Spine Marten - a large herbivorous, porcupine/sun bear-like creature, that can (unlike a folkloric porcupine) actually fire it’s spines. And check out that Mandrill and Tapir influenced snout! The Bardic Theda - soft footed long necked feline creatures, that sing and purr when in groups, used as docile draught animal, but that can, if raised from birth, form a bond with a rider/handler. This one has a little domestic cat, budgie/cockatiel, chocolate/albino tiger, and not a little of Falkor in there I think. The Werewandl - or Crested Set-Backs - large eyed, social and semi-nocturnal, wombat sized creatures that have a unique defence mechanism that allows them to “punch" a predator or perceived threat (or even someone petting them too roughly) back along the threat's own timeline by anything from one to twenty minutes. This giving the small creatures time to escape. My advice, don't roughhouse them while on a flying ship.
August 21, 2023 at 2:44 PM
hesir.bsky.social
I suppose reposting old stuff on here is cool... Just a reminder really, that I really enjoy designing/redesigning and illustrating fantasy creatures.

There are more notes on each creature in the alt text.
- TtRPG, DnD, games, comics -
A large mono-eyed water troll, that seems to have been mortally wounded in a fight with a goblin, only to heal around them, sort of healing them both, so the troll now has a very vocal "dark passenger". Human adventurer silhouette for scale. This was an odd one. I think I imagined a race of fisher giants who believed they had come from the sea, and slowly over time evolved back into sea creatures, keeping a few of their "humanesque" features after the fact. Spider-goblins... I imagined these little terrors covered in a fine covering of cobwebs, and wringing their smaller hairless hands constantly. There backs and upper large arms covered in urticating hairs or bristles. And I imagined them herded by a brood "aunt" or "uncle" in the form of a troll of similar limb and eyes distribution. This was really just a notional redesign of a classic Spelljamer creature, here fused with those oversized creatures in At The Mountains of Madness, to create these creatures. The little bit of costume design started here, played into that notion of "Empower" penguins and there elaborate plumes, here fabricated in the style of first nation raven-esqe trickster masks, to add some colour (along with a bit of body paint)to there otherwise hairless (sphinx cat-like) bodies...
August 21, 2023 at 12:49 PM