Introducing Conor Nolan

Hey y’all!

Thanks for bearing with me for an extra week between blog posts. I was off adventuring in Vancouver and Whistler with Caleigh Wells, our unparalleled editor (I’m also her husband)! It was a great week of exploring the Great White North. We even did an incredible night hike at Vallea Lumina, which felt so similar to the vibe that I was going for when creating the Skadi Forest in Ampliterra. It was a pretty surreal experience.

Quick Progress Update

It’s almost hard to believe, but Ampliterra: Echoes of the Rift is DONE. We sent it off to the wonderful folks at PrintNinja at the end of last week and it’s working its way through the printing process. I should have an early copy to show off in a few weeks. I’ll show off some pictures as soon as I have it (like I could resist showing it off anyways)!

The Inimitable Conor Nolan

But let’s get to the reason we’re all here today – to see some brand new art from an artist on the project that I haven’t shared yet!

Sadia Bies, our art director, first introduced me to Conor’s work very early on while we were exploring different artists to work with. I completely fell in love with his quirky character design, rich use of color, and vivid world design. When we were deciding which artists to bring in for second round half-page and full-page illustrations, we both knew we wanted to ask Conor to do a few.

Before we get into some of his work on Ampliterra, though, here’s a bit more about Conor:

You’ll see six illustrations from Conor throughout Ampliterra and they’re all absolutely lovely. I’m just going to share one today, though…I gotta keep you coming back for more!

The Avian City of Cliffside

If you’ve heard me talk about Ampliterra at any point in the last year, chances are you’ve heard me talk about Cliffside. It’s the city that I’ve been most excited to see come to life in an illustration. Cliffside is a city comprised almost entirely of birdfolk on the far northeast side of Solandria. It’s an ancient city that has been built by people who have an entirely different way of moving around, which requires some pretty spectacular design. Who better to bring that to life than Conor?

Conor beautifully brought together the elements we wanted to incorporate:

A city where public life feels like it happens on the upper levels.
Eastern European influences.
Lots of vibrant colors and textures.

I love the added details of the aqueducts and groups of people moving around. The whole place just feels so alive!

And since we’re here, I’ll just tease an illustration from Franzilla of Ciffside’s leader, Queen Griah! Maybe we’ll get into her more in another blog post. Let me know in the comments if you want to learn more about her!

I can’t wait to share more with you soon! :)

Until next time!

Austin

Beyond Ampliterra

Finishing Touches