Hello everyone, my name is Zach. I hope that you're doing well!
I recently discovered this site and figured I would check it out further. It's a little intimidating with so many awesome artists who create their work from scratch, as I more or less create "collages" in a sense. I make battlemaps for games like Dungeons and Dragons, but I use a program called Dungeondraft, with assets from CrossheadStudios to create my pieces.
I've been making really basic maps on graph paper since I was a kid, but now I've really tried leaning into the art side of the process. This all really "took off" a few years ago when Crosshead reached out to me to invite me to a team of map makers that he called the Big Bad Evil Brand. Sadly that project didn't end up working out and we ultimately disbanded, though Crosshead generously allowed me and some others to keep creating using his assets.
Ever since I've been working and struggling a bit to understand the landscape that goes so far beyond just creating maps. I'm very slowly learning how to edit my pieces better, adding my own touch to each piece as I add in lighting and shadows to really make each piece pop. What I really underestimated was the entire world of marketing and advertising that really helps drive growth. It takes a lot of knowledge, persistence, hard work, and frankly just a good amount of luck to get all the pieces working together in a way that the algorithms deem acceptable.
Despite some of the more stressful aspects of growing as an artist, I've been having a lot of fun and am really proud of all the pieces that I've put out while doing this. I have a lot of trouble sticking with things, so I'm happy that I've stuck with it all this time.
I think I'm rambling a bit now so I'll leave you with the very first piece I made for the BBEB, a piece that really kicked off this whole thing. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for checking out my work!
