Catch the Art & Layout / Visual Arts & Games panel as a part of KiwiRPG Week 2026 live on our Twitch on Monday 6th July, 1:30pm-2:30pm NZST / Monday 2:30am BST / Sunday 9:30pm EDT. The VOD will be linked here after the panel.
Kia Ora, my name is Paul Tobin. I have been a professional artist and graphic designer for over 20 years. My experience began in the film industry as a concept designer and Art Director at Weta Workshop, before moving onto independent projects through my board game company, Arkus Games. Most recently, I work as an Art Director for Chaosium Games. I’ve been playing TTRPG’s since the 80’s and my art has been featured in Earthdawn, 13th Age, Trinity Continuum, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Curseborn and Pendragon.
As an Art Director I actively commission artists for work and receive many portfolios and questions around how an artist can better improve their portfolio and chances of getting hired. It’s a big topic – one we will likely cover in more detail on our upcoming panel – however, for this blog, I thought I could pass on some simple tips around how you can better present your portfolio for TTRPG work.
Make it easy to find and see
Get your work onto a website or dedicated portfolio site. It sounds so obvious, but occasionally artists just send me a link to a folder of images, which means I need to download them and then open them up to review. AD’s are typically very time-poor,
especially when it comes to reviewing an artist’s work. It’s best to make finding, evaluating and even saving some of your work as easy as possible. Using password protection can be an option for some work which might be more commercially sensitive.
What kind of Website?
Dedicated portfolio sites are often a pretty easy approach. For TTRPG nearly all artists that send me work have an ArtStation or CARA site. Having your own WIX, SquareSpace or even Google Site, however, is also fine. The key thing is to ensure that
you pick a site that has good templates or customisation for displaying art images.
How do I display my work?
With as few clicks of the mouse as possible. My ideal portfolio is a link: I click once and I’m presented with a home page that is a mosaic of great art that I can just scroll through with a roll of a finger.
Typically AD’s just want to get a sense of your style, technical ability, genre and areas of speciality: ie: characters, story driven art, environments etc.
If I like what I see, then the next thing I’ll do is open up a few of the images and take a closer look at the art. What I’m also looking for is some very short bit of context.
Is it personal work or client work? If it’s client work, I want to know the company – I may know someone there who could give me a character reference.
Often, for context, including a very short few words about the brief can be helpful as well.
Including some of your development process is recommended. Start with the finished piece, but as you scroll down work backwards all the way to your quick roughs and a mood-board. I love to see artists using actual visual reference, so this is a big tick for me. Many TTRPG’s have historical settings, so proving you can do accurate visual research is a big plus. You don’t need to capture your full process, just 3-4 stages is fine.
Bios, Rates and Contact Details
A short bio is always nice. But the key thing I am looking for is where you are located globally. If the job is going to involve a lot of video meetings I might prefer to opt for an artist closer to my time zone – or at least know I may need to ask how they feel about taking a call during my work hours. Typically in TTRPG, location is less of an issue as most of the work can be done through email and chat.
Many of the more pro artists in the TTRPG space list their rates for the different standard publishing formats: cover, fullpage, half page and quarter page and so on. This can be really helpful, but a bit scary as you might be worried about chasing off prospective work.
So there is no pressure to do this, and often if you do, you can add a statement such as: I charge for the complexity of the job.
Make sure your contact email is really clear and easy to find. Though the industry uses many different communication means – discord, Slack etc – email is still the primary means of initial contact.
AI Generative Art
For now at least, the majority of TTRPG publishers have strict “NO AI” Generative Art policies in place. If you don’t use Generative Art in your work then clearly state that and even add this on art work descriptions. Many companies use AI Art detection software and a well trained AD can spot it as well. So if you are serious about working in the TTRPG industry as an artist, I would avoid it entirely. This may change in the future but for now focus on being a better artist without it.
Parting Thoughts
Art Direction is a risky business. We will often prefer to use artists we know and trust. These include artists who have proven they can understand a brief, communicate clearly, are easy to work with, do great work and hit deadlines. Hiring a new artist is
always a risk as anyone of these things may impede your job, waste your time or lead to a poor result for the product and the publisher. You absolutely need to be a strong artist technically, as well as present a level of professionalism and organisation that make the AD feel confident in taking the risk of hiring you.
Caveat
These are very much my personal opinions. It always pays to seek out other experienced advice. A great place to start is to join our panel!
Monday 6 July: 1.30pm – 2.30pm NZST. Facilitator: Matthew Wills (Swords webcomic), Participants: Tim Denee (Blades in ’68), Paul Tobin (Chaosium) and StacyLongstreet (D&D 4e, PikPok)
