Victoriana

With most TTRPGs, the writing inspires the art. With artist Clara-Marie Morin working on Victoriana, the process was reversed!

As a concept artist for this project, Clara-Marie elevated Victoriana’s design to new heights. Her carefully crafted concepts caused conversations, sparked ideas, and established visual identities across the three books.

Artist - Clara-Marie

 

Here’s what Clara-Marie had to say about her work on Victoriana:

“Victoriana is a very peculiar adventure in my career, the one which helped me step up my art style and gave me enough freedom to design things how I like.

I love the Victorian era, especially the different artistic movements that influenced my work on the game. Mixing some historical accuracy with more fantastic elements throughout the creative process was interesting. 

Finding the right balance was challenging, but my main focus was to ground everything I designed into something believable, even if it was a fantastic or magical feature. I put much effort into the design process to create something familiar yet unique: I paid attention to the accuracy of the outfits and fashion, devised narrative elements to go alongside creature design, and even read 19th-century furniture catalogues to find inspiration!

 

What I love most about this game is the many small narrative details that I could scatter among the illustrations. Many players will probably not notice them, but those small details are a reward for the most observant.

My Victoriana aesthetic is inspired by 19th-century paintings, especially the influence of academic art, and all the portrait art from that century. It’s particularly obvious with a piece heavily inspired by “The Artist’s Wife and His Setter Dog” by Thomas Eakins.

I had the chance to create the appearance of a strange and eerie creature called the Automata, in both humanoid and animal shapes. This creature was designed to be a part of the Londoner’s life in every social class, but of course, only the upper class has the fancier one.

My favourite illustration I created for Victoriana is a piece where an upper-class lady dances with her own Automata (and for the most watchful, the colour scheme is inspired by my best-beloved 1992 movie).

I put many thoughts into the emotional and narrative parts of this piece. It’s not only someone dancing with a humanoid creature but also someone lonely enough to wish for the Automata to be alive and to have feelings for her. I wanted to emphasise the despair and loneliness but also the tenderness of their interaction. That’s why this illustration is by far my favourite! 

I really hope players will enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed working on it. Victoriana is a fantastic setting for many adventures, and I hope these illustrations inspire creative and exciting games!

 

Find out more on our Kickstarter page here!