Art by Alexandre Mahboubi for the Automatonera Anthology. (Copyright Paranoid Automaton)
When I first started to put together the ideas that would make up the Automatonera Anthology, art (much less colored art) was not a major factor in the production.
In fact, I only had a cover in mind and perhaps introductory pieces to separate the RPG adventure, short story and poem sections.
As you can see throughout the progress of the project, that has all changed for the better.
As well as featuring some well established artists, I sought up and coming artists that I know are going to make it big in the future.
One of them being French artist Alexandre Mahboubi who is my newest collaborator on the anthology.
Mahboubi’s style is very much in the painted classical style but he’s able to adapt the science fiction and fantasy ideas of Numenera very well. His fantasy pieces are lush and simple, yet convey so much character and story, like his piece “Winter.”
You can find more of his work here and here.
Mahboubi is currently producing many other pieces for the anthology including the one above tentatively titled “The Machine’s Poetry” where a pair of adventurers find a bizarre book filled with odd writings and formulas, thinking they have stumbled on great knowledge.
Like most pieces lately, I drew a rough sketch of the piece and handed it over where Alex transformed the ideas into something special.
