Introduction

Welcome to the Zeo Genesis Box Art Showcase, where we do a deep dive on the amazing artwork splashed across our box sets!

This series focuses on our new faction, the Orgh! Possessing advanced technology, vast intelligence, and an intense drive to conquer and survive, Orgh warbands consist of the dominant, lizard-like Orgh species and their many servitor species, who have become bound to the Orgh through history or conquest.

We gave concept and key artist Graey Erb the mic to talk about how he went about capturing the ferocity and cunning of the Orgh in his incredibly detailed full-color pieces.

The Orgh Warmaker Prey-hunt Box

Graey Erb: The Warmaker Prey-hunt set was the last of the initial batch to be worked on, so a lot had been figured out at this point and we just needed a solid scene. This one was also going to feature Latterly Bay, and needed the Antarch and his backup pack of hunting beasts vs something that would show off his size appropriately (in this case, Kulaq drew the short straw).

Thumbnail Sketches

Since the other two pieces had been quite dark, I wanted to make sure that this one was fully illuminated and bright; partially for contrast, partially to show the faction and scale colors without any fancy lighting effects obscuring them. 

I wanted to shake things up a little by adding a very kinetic action scene as an option with these sketches, showing the moment of impact and raw power that is the hallmark of the Orgh attitude toward engagements, and giving a bit of credibility to the idea that these guys can go toe-to-toe with zeoforms and come out on top. In the end, though, it sounded like the scene was a little too much, and the more subdued aftermath shot was chosen.

Rough Colors

Though Andy felt this one worked better as a box cover, it still needed some changes. Most of the figures ended up moved around to better show the size of the Antarch compared to its zeo counterpart and the Gazeki handler ended up feeling a little tacked on, so they got cut to give some breathing room to everything else. 

At this point, I hit the biggest snag in the process: by moving all the figures around, the size relationship between the figures was easier to read, but the values of the piece had become very flat and a lot of contrast had been lost. This ended up being a constant push-and-pull struggle as I worked through inking and coloring the figures.

Final Art

In the end, I let color contrast and some strategic dust clouds do a lot of the heavy lifting to separate each element. A strong color scheme can do wonders for a quick read of the image, just like painting a scheme for tabletop! 

The Antarch got the same red/gold scheme as the Neophid from the first box, but with scales darkened to show age and a little less glow on the crystalline material in the weapons and armor, since it’s a full daylight scene. The Kulak originally shared the brown and blue color scheme of the Rakke (also from the first Neophid box), but it was too similar to the buildings of the colony and so got switched to something more vibrant and distinct. Good for camouflage, bad for readability! 

With those changes approved, this was ready to get sent off to layout, and the big guy is ready to bash some zeos.