Critical Role is Geek & Sundry’s live Dungeons & Dragons show featuring Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer and his troupe of fellow voice actors. Catch them every Thursday night at 7:00 PM PT on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel and on Alpha.
As the first campaign of Critical Role came to a close, Critters worldwide reflected on the players and characters we’d gotten to know over the years. A group of artists decided to pay tribute to those characters in a one-of-a-kind artbook now in the casts’ hands, called “Vox Artisana.”
Back in October, a bunch of us artists got together and created project #VoxArtisana ! An anthology filled with all of our designs of how we personally drew Vox Machina! HERES MINE qwq #CriticalRole #CriticalRoleArt pic.twitter.com/72qtpl8jvs
— Monmon@Animaracon#23 (@madqueenmomo) August 28, 2018
And the cast loved it.
“It makes us so happy that almost a year after our Vox Machina campaign has come to a close, so many people continue to hold our heroes so dearly,” Liam O’Brien tells Geek & Sundry. “This book is yet another example of the community reflecting their passion for the story back at us, and we are still so grateful.”
My contribution for #voxartisana ! An anthology where a bunch of nerdy-ass #critter artists came together and shared their own VM designs! Organized by the real MVP @madqueenmomo!
All inspired to honor campaign 1! LONG LIVE #criticalrole #criticalrolefanart pic.twitter.com/CZqp8WWuh8— Hugo Cardenas (@Takayuuki_art) August 28, 2018
“Vox Artisana” was organized by artist Monica, also known to many Critters as @madqueenmomo. A fan of the show since 2015, Monica wanted to put out a call for artists worldwide who were looking to do something for the cast.
“When I proposed the artbook idea as a gift for the cast, people were excited to join in!” she recalls.
While fifty artists signed up after a month of open submissions, only twenty-one were able to send in their work due to other commitments, she said. The results are no less stunning, however.
(Sorry I repost it) I really wanted to say I am very thankful to @madqueenmomo for including me in this amazing #VoxArtisana project <3 I’m so grateful to be part of #CriticalRole & their community! Thank you #VoxMachina for everything to us in our hearts #criticalrolefanart pic.twitter.com/hOSUTzmzSt
— 💖🌟🌸Meghan L💖🌟🌸 (@TheAnimeDreamer) August 28, 2018
Each talented artist submitted their own imaginative version of Vox Machina digitally, and then Monica organized the book itself from the submissions she received.
“All artists created their character sheets on a template provided by the company we printed the book from,” she said. “I gathered everyone’s spreads, set it up, and then worked with the printer to create a physical copy of the book.”
Back in October,the amazing @madqueenmomo bring a bunch of critter artists together,to create #VoxArtisana , we did our personal design of Vox Machina,mine is lev 20 version😎, #criticalrolefanart #CriticalRole #CriticalRoleArt pic.twitter.com/VfuNBroXhA
— Alexiel April (@AlexielApril) August 29, 2018
It took a lot of work and organization to get the pieces collected and properly credited, Monica says, but the final result was stunning. She also had a lot of help, she says, including the creation of the logo and cover designs by fellow Critter Grace.
I was a part of a fun #CriticalRoleArt fan book called #VoxArtisana back in late 2017 and I can finally share my spread! I did the cover design too! (sadly the printing company shifted it a bit, but it still looks great) pic.twitter.com/HEOnR9H7x8
— 🌈Grace K🌈 @ draw women with muscles u cowards (@BigMammaLlama5) August 28, 2018
“I loved how everyone would have different interpretations of Kit Buss’s Vox Machina designs,” Monica says. “You could really tell every artist put a little bit of themselves into their designs, and even if they were different, they each still felt like the characters. I just wanted to make some sort of archive of the characters to show our love.”
WANT MORE CRITICAL ROLE?
- Catch up from the very beginning of the first campaign, and keep up with the new one, with the Critical Role Podcast.
- Tune into the official aftershow, Talks Machina, live on Alpha and Twitch, Tuesdays at 7pm PT.
- And don’t miss new episodes of Critical Role LIVE on Alpha and Twitch, Thursdays at 7pm PT.
Featured Illustration: C. Monty
