The Game of Kings
Recent Work
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Ever-elusive, the artist known as Sjem has been a valuable contributor to the Game of Kings project. Managing to pin him down and restrain him with the aid of a crack team of commandos, we recorded the following before he managed to overpower us and make good his escape… Can we have a few words about your good self? / I spend most of the working week being an architect. Redbubble is where I come to share all other things that leak out of my brain. I also wish I had the ability to grow facial hair. So that leads to the question how did you get involved with the project? / I think it was shortly after the London Calling Competition that I recieved a bmail from Master Sherry. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, the scale of this collaboration is simply fantastic and the company I’m in is esteemed. It’s been a great experience in being able to give and receive feedback and comments from a pool of amazing talent. The place my work ended up is nowhere near where I would have predicted in the beginning. How do you personally think it is going and do you think it has potential? What an incredible ride this has been, and I suspect that ‘setting the board’ is just the beginning. Everyone in the team has produced incredible work and the diversity of styles is a testament both to Simon’s skilled selection of collaborators and the talent of the collaborators themselves. I’d love to see other people drawn in – a book or comic, followed by figurines and then a movie deal with Peter Jackson, early retirement, and then a 10 year reunion where we try to create a sequel but instead act like a bunch of spoilt divas and spend the rest of our lives bitching about each other. That could be fun I reckon. Do you want to flog some other projects you are involved in? / Not much in the project box at the moment to be honest. Sorry. We’ll be sure to find something to keep him busy …
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The Game of Kings, Wave Eight: The Black King by GameOfKings
The Black King / Artist: Simon Sherry / Biography: Danny The culture of the Army of the Black Spear since time immemorial has been that of the warrior. Descendant of a hundred Kings, he holds the collective memory of all those that led before him. He knows the secrets of the Shaman and will settle for nothing less than total obedience from all that he controls. Ironically, though he is a warrior King he has never seen face to face battle with an enemy due to his abilities as extreme commander, and the fact that Tribal Army law forbids him from entering any fray that could endanger his rule or life no matter how small the odds. Continually frustrated by this, he takes what small satisfaction he can from adding another notch to his throne as each opposing army falls.
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You’ve been a member of Redbubble now for over 2 years and we know enough about you so let’s get stuck into the questions shall we? How did you get involved with the Game of Kings? I was invited after the design crew was put together by Simon. It was on the recommendation of Glen Smith and Scott Robinson who I’ve done so much work with and they knew instinctively that this is something I would jump at the chance to be involved with. Mind you, at this point in time they didn’t how or why (neither did I at that stage) but I’m glad they did because after a few chats with Simon I cottoned on that his scope was far bigger than I first thought they would try to achieve and that was when I was hooked. This was going to be on an epic scale and had the potential to be a multi media bonanza, something I had wanted to achieve with Monk Rock. Simon didn’t think quick collaboration – he wanted to throw it into the air and see how far it could spread out in all directions. / It was obvious from the get go that it was going to work when a forum was set up and people started throwing ideas around like a pie fight. / The best way to describe it was like having ten people standing around a ping pong table and just bouncing the ball from one paddle to another building up momentum. / A lot of the designs, character traits and narratives came from these early days and the project grew from there. What’s been your experience being part of the project to date, and how do think it will be received? I don’t know how it’ll be received to be honest, initial reaction has been good and a few t shirts have been sold but as far as I’m concerned this is only the beginning. In fact it’s Phase / One of many yet to come. / As for my experience, I can say it has been fantastic and enlightening and came along when I really needed an artistic challenge in my life. But getting back to the original question When I got invited in to be part of this project I thought it was the most brilliant concept and from the start I wanted to do the most exciting things we could possibly do and that was all I could ask for. That’s what it’s always been about, really enjoying and getting genuinely / excited about the possibilities. Not necessarily achieving anything of my own ambitions just going into it with that sense of wonder and imagining what it could be if we got it right. How much have you enjoyed helping create characters – have they been fun/interesting/tricky for any reason? The fun part was the expectation, I had no idea what to write so I began by doing some descriptions and sort of faux biographies of each piece while still retaining some semblance to the board piece it represents – how it moves and interacts with other pieces, and as I did this some of the guys were running with these ideas for their pieces. As the pieces started to appear as works in progress I started to build a narrative around what the artists had created. I didn’t want it the other way round – and I made it clear –I would write the story around their art. This way the 8 different styles represented by the artists weren’t bound by any story boundaries. The story itself has a beginning, an ending with two possible outcomes and a long thin spine running between the two so that there is lots of room to move with narrative. The story itself could be summed up as two armies meet, battle, who wins? So rather than think up some long winded fantasy epic, the narrative is told in vignettes that reveal the characters, their worlds and what is happening in small bites. When you first see the characters you get this feeling of majestic splendour and you may be mistaken to think that they came from one of those dense fantasy novels that always seem to come in trilogies, I wanted it to be a little less serious under the surface. I decided to throw in a fair bit of left-of-centre weirdness to keep it interesting. I suppose this is to be expected because this is how I write and the style is close to my heart. So if you needed a reference point it is waving a big salute to Terry Pratchett. After a few of these vignettes started appearing and I got some positive feedback I thought why not tell the story in other ways and that is how the animations came to be. It’s funny how a 10 second short can say so much about one character. I hope these can be spread all through the pieces as they are released. All up it’s been a hoot, I love sending them off to Simon willy nilly just to get his reaction. That of course is one of the beautiful things about this collaboration it’s all about creating and pushing the envelope. Going back to the Black Army, thanks to Simon’s genius and creative style the Black Army was easy to write for because it was a dystopian society and everyone did what the King said. Easy. But this doesn’t mean they don’t have their own little chinks in their armour. Is there anything else you’d like to add? This is only going to get better. With this sort talent to work with this whole collaboration is going to rock big time. I feel totally honoured to be part of it. Also if you keep an eye on the Group Blog you’ll see some of the works in progress and discarded artworks and get an idea of how high these guys set the bench mark. Oh yeah and check out Monk Rock it’s fun and includes art from some of the guys here in an earlier lifetime.
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Game of Kings, Wave Eight - the White King-Bishop's Pawn by GameOfKings
The White King-Bishop’s Pawn / Artist: Quigonjim / Biography: Danny Artist Interview: Quigonjim The Angel Bishop was always conflicted by the blasphemous works of the University and it’s loyalty to it’s King. It stemmed some of this anguish by creating its own religious order of devout, some say fanatical soldiers. Many feared the Bishop’s priests , something the King encouraged to keep other sections of his army in line.
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episode 9 and the prelude to war…
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The Game of Kings, Wave Eight: The White Queen's Rook by GameOfKings
The White Queen’s Rook / Artist: Sjem / Biography: Danny One of the White King’s great assets – even though he possesses a fallen Angel in his ranks was his belief that faith alone would not save his army and the art of both mechanoid and wizardry could always be relied upon to be great allies when administered carefully. / Hence the reason the king kept Universities that studied the mechanical and more unorthodox majical arts. / It was through these academies principled by the Queens Bishop that the flank engines were created. The Steam City / The Left flank that provides the Queen’s armies protection is a massive structure made of slick marble and iron making the structure unscaleable except from within. The ability to create what can only be described as a turret on wheels also provides a means to carry the food, supplies and weapons that a large army needs to conduct a battle of mythical proportions.
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The Game of Kings, Wave Eight: The Black Queen's Pawn by GameOfKings
The Black Queen’s Pawn / Artist: Simon Sherry / Biography: Danny These young girls do their early army service under the Queen’s tutorage and as the reach a certain age or in the some cases a certain blood lust they are transferred to the ranks of the Amazonias
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Game of Kings, Wave Eight Preview - the White Queen's Rook by GameOfKings
A preview of what’s in store for the final wave of the Game of Kings collaborative project, to be released on Monday, 12 October Artwork: Sjem
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Game of Kings, Wave Eight Preview - the Black Queen's Pawn by GameOfKings
A preview of what’s in store for the final wave of the Game of Kings collaborative project, to be released on Monday, 12 October Artwork: Simon Sherry
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Game of Kings, Wave Eight Preview - the White King-Bishop's Pawn by GameOfKings
A preview of what’s in store for the final wave of the Game of Kings collaborative project, to be released on Monday, 12 October Artwork: Quigonjim
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Game of Kings, Wave Eight Preview - the Black King by GameOfKings
A preview of what’s in store for the final wave of the Game of Kings collaborative project, to be released on Monday, 12 October Artwork: Simon Sherry
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The Game of Kings, Wave Seven: The White Queen's Knight by GameOfKings
The White Queen’s Knight (the Equilord) / Artist: Jordan Clarke / Biography: Danny Actual warrior soldiers from a different part of the kingdom and not products of the University, these Centaur type Knights are regarded highly by the King to protect his Queen and siege engines. Highly skilled in battle many have been resurrected and used as King’s Generals. Just as the King keeps the Ancient Knights under his flank the King also relies on the Centaurs to keep him informed of the Queen’s actions. The Centaurs are fiercely loyal to both King and Queen but know ultimately who is Ruler of the Kingdom
About This Group
This group showcases the work of ten redbubble artists as they tackle the age-old game of chess, the Game of Kings.
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