The Bazaar #105 – Resource Review – Veri Apriyatno

 INTRODUCTION

For many gamers within the TTRPG space, visual media is a key source of inspiration. Whether this is print media (drawings, illustrations, paintings), television shows, cinematic (long-form movies or short films), what have you. An image or a scene, maybe a character is enough to spark something that drives a Player Character concept, a GM designs an adventure, or a module within a campaign is captured from mind down to paper and launched into action at the gaming table. With the increased discussion over the influence of Artificial Intelligence engine use to create imagery for TTRPGs and genre art in general, I feel it relevant to continue introducing and promoting artists that develop and promote their craft, particularly those that might have some way of dovetailing into the TTRPG sphere.

DISCUSSION

Who the Heck is Veri Apriyatno? Native of Indonesia, and apparently currently listed as still living in Bogor Indonesia. He graduated with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts from the very highly internationally ranked Bandung Institute of Technology. Multiple author of six books books on how to draw, he has also won multiple awards for his compositions. He explores various artistic expressions through his works, often inscribing meaning behind the beauty of his hyper-realism. His medium of choice is acrylic, charcoal and pencil, allowing a stunning depth of detail and texture. In addition to the depth of his illustrations, he is very well connected online, with multiple platforms supporting his works and messaging, particularly about the threat of Artificial Intelligence to his chosen tradecraft.

Facebook (DRAWING PENCIL) with 15M followers

Instagram (veriapriyatno) with ~1,100 posts and 810k followers

VeriArt Shop (Etsy) Giclee Limited Edition Prints

Link to TTRPGs. I’ve not found any direct links to any kind of RPG influence. Frankly, given his age, his nationality and several other factors, it is doubtful he would have much exposure, if any to the TTRPG industry. Given some of his works, I’d have to assume he has some genre-adjacent exposure, but nothing confirmed after that.

Selected Images. Their style of art presented is considered as “hyper-realistic” composition. Essentially drawings so realistic you would be hard-pressed to look at it and differentiate it from a photograph, or a high-resolution graphic image. It’s a meticulous form of art that requires a level of precision and clarity that I daresay, not many artists are interested in attempting, or capable of achieving. It requires staging to reinforce the illusion of reality, deep understanding of the medium they are using (e.g. graphic pencils, chalk, ink) in order to drive color composition, and blending/erasing techniques to reinforce micro-details the naked eye might normally miss. The aim is to create something more realistic than the real thing, to trick the eye into thinking the artistic composition is the genuine article.

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Selected Videos. One of the really satisfying elements to this artist’s online work is the time lapse videos of their illustrations. The videos begin with a basic chalk outline drawn, typically black on white paper, very rough-hewn sketches of the major shapes involved. From there darkened backgrounds and cloth is typically filled in before the lighter skin tones are tackled. From there it’s a pot-Pourri of tangents dependent on the subject. Some involve color, others not. Regardless, the timelapse continues throughout the process from beginning to end over the span of a few minutes, until you are presented with a hyper-realistic image that beguiles the eye.

AI Generated vs Hand-Drawn Art. Something I found very intriguing were a number of videos they produced that specifically spoke about the differentiation between AI-generated imagery compared to their art. The videos demonstrate the comparative elements of the images, and allow you, the viewer, to visually differentiate between them, while the narration covers a number of aspects that non-artists might not be aware of. I know I certainly was not.

Leveraging Hyper-Realistic Art. There isn’t anything in the artist’s portfolio that necessarily screams out “use me for your Rifts game” or anything like that. What I thought of while perusing their videos and just gawking over the amazing final results (not without a fair amount of talent deficit and envy) was how some of these portraits make great start pieces for NPC backgrounds. Many of the pieces are drawn in the more current, modern setting, so they obviously lean more heavily to use in games like Heroes Unlimited, Nightbane, Beyond the Supernatural, and the like. A few can lend themselves more to a fantasy setting, with far-Eastern or sub-subcontinental Asian regions (perhaps even Ninjas & Superspies). It isn’t that this artist’s portfolio is massive and can me leveraged across all your games, but more that the style of art exists, is in competition/direct conflict with AI, and other artists out there are producing hyper-realistic art that could be of use for you and your character or adventure design.

CONCLUSION

This artist’s channel does several things really well, particularly for someone who has, at best, a very tangential relationship to genre entertainment. Self-promotion of their art in a virtual setting is a hard thing. For something like hyper-realistic art, this becomes even more of a problem as the immediate accusations of AI-generated imagery crops up. Veri gets around this with a crafty series of videos that time-lapse the image’s process, providing the observer with the chance to realize the time, effort and craft (and to some extent process) of creating such visually stunning pieces.

Really, it’s about use from a GM or Player perspective in their gaming sessions, or as the GM for adventure design. One of the things I’ve found incredibly useful for artists like Veri Apriyatno, and frankly other portrait artists not leaning into hyper-realistic scale works, are the stories the images can tell as a Player Character image, or that for an NPC. There are countless plot lines or adventures to be told from these, the visual work evoking a response, a story.

So while Veryi Apriyatno might not be your visual cup of tea, I present their work to you as a launching point for possible references to draw upon. Scour the images available, link through to related artists or similar works, and one image gives you the spark of imagination to get a character idea, or the kernel for which an entire adventure is grown around. The beauty of the visual artwork is you never quite know what or how it will hit you. Give it a browse, see what catches your eye. Then get to adventure design!

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