Deluxe Edition (art by Lauryn Ipsum)

Standard Edition Cover (art by Matteo Scalera and Moreno Denisio

Project Responsibilities

• Concept Development: After helping develop the concept for the first Critical Role art book, I returned to help expand the series for its second volume.

• Art Direction: I served as one of three art directors alongside Liam O’Brien and Taliesin Jaffe. Together, we established the visual tone and narrative structure for the book.

• Narrative Curation and Art Organization: I listened to the full second half of the Vox Machina campaign so I could organize the book around its story and character arcs. I maintained and expanded a tagging system that Liam and I originally developed for the first volume, using it to organize thousands of community-submitted artworks. Each piece was labeled by:

  • Structure type: Character portrait, paired portrait, group portrait, event, or place/item

  • Keywords: Subjects, characters, and themes

  • Chapter assignment: Story placement for narrative sequencing

• This system made the full archive searchable and allowed us to compare the available artwork against the needs of each chapter. It also helped us identify missing story moments and commission additional illustrations where needed.

• Art Curation: Liam, Taliesin, and I selected the final artwork for each spread. We considered how well each piece represented the story, supported the emotional tone of the chapter, and worked visually with the surrounding artwork.

• Spread Composition and Visual Pacing: I composed all interior spreads, considering color, style, scale, visual weight, and how artwork from different artists worked together across facing pages. I used the chapter structure and artwork metadata to guide pacing and maintain continuity throughout the book.

• Interior Design: I designed the full interior as an in-world historical archive. The layouts combine parchment textures, symbolic motifs, decorative borders, drop caps, and blackletter-inspired typography to reference illuminated manuscripts without sacrificing readability.

• Cover Design: I designed the standard and deluxe edition covers, including all title treatments. The standard edition features artwork by Matteo Scalera and Moreno Dinisio.

• Cover Art: I developed the concept and illustration for the deluxe cover, featuring Vecna, the final antagonist of the Vox Machina campaign. This continued the approach established in the first volume, which centered its deluxe cover on the campaign’s primary adversary, while maintaining the series’ medieval-inspired visual language.

Originally published by Hunters Books, both the standard and deluxe editions sold out and became highly sought-after collector’s items. The book was later reissued by republished by Darrington Press due to continued demand.

Standard Edition (Cover art by Matteo Scalera and Moreno Denisio, interior art by Will Kirkby)