Fan Art Competition - Paint - Charon Cup D&D Module Cover

ItanoCircus · August 5, 2026, 3:45pm

My submission for the art contest under the MS Paint category.

A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT

A teacher once told me that not everybody could be an artist, but everybody could learn to draw what they saw. I’m sharing my references and inspiration in the hopes that you are driven to discover whether or not that statement is true yourself.

REFERENCES:

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

I love Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) and think the module cover art from that time frame does the best job of making players feel like they’re heroes. That fits Arkheron! This entry was done up as a module to show how the two interests can collide. References guide for the AD&D portions starting from top to bottom, left to right:

CC2 = In AD&D this shorthand told the DMs and players what set of adventures the module is from. Here, it’s short for “Charon Cup 2”.
Tournament = In AD&D modules this says “Adventure”, so I changed it to be appropriate to the Charon Cup 2.
For 1-3 players, levels 13+ = Same formatting as AD&D, but with the number of players and levels changed to reflect Arkheron’s team sizes and Teen rating. I regularly joke that my age is a “level” and flipped the joke here: A teen has to be 13+ to play
71826 = The date of the Charon Cup #2 - July 18th, 2026
Advanced Spires & Slayers = Changed from “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”. I had to create the & symbol myself and used the Arkheron anchor. The only websites that could properly display the typeface gave me black letters, so I did the whole thing in inverted colors and flipped them to get the iconic blue.
Arkheron = The logo here is a mirror of “Ravenloft”, the dismal demiplane of the vampire Strahd and many more foul creatures who can always enter but never leave. This felt fitting for the many Eternal quotes that express doom upon entering or transforming within the Tower.
Official Tournament Announcement = This was made for Charon Cup #2 and replaces the normal text of “Official Game Adventure”
Background waves = These waves were borrowed from Clyde Caldwell’s “Ship of Horror” (RA2), a Ravenloft AD&D module.
RR = Replacing the TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) with my own initials. I spent hours trying to find a way to fit my middle initial, but it fit in a satisfying way.
Barcode = See what it says!

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Ancient Magus Bride

Kore Yamazaki’s monthly series (Ancient Magus Bride / Mahoutsukai no Yome) is about a girl entering the world of Western European magical traditions - its creatures, its myths, its gods, and more. The scope and attention to detail reminds me of “Spice & Wolf”, “Witch Hat Atelier”, and “Frieren” - if you like one, you’ll like the others. References were used for:

The pose and lantern used by the Dissident
The styling for the smoke wafting from the lantern / “cup”
A hidden message somewhere in the art. “Spellcraft” has its roots in the original word for “storyteller” and it wouldn’t be much of a story without a hook!

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Charon’s Boat

You know it can’t be a Charon Cup without a reference to the psychopomp. This boat comes from Gustave Doré’s depiction of Charon himself “for an 1861 edition of Dante’s Inferno (The Divine Comedy)”. Check it out here: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Charon-Greek-mythology

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Arkheron

The reason we’re all here! I spent most of this time wondering who the character on the left would be. Ideas included myself, a classic Grim Reaper, a Skeleton, human Irenna, and Rob Pardo before I put in something special from the Closed Beta: the Dissident skin. Sorry to those who wanted Pacesetter. Finally, it can’t be Arkheron without the Tower’s call. The original image for the background Tower came from a community member that I wish well and hope to see again. Maybe one day I’ll find out where they got it.

Everything in the Tower is gray except for the 4th floor as an Ascension reference. The light is the same color as the lantern, Dissident’s eyes, and Arkheron’s logo anchor.

sneater · August 5, 2026, 3:49pm

this looks incredible itano i thought you said you couldnt draw?!?

Skol · August 5, 2026, 6:09pm

That is beautiful - where can i buy the game?

ItanoCircus · August 6, 2026, 5:39pm

I can’t. But it turns out that anybody can learn to draw what they see if they take long enough.

sneater · August 7, 2026, 12:16am

well i think it turned out amazing (: several of us were in a call when we all saw yours and we were high key blown away especially for how much you played down your ability to draw.

i also thought it was really cool that you helped get the word out more about the contest by streaming the ‘making of’ your piece so i was really glad to see someone like you, who everyone knows in the community to have a lot of passion for the game and someone who starts so many interesting conversations around eternals and their weapons, taking us all along for the ride i also felt like the way you shared your progress was so fun to keep up with and to see it take shape as you worked on it as if we were all participating in some way with seeing the full thing come together and it was just really awesome it became a community moment. it was like a cultural piece lol

i didnt see anyone say it in here but it should be immortalized that at one point the joke was that whoever won the charon cup got to color in the drawing as part of their prize, that was so hilarious

“The winners get to color a D&D module-themed Arkheron poster for submission to the MSPaint Art Contest! … and of course, I’ll keep working on it as the event gets closer…”