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World of WarCrafts: The WoW-themed art of Semjaza
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW Insider's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. It's Monday and I'm feeling artsy -- today, World of WarCrafts staves off the Monday blues with a look at the colorful world of Warcraft fan art. Artist Semjaza of the Fenris realm (US-H) has a marked talent for creating Warcraft and Warcraft-related artwork with an incredible amount of detail. Even more interesting is that most of this is accomplished without the typical pen, pencil or paper -- Semjaza's an artist of the digital age. Despite the computer-colored art, Semjaza still manages to pull off the kind of heavily-detailed and painterly work you'd expect to see on paper or canvas. %Gallery-104144% Check out more about Semjaza and his artwork after the break.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Resource acquisition
Way back when Runes of Magic was still young and learning to fly, there was only one way to obtain resources: Find a resource node and click it. Come to think of it, I've always chopped wood and gathered herbs, but what's the proper verb for obtaining ore in MMOs? In any case, the tried and true method of clicking on resource nodes has always worked for RoM. It's just that recipes take a lot of resources, which used to mean a lot of gathering. Seriously. A lot. I've written about the state of RoM's crafting system before, but many updates have come along since then. While the large amount of resources needed to craft items hasn't changed, the many different ways of obtaining those resources have. In this article I cover all the new ways you can get your grubby little mitts on a crafter's best friend.
World of WarCrafts: Custom World of Warcraft harpy figure
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. It's Monday, which means you get some interesting WoW-related crafts to distract you from the Monday blues! Speaking of blues, today's creation is all about the color blue -- a custom-made action figure portraying one of the more annoying denizens of The Barrens. Cincicustoms from the Staghelm server managed to whip up this custom harpy figure in record time, all the while putting in an incredible amount of detail. %Gallery-103185% Check out more about the creation of this work of art after the break.
World of WarCrafts: Sweet start to the week
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. It's Monday, but fear not! The Monday blues cannot withstand the sheer deliciousness of this latest round of Warcraft-inspired cakes. This week was my birthday, so I've got birthday cake on the brain -- and we have a handful of WoW-themed birthday cakes that are making me hungry for frosting. Let's start off the week on a sweet note, shall we? %Gallery-31459% Join us after the break to hear more about the newest additions to our cake gallery.
How many Nintendo characters can you fit in one tabletop mosaic? (Answer: 401)
A crafty gamer by the name of Brandon McCool -- which we pray is his actual, given name -- recently completed a piece of nerdy furniture six months in the making: A mosaic table with 401 tiles upon its surface, each featuring a different Nintendo game character. As far as coffee tables go, this one's a pretty radical plane upon which to place large books and cold beverages. Though we're not sure the robin egg blue paint job meshes with the black leather couch, but -- oh, no, wait! It's got video game throw pillows as well. Our years of experience as interior decorators tell us that this pairing is a-ok.
World of WarCrafts: Carrot Cupcakes
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on our Arts and Crafts in WoW page. The process of cooking remains staunchly repulsive to those of us who don't relish time spent in the kitchen: phlegmy, runny eggs staring up unblinkingly from the bowl ... raw meat flopping about on the counter looking altogether too much like, well, raw meat ... goopy, greasy, baked-on messes piling higher and higher and higher in the sink ... Fortunately, there are Carrot Cupcakes. They're fresh. They're innocent. They're even, dare we say, cute. Who can argue with fresh, grated carrots, healthful whole wheat flour and the comforting, warm fragrance of cinnamon? If whipping up a batch of homemade Carrot Cupcakes doesn't get your nose going up and down and your tail going back and forth, then we don't know what will. We'll see you in kitchen, after the break.
World of WarCrafts: Hey, it's-a me, WoWio!
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. Mario, we know and love you best as our favorite plumber -- but don't think we haven't figured out that you're sneaking around out there as a druid, too. So what would happen if you tucked the beloved characters of Mario into the World of Warcraft? The result is David Stonecipher's "WoW Meets the Mushroom Kingdom" art series. Stonecipher's drawn up his own vision of how the Mario universe's most famous characters would look inside Azeroth. Mario as a druid? Bowser as a warrior? Try all 10 classes on for size. "I did something a little different with these pieces this time," Stonecipher wrote us. "I've created a video that shows each artwork be created from blank canvas to finished completion. This allows people to get a look at how the art is created in various stages." See more of Stonecipher's video game character mashups at GameArtOnline.com, or click past the break to see the other five WoW classes in Part 2 of the WoW/Mushroom Kingdom series.
World of WarCrafts: The saturated artwork of Christina Marie
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. Artist Christina Marie's WoW-themed work is nothing if not saturated -- saturated with color, saturated with game references, saturated with humor. It's the kind of stuff you can toss onto your desktop and then promptly lose vast chunks of time peering and snorting in bemused delight at the details scattered across these works. (Because I whipped up the Christina Marie art gallery, below, in just minutes. Without any linking or idle chatter in the WoW.com newsroom. You believe that, right? Right?) Her talent for twisting elements together (elements of art, elements of the game ... you name it) earned her a nod from Blizzard itself with inclusion in its 2011 holiday fan art calendar (as was our own Kelly Aarons). World of WarCrafts visited with Christina Marie to find out where the deluge of color and inspiration comes from. %Gallery-100713%
World of WarCrafts: Make your own leather blood elf ears
This World of WarCrafts has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. With the fabulous legion of blood elves dominating the Horde population, players are powerless to resist the appeal of the Sin'dorei. Even Alliance players find themselves watching their Orbs of the Sin'dorei, waiting impatiently for Fabulous Time to come off cooldown. My gift to you is your very own Orb of the Sin'dorei for personal use: leather blood elf ears. These babies are easily worn with a blonde wig -- for those of you who are not naturally fabulous -- or on a headband. Follow us after the break for a step-by-step how-to gallery that shows you how to create your own fabulous leather blood elf ears!
World of WarCrafts: The symphonic sounds of Taylor Goodson
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. The symphonic strains of WoW-inspired composer Rehmaar (aka Taylor Goodson) will sound familiar to World of WarCrafts regulars. His atmospheric "Knights of the Valiant Fury Overture," which we featured back in the spring, was written and dedicated to his guild, <Knights of Valiant Fury> of Destromath (US-H). The WoW.com spotlight, combined with a growing stream of visitors and encouragement on his YouTube channel, inspired Goodson to continue composing his guild- and character-inspired pieces -- and it inspired us to come back and take a second look at Goodson's work. World of WarCrafts: Taylor, tell us a little more about your WoW-themed compositions are heading as a whole. Do you have a goal for the project, or are you simply following your muse? Taylor Goodson: Definitely just following my muse. I would never try to make money off of these pieces (especially since some of the material isn't completely my own -- for example in "Protectors of Azeroth" I used the theme of Stormwind) as they are always just for fun -- I write them for guildmates and friends typically as a gift for accepting me into the guild or just because I really like the people I meet. I have work that has been published before that I make a little money off of, but these pieces will never fall into that category.
World of WarCrafts: Ollo Ollovious, the Technicolor gnome
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. There's knitting together a World of Warcraft-themed scarf or emblazoning a T-shirt with Alliance pride, inviting your game of choice to mosey along hand-in-hand with your hobby of choice -- and then there's oozing WoW-themed personality through every creative pore of your sweating brow. Jay Scullin comes from the second camp. A web designer by day, Scullin is a WoW-centric artist and blogger by night. When the sun goes down at the end of a long day, on comes his work lamp and in comes a flood of rich, color-saturated ideas pouring forth in his computer-generated artwork and a fanfic account of his character's progress through WoW. Scullin originally created this portrait of his beloved gnome mage Ollo Ollovious of Uldaman (US-A) for last year's Blizzard fan art contest. Using Photoshop and Illustrator with a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, he painstakingly labored over some 12 hours to keep the representation as true as possible to Ollo's in-game demeanor. In yet another character-focused project, he blogs at Legend of Piket, the ongoing tale of his level 76 protection warrior's ascent through Azeroth, Outland and Northrend. Join us after the break for a brief conversation with Scullin about what keeps his creative pot bubbling with Azeroth-influenced projects. %Gallery-99054%
World of WarCrafts: The infamous Three Dragon Azeroth shirt
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. That's right, folks -- you could do better at BlizzCon 2010 than a Three Worgen Moon T-shirt. No, we're not going retro on you and suggesting you turn back to the original Three Wolf Moon tee. What you need is something more au courant, like the Three Dragon Azeroth from MagicalMelonBall at DeviantArt.com. Sadly, this cataclysmically excellent design isn't actually available for purchase on a T-shirt ... Still, we felt the design represents a worthy upgrade from its howlingly lunar predecessor. Ready for more fresh takes on art about Azeroth? Join us after the break for a buffet with a little something for every taste.
World of WarCrafts: Fan artists breathe creativity into their hobbies
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. I've been reading an anthropological analysis of the World of Warcraft for an upcoming 15 Minutes of Fame that talks about the game as an "active aesthetic experience," a collective expression in which the participation of all is key to the entire experience. One of the things I'm most looking forward to talking about with the author is the incredible creative energy that WoW breathes into so many talented artists, writers, crafters and musicians. From WoW-themed arts and crafts that tickle our fancies to re-imaginings of the very artistic underpinnings of the game soundtrack and art itself, the World of Warcraft has inspired so many people across the world. While obviously we could invite you to scroll through our backlog of World of WarCrafts columns (and indeed, if you're interested in any sort of creative effort, we think you should), we decided to make things simple. We'd like to invite you to our new resource guide, Arts and crafts in WoW. From how-to instructions for arts and crafts, to recipe "strats" bringing you the flavors of Azeroth, to soundtracks and artwork and fan fic and more, we've gathered the best of our galleries and in-depth features together in one place. We hope you find it as enjoyable and inspirational as we do ... Welcome to the sights and sounds of the community of World of Warcraft! World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including arts and crafts, fan art, WoW-themed recipes, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by emailing lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.
World of WarCrafts: Piece o' cake
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Yeah, I know, Monday again ... /moan ... But it's a WarCrafts cake Monday! Let's see if we can't help sweeten up the start of your week with a fresh round of fan-made cakes and cupcakes. %Gallery-31459% Join us after the break to hear more about the newest additions to our cake gallery.
World of WarCrafts: Behind the incredible Incredicon
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; email lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. Required reading for this week's post: Setting an Incredibles standard for guild meetups Synopsis <The Incredibles> of Boulderfist (US-A) sets the standard for designing WoW-themed guild meetups, with custom-designed collateral including an Oscars-style golden statuette volunteer award, picnic decorations, over-the-top publicity posters, game-themed menus -- even custom-designed, WoW-themed beer labels. Evidence See the gallery below. %Gallery-97242% Want to learn more about that golden bird? Click past the break for more details about the incredible Increddy award.
Character Sketch: Call for submissions
In the midst of all this Real ID brouhaha, it's good to be reminded that we sometimes play the World of Warcraft to immerse ourselves in our other identities -- the characters we play. Some of us enter the world of Azeroth to have a grand adventure, leaving our probably awesome but otherwise non-magical real lives for a while to masquerade as dwarves or orcs ... as anything from plate-wearing champions of the Light to felfire-wielding sorcerers in brimstone-stained robes. World of Warcraft is still an MMORPG, after all, and at the heart of it the characters we play are reflections of ourselves, real names or otherwise. Here at WoW.com, we'd like to celebrate these characters -- your characters -- by taking them for a spin. We're looking for submissions of our readers' characters which we'll take and draw. Think of it as a reverse version of World of WarCrafts, where we'll draw your character and throw in a paragraph or two about them, Know Your Lore-style. We'll need your help, of course. We want you to tell us about your favorite character, whether it be your awesome end-game raiding night elf priest or your humble, low-level bank alt in a snazzy tuxedo set. It's up to you. We want you to let us know about your character by shooting us an email at zach@wow.com with your character's name and a few lines describing them. Obviously, we'll need to get them right, so you could either link us to your character's armory or just send us some screenshots we can use as reference. The more detailed your descriptions or pictures, the more justice we'll be able to give to your character, so make sure to give us everything we need. We'll even try our best to get little details in there somewhere, like your favorite non-combat pet if you want it hanging around. In the end, if we get it right, we'll have a WoW.com wallpaper featuring one of your characters every week. In a way, it's a shot at 15 Minutes of Fame without actually having to be anyone famous in real life or having done anything particularly stupendous. You just need to be you -- and your character needs to be, well, just about any character in the World of Warcraft. Over time, we hope to compile a fairly decent gallery of the heroes that you play. Maybe it'll even help our readers get to know each other somewhat. Without, you know, having to tell anyone your real name or anything.
World of WarCrafts: Cook up a Well Fed Buff
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; email lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. The Fourth of July. Fireworks. Barbecued Buzzard Wings and Ogri'la Chicken Fingers, Oronok Tubers, Rock-Salted Pretzels and some Delicious Chocolate Cake. Or maybe Mok'Nathal Shortribs, instead, and a cold beer. Or something even frostier to drink, like a tall glass of Essence Mango. Oh, and chocolate: freshly dipped Tauren Toenails, or maybe some Maiev's Grudge. If you're not hungry for this holiday weekend to arrive, we have no idea why. We couldn't even manage to hold this installment of World of WarCrafts until its usual Monday slot -- it's time to celebrate, and we demand to be Hugely Well Fed! Join the party with recipes from the archives of World of WarCrafts and the retired Well Fed Buff (now a part of the World of WarCrafts column). It's festive and fun to share good food with friends -- and it's even more special when the recipes offer WoW-inspired strats all their own. Enjoy -- we'll see you all next week! %Gallery-96798% World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by emailing lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.
World of WarCrafts: How to make your own WoW-inspired crafts
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; email lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. The pre-expansion lull is the perfect time to pour your enthusiasm for the World of Warcraft into more creative outlets. Your stable of characters may be perfectly outfitted to face the coming Cataclysm -- but what about the person behind the keyboard? Is the entrance to your lair clearly marked? Are your earrings up to snuff? Would Thrall approve of the place you lay your head at night? Check out our how-to gallery of do-it-yourself WoW crafts below; just follow the blue text links under each photo to find simple instructions for making your own version of each craft. %Gallery-96364% World of WarCrafts is always looking for more how-to's on WoW-themed arts and crafts of every stripe. Send photos, descriptions and instructions of your not-for-profit creations to lisa@wow.com. World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by emailing lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.
World of WarCrafts: Papercraft-y
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; email lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. If your summer is turning out to be quite cold and dreary (such is life up here in Canada), then nothing passes the time better than picking up a creative and fun hobby -- like scrap booking, or paper craft. WoW-loving artist Ruth, author of Stamp Off, Eh! has created an adorable duo of cards representing the iconic druid forms of the Moonkin. Pictured above is the Horde version, although she states that she "opted out of doing horns on the Horde one."
World of WarCrafts: Critter Bites
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; email lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. That's right, people, you read it here first: WoW.com is running articles on how to make your own pet food. The end days have arrived. If filler articles aren't your thing, scroll on by ... But if filler for your pets is where it's at, then you've come to the right place. While the pets shown here are neither rats nor turkeys (as recommended in the original recipe), we feel certain that common household critters such as dogs and cats will equally appreciate the merits of this delectable delight. But hey, if you prefer lobbing meat pellets at rats and turkeys in your living room (and then having them follow you around for three minutes) ... Well, to each his own. WoW.com would never judge you for your choices.
