An interview with RPG commission artist Will Nunes

Will Nunes

If you've been involved with the Star Wars roleplaying game scene, odds are you've seen at least one of Will Nunes' beautiful character portraits. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for me recently.

The Tabletop Lair: How did you get into art and more specifically, the world of RPG commissions?

Will Nunes: I’ve always done art, and I attended UMass Dartmouth for a degree in Illustration. Drawing pictures for people always sounded more appealing than working in an office. As for RPG art, that just sort of happened organically - I would draw characters from my TTRPG groups and post them online, and as I was doing other commissions at the time, I ended up picking up some RPG commissions. People shared those and it lead to more!

Will Nunes

TTL: What are your main influences?

WN: Mike McCarthy, an artist on the Fable series of videogames, was super formative for me through high school and college, and though my art has drifted very far from that look, I always find myself going back to see what I can learn from his work. In general, J.C. Leyendecker also had a huge influence on my art.

TTL: What's your process for each commission?

WN: I get some info from the client, and start getting them sketches, focused on capturing the important elements they’ve mentioned in the description. Once they’re happy with the sketch, I can start on the finals, sending updates along the way.

TTL: What's your advice for someone looking to get into RPG commissions?

WN: Draw your own characters and share them in relevant subreddits/discords. In this space, especially, I find there’s no better advertisement than just having your work visible

in the community. There’s lots of people out there who are very interested in having their characters drawn, and they would love to see your take on it. Having your information readily available is also a huge help - something that I’m not particularly good at. 

TTL: Anyone who follows your work knows you have a busy schedule. Do you find time for your own games?

Will Nunes

WN: I’ve had a regular weekly game over the last several years where I’m a player, though my schedule has been too hectic these last couple months to attend. I have been running a Star Wars game online with older friends, though that is much more infrequent.

My regular group is currently playing Dungeons & Dragons 5e, though we bounce between other systems fairly frequently. The game I run uses FFG’s Star Wars RPG currently, though we’ve used the older d20 system before, and we also bounce between other games like various versions of Vampire: the Masquerade. Occasionally, I get everyone to play an RPG I made in my own setting, but that generally requires a lot of work on my end.

TTL: People get emotionally invested in their RPG characters. Would you say that makes the creative process behind RPG commissions different?

WN: Sure, I think it leads to the client focusing on details that I would otherwise not realize are important. When you’ve been living in the character for months or years, it can be super important to you that the dent on a character’s canteen in captured perfectly, for instance, whereas I would just take it as a small extra detail. Working with the client to make sure those things are captured well is a lot of the fun.

Will Nunes

TTL: What are you working on outside of RPG commissions?

WN: I’m always working on other projects professionally and for fun - I’m currently helping with some art for a children’s book, for instance. For fun, I’ve been working with a friend on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-related project which hopefully someday we’ll have enough time to finish.

TTL: To finish off with a Star Wars related question, is there a specific alien species that's your favorite to draw?

WN: Nothing specific, but I always enjoy getting to draw the weirder aliens that don’t have a lot of pre-existing art. For more common ones, I always seem to enjoy drawing Rodians.

Find Will Nunes on Twitter, Instagram, Patreon, and his personal website.