Warrior Katchoo rescuing Princess Francine from a Dragon's Lair - Terry Moore

The Terry Moore After Dark Kickstarter went live on 2/1/2023 at 11am Eastern time. I was the very first backer and got the Special Edition Hardcover Original Art. I eventually added the Retailer Edition cover art (outside of the Kickstarter). By 11:01am I backed the commission tier with my other account. I blocked my work calendar so I wasn’t distracted by a coworker booking a meeting at that critical time.

When Terry reached out to me regarding what I was think for the commission, I was concerned that I would be a PITA. I has some specific thoughts and requirements.
- Warrior Katchoo rescuing Princess Francine from a dragon’s lair
- Katchoo has a sword
- Ink the characters with a brush. I love Terry’s brushwork.
- No words
- No back shots or half figures
- A rough prelim before he invested a lot of time
- Take progress photos
- First opportunity to purchase any concept sketches or prelims

The challenge I had was to not visualize a final product and influence or hinder his creativity. I really wanted Terry’s vision on my concept.

Terry said my commission sounded fun so I anxiously waited for my prelim. While I waited, Terry shared some concept sketches on social media: First, a sketch of a dragon, then one of Francine and Katchoo standing in front of the head of a defeated dragon and the other of Katchoo poised to defend against a dragon. I was getting very excited. Terry shared with me six (yes 6) layouts and why he thought the lower right one worked best. All were to get the perspective right so that there was no back or side shots of the characters.

Robyn emailed me and said "Just a heads up, your commission is looking amazing!" and she was right.

When I saw the final product, I was floored by the level of detail, the structure and the overall capture of my concept. Terry put so much thought and care into this commission. Terry did say that the next person who asks for Sword & Sorcery gets Freddie with a Stick.

Without a doubt this was my favorite art acquired in 2023 and one of my top five ever.

You can see Terry’s thought process while working on my commission on one of his Studio Sunday YouTube videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WUrWdYkY98&t=1s