Our previews continue for Edge Studio’s Welcome to Promise, the upcoming starter set for Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game. In this interview with Edge Studio’s art director, Antonio Maínez Venegas, he discusses the art creation process for Welcome to Promise as well as his experience as a professional artist who coordinates with other artists. He also shares his advice for aspiring illustrations and art directors who want to work on games.

How long have you been a professional artist?

I have been working as a professional illustrator for over a decade. During this time, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with publishers and studios connected to the world of board games and role-playing games, specializing in digital illustration. My work has always been closely tied to visual storytelling, something I aimed to reflect clearly in the box cover for Welcome to Promise.

How long have you been an art director?

My experience as an art director has developed naturally over several years, as I moved from focusing solely on illustration to coordinating complete creative teams. With the consolidation of Edge Studio, we began managing a larger number of projects with higher demands. Before that, my role as an “art director” mainly consisted of fully illustrating all of our in-house productions myself.

This changed dramatically when we had to face a much greater workload and production volume, making it necessary to rely on other artists to support the process. During this transition, I began defining the visual vision of each project, ensuring aesthetic consistency, and guiding freelance illustrators throughout the entire creative process.

How is art directing for an illustration different from creating the illustration yourself?

When you illustrate something yourself, you are constantly making decisions from a very personal and intuitive point of view, continuously struggling with shapes and colours. As an art director, however, your role changes: you move from being the one who executes to the one who guides. It is about having a global vision of the project, understanding its narrative needs, and helping other artists bring out the best in their work within that framework.

Art direction is built on communication, trust, and clarity. My goal is not for the illustrations to “look like mine.” Each illustrator has their own strengths, and making all the artwork in a project work together to build a coherent universe is where the balance and beauty of this job truly lie.

What are your favorite illustrations for Welcome to Promise that you worked with freelancers on? Why are they your favorite?

There are several illustrations in the project created by freelance artists that I find especially memorable. In general, my favourites are those that manage to capture not just a scene, but a feeling…normally, a bad feeling.

For example, I would highlight the NPC illustrations. All of them are interior scenes rather than exterior ones. Indirectly, we wanted to convey a sense of the warmth of home versus the unknown outside—the dampness of the bayou, the unsettling silence of the environment, and that deceptive calm so characteristic of the Arkham Horror universe. All the illustrations set around the bayou itself are connected to hostile situations or elements, such as the Swamp Devils, which is one of my favorite illustrations in this adventure.

I particularly appreciate it when an illustrator understands the narrative background and brings something personal to the scene, enriching the environment without breaking its coherence. That balance is difficult to achieve and extremely valuable.

What qualities make an illustrator good to work with?

Beyond technical skill, which is important, I place great value on communication and attitude. It is not necessary for someone to be able to do everything—that is within reach of very few people. Part of my job is knowing how to identify an illustrator’s strengths, highlight them, and make sure they fit well within a project.

A good illustrator knows how to listen, understands feedback as part of the process, and is flexible without losing their artistic identity. It is also essential that they are reliable with deadlines and have narrative sensitivity, especially in role-playing projects, where each image usually tells a story.

Were there any special considerations or challenges when creating illustrations in this specific setting of Arkham Horror and an autumn bayou?

Yes, one of the main challenges was finding the right balance between the cosmic horror typical of Arkham Horror and the very specific character of an autumn bayou. In other products in the line, lighting sources are usually weak, creating contrasts that emphasize the investigators’ fragility in the face of the unknown. In this case, however, we chose to use light and color as the main elements, taking advantage of a very representative autumn sunset in these swamps.

This approach emerged as a way to avoid clichés and not repeat the same visual formula, allowing us to differentiate this project from previous work while maintaining a recognizable atmosphere: humid landscapes, dense vegetation, muted colors, and a constant sense of unease.

The color palette, light, and water played a key role in conveying beauty and mystery in equal measure, without losing legibility or coherence with the rest of the line’s atmospheres. Everyone can appreciate the beauty of these types of landscapes, but they are undoubtedly places rarely traveled—where you might not notice the danger lurking beneath dense waters or hidden among the trees.

Could you tell us about your process of creating the cover for Welcome to Promise? What stages do you go through?

My process for creating the cover began with:

Brief analysis: understanding what the image needed to communicate, both narratively and commercially.

Black-and-white composition sketches: since this is a pulp-styled game, I needed to develop action-driven elements and dynamic characters. At this stage, I focused on character placement to ensure a clear reading of the scene and a balanced composition.

Development of tone, lighting, and key elements: carefully balancing atmosphere, narrative, and visual clarity. For complex compositions like this, I usually rely on a collage of photographic references as a guide. At this point, I focused on defining the chromatic mood and lighting of the environment and how they would affect the characters and other elements.

Rendering the main characters: once the lighting approach and color palette were defined, I began rendering the characters, as they are the most important and complex elements, leaving secondary elements for later stages. At this point, many changes were introduced compared to the original idea—pose changes, color adjustments, adding, removing, or repositioning characters, and so on.

Final adjustments: the last stages focused on final tweaks and refining less polished elements to ensure the entire piece felt cohesive.

How long did the entire process of creating the cover take you, including revisions and final touches?

The complete process took place over several weeks. It was not a continuous workflow from start to finish, but rather a process divided into different development phases, revisions, and adjustments coordinated with the team. This time is essential to ensure that the final illustration meets both creative goals and product needs, as new ideas often emerge during the development of the cover that are worth incorporating.

At the same time, while developing the cover, I was also coordinating the freelance team. This naturally extends timelines, but it allows me to work in parallel with the team and implement ideas that are synergistic for both the interior artwork and the cover.

Do you have any words for aspiring illustrators and art directors?

To illustrators, I would say: be consistent, immerse yourselves in the work of other artists, learn to receive feedback without fear, and understand that illustrating for games is, above all, about storytelling. Technique is important, but narrative is even more so.

For those aspiring to become art directors, I would recommend listening carefully. This is one of the best ways to manage talent and build trust in your team. It is important to remember that your role is not to impose a single vision, but to select and help all the artists involved work toward the same direction.

Soon you’ll be able to appreciate all of the art from the Welcome to Promise Starter Set for Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game when it goes on sale this Friday, July 31. We’ll see you in the bayou!