Graduating from Sheridan College in 2019, Keneth Leoncito joined Netflix as a Set Designer/Illustrator, working on Wendell & Wild. But he was also interested in character design, and he was accepted into Disney’s training program. Not only did he learn a new craft at Disney, but he also met colleagues who shared his passion for table-top role-playing games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons.
Fabula is a mixed-media artwork created for Leoncito’s own “home-brewed” TTRPG campaign; a campaign is “a set of linked adventures that make up one long story,” he says. It serves as a tapestry-like homage to fantasy Japanese role-playing games like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Fabula Ultima, as well as his love of folklore.
Leoncito describes the piece as a combination of styles, incorporating his own twist on traditional fairy tales. He notes legendary Disney artist Kay Nielsen as his influence for delicate linework, and for their costume sensibility, Yoshitaka Amano’s Art Nouveau styling and Leon Bakst’s designs for the Ballets Russes. The result is the depiction of various characters resting between the pages of an open book, mourning the death of Snow White. The Blue Fairy—reimagined as a goddess—leads the characters and the story along the role-playing campaign.
To create Fabula, Leoncito used text from the pages of a Hans Christian Andersen book, written in the early 1900s, and hand-drew the kind of mythical castle you might see in a Disney movie. Leoncito carefully layered his own penciled linework shaping the open novel, and the descriptive line etchings and blooming washes of color give the piece its folklore style. After scanning the various layers, finishing touches include digitally painting the image and adding final line details using Procreate.
Leoncito’s art can be found at his website.
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