iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Back to the batch of DnD characters. This time the DM commissioned his own representation. In their campaign, he’s portrayed as a knitted doll )

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Successfully approved. Well, that went faster than I expected. CSP actually shows less than 4 hours of pure working time. This time I experimented with a hard G-pen together with a kneaded eraser, kind of a textured eraser.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Today’s progress. A little closer to the finish line.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Work in progress. Finally, I’m slowly getting closer to finishing this cover. Well… “closer” — I still need to finish the characters, the familiar, tweak the background a bit more, and do the post-processing…

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

The cover is now waiting for feedback, but I think it turned out pretty well, especially considering I switched brushes several times during the process 🫠

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Moving right along. Currently waiting for feedback on the genasi girl. As it turns out, this whole crowd of D&D characters is going to be used for a podcast, and I’ll need to create extra sprites for some simple "talking" animations.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

With all this hustle, I haven't even shown you what I've been working on for Bardy lately! (As a reminder, it's an app that listens to your D&D sessions and picks the perfect ambient music based on the context). This is an illustration for the "Shop" theme!

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

And finally, the third new card. I love both Hades games and really like how Hades is portrayed there, but I still think the coolest version is from Hercules ) That’s it for the new card releases. I’ll try to put together an updated merch sheet tomorrow.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Time to reveal the next card! I absolutely love Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and especially this character in it — and the way he sounds in the original version. Every scene, every line, every whistle completely steals the spotlight. The only cooler Death is the one in Darksiders, in my opinion.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

For a local festival dedicated to supervillains, I made a new series of villain cards. I’ll be sharing them one by one. And first up is… Adam Smasher!

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Work in progress I completely forgot I’ve got another cover in the works here. This one’s simpler though, almost no background.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Almost at the finish line. Just need to clean everything up, add lighting and some scratches (I really love that slightly worn look — not straight-out-of-the-factory clean). And then we rush straight on to the next thing, deadlines are on fire again 🫠 #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Suddenly, in the middle of all these D&D commissions, a mech showed up ) Mecha orders are unfortunately pretty rare, and always quite complex. But they’re just as satisfying to work on. #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Moving on to the next character. As expected, I got tired of the watercolor brushes pretty quickly and went back to my… default one, I guess. It’s basically a regular G-pen with some tweaks (more like something between a G-pen and a mix round brush). #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

No, seriously, my messed-up schedule is starting to warp my sense of time. I was 100% sure I showed the previous stage just yesterday, but it was actually almost 4 days ago 🫠 Anyway, the character is now waiting for final feedback, and I’m moving on.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

The commission has been sent and is now waiting for feedback. Moving straight on to the next things. Up next: a batch of D&D characters and another book cover. And on top of that, the author now wants full wraparound covers for all the books. That should be interesting. #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Another step forward! The orc rogue has been sent off and is now waiting for feedback. #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

This commission is waiting for feedback, so I’m moving on. Just a couple of burning overdue pieces left (from last year… shameful), and then a batch of artworks for D&D players whose characters are literally growing up before my eyes ) #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

I still both love and hate all kinds of high-tech armor. I hate the first half of the process, when the main shapes and elements are still trying to find their place - but I love it once I get to drawing all the little details. #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Another commission is now waiting for feedback. This time it’s for Reverse Collapse. #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

I haven’t posted a timelapse in ages. Here’s a fresh one straight out of the oven ) The tower has been successfully approved, the DM is thrilled — hopefully the players will appreciate it too. #timelapse

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The living tower piece is almost at the finish line. Just need to finish the foreground with the heroes and do some post-processing. #wip

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I think I absolutely popped off today and sent out four sketches for four different long-overdue projects. The cover has finally been fully approved. While I’m waiting for the description of the next one, I’m clearing out the rest of the backlog.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

But the group seems ready to continue and move into a longer campaign. They already have the pre-gens from Lost Mine of Phandelver, so maybe that’s next ) I might even try running it through Roll20. Hopefully the Mac can handle it in a browser at least )

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

One technical hiccup: my old Mac doesn’t support the current version of Obsidian, so I had to improvise and run everything from my iPad. It worked, but wasn’t super convenient.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

They cleared the entire small dungeon, grabbed all the loot, defeated every enemy, found all the secrets, and even solved the puzzle.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

In the very first encounter, the rats nearly wiped the whole party, and I had to pull them back. After that, though, the players handled things much better - I probably could have made it even harder.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Since we used random tokens I happened to have with me, I kept forgetting which token represented which character.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

I completely blanked on how spells worked at first and had to spend time digging through the rules to refresh my memory.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

I forgot to hand out Inspiration cards and only remembered at the very end when someone really needed a reroll. I skipped some descriptions. I forgot to prepare a list of random names, so the bartender ended up being named Igor.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

My head was full of informational noise and worries about not forgetting anything - which of course meant I forgot everything.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

First reckless mistake: agreeing to run a game and attend a mini board game fest at the club on the same day. Even though the turnout was small and the vibe was cozy and intimate, the fatigue definitely hit.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

I won’t reveal any behind-the-screen secrets to preserve the mysterious DM aura or explain how much of the balance and story is held together with duct tape, but I’ll talk about the technical side )

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

And it actually went pretty well! It was a super short one-shot, Most Potent Brew, but it still took us 3–4 hours. I hope everyone enjoyed it. At the very least, our friends’ 9-year-old son who played with us was absolutely thrilled, so I’m calling that a success )

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Well then, you can congratulate me - I ran my first game as a Dungeon Master )

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Good news — the matte paper has arrived ) The print turned out great. In some places it even feels almost velvety and really nice to the touch. The only downside is that the paper is thinner than I expected (even though it’s 220 gsm). For postcards, I’d definitely prefer something thicker.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

#wip Work on the cover continues, and the finish line is finally coming into view. I hope ) I could spend forever adding details to the burning fortress in the background, but hopefully I’ll manage to stop myself in time.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Looks like I finally delivered this long-running commission with the suits for the game. And I think it burned me out a bit 😅 Also found my camera tripod, so hopefully the shots will turn out better now.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

#wip Arknights is finally loosening its grip on me, and I’ve sent out the cover sketch for the client’s next book. This time the hero is facing a massive steampunk knight-golem, which I’m very happy about.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

They turned out pretty nice. They look perfect on light surfaces, and on darker ones they lose a bit due to the semi-transparency, but still look good.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

And another experimental merch item: stickers on transparent film. These particular ones my wife made for herself, for her planner, but I might convince her to make some for sale too )

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

I'm also still experimenting with cut depth here, but on the second attempt, I managed to get it so the stickers are cut cleanly without cutting all the way through.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

The banding issue seems to still be there a bit (though it’s much less noticeable after trying to clean the rollers with alcohol), but on stickers it’s only visible if you know what to look for and use a magnifying glass. I’d say that’s a perfectly acceptable result.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Hey! The self-adhesive paper finally arrived today, and I tested sticker printing. The result looks pretty good to me.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

#wip #deathstranding #higgs I’ve been asked for a collectible card featuring Higgs from Death Stranding 1 for a long time. Finally made it happen ) (Yes, I make original collectible cards and sell them at geek festivals.)

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

#wip Ranger character commission

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Now I just need to wait for the self-adhesive photo paper to arrive and see how it works together with the Cricut for making stickers. For complete happiness and a proper home mini print shop, I’m still missing a laminator, a rotary paper cutter, and a stronger corner rounder.

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

I finally got a printer, so now I can print most of my merch at home and have much tighter control over the process and materials. Of course, that also means all the hassle with settings, materials, and calibration is on me now...

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Oleg Tsoy @olegtsoy.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

#wip The knight has been successfully approved (though I’m not entirely sure he even counts as a knight). Moving on!

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