Dmitry Burmak created all of the artwork for Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City. He shares a little bit about himself here, along with a preview of some of the artwork in the main Frostgrave book.

Hello everyone, my name is Dmitry, and I’m an artist from Moscow, Russia. As a child, I never considered being a professional artist. I liked to draw in school as most children do, drawing monsters and ninjas, skulls, barbarians and robots. I was crazy about the images I saw in PC games like Warcraft and Myst, but I never thought I could be someone who created those images. So, after school, I chose to become a programmer and attended the Institute of Aviation.

Even as I studied to be a computer programmer, however, the desire to draw grew stronger and stronger inside me, and right after graduation I got a job in the art department of a video games publisher here in Moscow. It was a huge opportunity. I had the chance to draw covers for video games, but it was also extremely tough. I didn’t really understand the correct way of drawing, and complex pieces like human figures were a nightmare. Somehow, though, I did the job, slowly, with a lot of passion and hard work.

After years of struggling, I decide it was time to learn how to draw the right way, and I went to evening classes at one of Moscow’s art schools. It was there that I met my wife Kate, who was also a student. We now work together as freelance artists. Things began to look up from that point. I can’t say that I was a great student, because it was exhausting to hold a full-time job and study art at the same time, but it was a valuable experience.

After my job for the video games company, I became an illustrator for online role-playing games, drawing characters and locations. It was a wonderful time, working with a group of fun people, including many great artists, but after four years of development the project was closed and the company broken up. Not wanting to get another office job, I decided to try work as a freelance artist.

I think this is one of the best decisions I ever made. I have had the chance to work on some really interesting projects for companies all around the world. It’s just amazing. I’ve been able to work on traditional pen and paper RPGs, card games, and computer games. The best part about being a freelancer is the variety and how much I’ve been able to learn. For example, I’ve always been interested in history and Osprey books were the ultimate source of reference information. I was so honoured when Phil Smith and Joe McCullough invited me to join the Frostgrave project as an illustrator. 

So, I hope you like the artwork I created for the Frostgrave book because it was a pleasure to work on it.

The honour was all ours, Dmitry. The good news is that Dmitry has once again signed up to work on Frostgrave and will also be providing all of the artwork for the first supplement, Frostgrave: Thaw of the Lich Lord.