Brasse is a short, bearded, grumpy old dwarf. I am a somewhat taller, beardless, grumpy old human.
I've been drawing since I was able to first spill ink and smear it over everything within reach. Dinosaurs still roamed the earth in those days, a fact clearly documented in my early works.
Since that time, while I continued to draw, paint and sculpt, I learned that the real world is not particularly kind to the average artist, so in the interests of eating regularly, I followed a number of other careers in parallel with art. I waitressed, I farmed, I did the suit and office thing.
About a decade ago, I discovered online gaming and the fantastic worlds that game developers offered us. Like a digital Lewis and Clark, I could not wait to map these strange new lands… both to make traveling easier for my friends, and to adapt amazing ingame zone designs to out-of game art. I always did love geography class in school, and spent far too long making the maps pretty there too, to the consternation of most teachers.
In this day and age when so many people are stuck in jobs that they hate, working on projects that have no personal meaning for them, I decided to take the huge step in building this site, so that I can continue to work at what I know and love best - sharing my artwork and maps with the gaming community. That I can also write and share my unsolicited, possibly biased, hastily formed opinions, knee-jerk reactions and rants on various aspects of gaming is a working benefit, in lieu of the Christmas bonus and paid holidays that I will not be getting for laboring on this site.
It remains to be seen whether TheBrasse.com will pay for itself as well as affording a small stipend to pay my way in the world, but it sure beats working at WalMart.
My alter ego (and I do mean EGO; that Dwarf has issues) Brasse can often be found striding the halls at SoE FanFaires, being generally surly and poking elves with a stick. Brasse took up leatherworking in order to make her own armor, and it remains an art form that she enjoys a great deal, along with drinking Elves under the table and pestering Devs. At least, she maintains that pestering Devs is an art form. Some might call it harassment.
Having spent most of my life in Canada, I now reside in Orlando, Florida, along with dogs, bearded dragons, ferrets, snakes, fish and a troll (see Brakk).
- Favorite color: russet
- Favorite beverage: fine red wine…. Or beer! No, wait, coffee! Hmmm. Red wine. Yah.
- Favorite music: Techno, industrial, rock, alternative.
- Most beautiful zone design to date: EQII - Oakmyst Forest. It is a very small zone that is not only gorgeous, but gives the impression of being much, much larger than it is.
- Hardest zone mapped to date: EQII Fallen Dynasty - Forgotten City. I even cursed the zone designers a few times. I used very bad words. Fantastic zone, hard to learn.
Brasse's maps are featured in the following:
- EverQuest II: strategy guide (Prima Publishing)
- EverQuest II: Desert of Flames (Prima Publishing)
- EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky (Prima Publishing)
- EverQuest II: Atlas (Prima Publishing)
- DAOC Catacombs (co-authored maps with Kallisti, Prima Publishing)
- EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow (Prima Publishing)
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour (Prima Publishing)
- Vanguard Saga of Heroes - boxed map of Telon (Sigil)
- Art sampling available at: http://bhindersama.spaces.live.com/
- A few prints of digital art available from: http://www.deviantart.com/print/363573/
