Kit Buss is the official portrait artist for Critical Role's first campaign and a frequent fan artist. She is also the first non-actor to be a guest player on the show. Kit Buss guest starred as Lillith Anioska Daturai, a tiefling wizard, in "Crimson Diplomacy" (1x25). She also appeared as a guest on "Talks Machina #14: 'Onward to Vesrah'" (TMx14), where she answered questions about how she became an official artist for Critical Role.
Background[]
Thanks to her dad, Kit Buss grew up being fascinated by the fantasy worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien or David Eddings and the fantasy genre in general. Kit studied 2D animation, but towards the end of her final year, she shifted her career path and decided to do comics instead.
Kit is part of a specific niche as an artist working in historical and fantasy worlds. She believes that people recognize her style because of the specific way she draws noses, which Kit borrows from the Puerto Rican illustrator Kenneth Rocafort.
The nickname AnemoneTea comes from Kit's love for the anemone flowers that grew nearby her childhood rural place in the South of the United Kingdom. When Kit was a teenager, she created a character named Anemone who enjoyed tea and that also became a part of her nickname.[1]
Critical Role Productions[]
- Lillith Daturai ("Crimson Diplomacy" (1x25))
- Herself in ("Talks Machina #14: 'Onward to Vesrah'" (TMx14))
As stated on Talks Machina, Kit initially got to know Liam O'Brien when she was assigned to guide him at the MCM London Comic-Con, where she decided to create art for him, as she had seen his work on unrelated projects. As Liam was impressed by Kit's work, he stayed in touch with her and at some point sent an email commissioning her to make portrait of all of Vox Machina as a Christmas present. Kit accepted, but forgot to proceed with the commission. Later in the year, where Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham were at the MCM London this time, Kit got to met Travis and Laura and through conversations, all three made the connection. Travis said they were thinking streaming their home game and put the offer to Kit to draw their D&D characters and accompanying "a few episodes" of what would later become Campaign One: Vox Machina they have planned to stream with Geek & Sundry.[2][3]
Kit is the initiator of many iconic aspects of the Vox Machina character design, including Keyleth's antlers, Vex'ahlia's feathers, and Percival de Rolo's four-lens glasses.[4]
Other work[]
Kit Buss is also the author of Cloven: Bloodlines, a standalone comic series about Lillith's adventures before her appearance on Critical Role.[5] It is unknown if the comics are considered canon to the Critical Role universe.
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ See Kit Buss on How Critical Role Helped Kickstart her Art Career on perephoneia.art.
- ↑ See "Talks Machina #14: 'Onward to Vesrah'" (TMx14) at 00:04:51.
- ↑ See Kit Buss on How Critical Role Helped Kickstart her Art Career on perephoneia.art.
- ↑ See "Talks Machina: Campaign Wrap-up" (Sx31) at 00:29:15.
- ↑ See Cloven Bloodlines website link