About Valtiare

Valtiare is home of the fictional universe made by me. Painted miniatures, sculpted models, dioramas, paintings, ink drawings, maps, and short stories. A little bit of everything I create. I want to showcase finished projects in one place. I want the story to influence the art.

Nothing on this site is generated by a machine, and nothing ever will be. If a piece looks strange, it was made strangely, by a person, on purpose.

Many of the stories emerge from tabletop roleplaying campaigns. The gameplay stays at the table. What ends up here is what was worth carrying home.

About the work

I'm Matt Gilbert. I paint miniatures, write fiction, play tabletop games Valtiare is where the fiction and the finished art live together.

If you want to see the method to the madness I run a daily vlog at Hobbinomicon.com

This site is intentionally small, quiet, and slow to update. Nothing is sold here. Nothing is tracked beyond the basic server logs. If you'd like to follow along, there's an RSS feed — the old reliable.

A note on the tone

My goal isn't to be grimdark. There's warmth in the darkness here. Candlelight, old prayer, small kept things. Grief that remembers it was once affection. If you walk a page and leave feeling both a little sadder and a little more awake, the work is doing what it's supposed to do.