Wandering Through Middle Earth

Fingolfin and Morgoth were originally a single picture in two panels (pages of typewriting paper). And that's Utumno, Morgoth's hellish fortress in the north.

Alien Zoo

Denizens of strange alien worlds, including members of the Alien Crew, Adam and Suwissie. A couple of supernatural beings, too.

Master Belmok

Filed Under 'W'

These are from the Wizards and Witches file; not so many as the best ones have already been published. I like the first Frog Wizard for the color and the frog's posture; the second for the wizard's posture. Hag Gathering is another one of those primeval pictures; Monstrous Foe has a kind of sorceror/ogre, the sort of character I might have if I were content to model my Ogres into a more human framework.

There’s Life in The Old Dog Yet

This batch of AI Enhancements are a peculiar bunch and significant to me. Perhaps the most peculiar is The Old Dog, which by now is a pretty old sketch, but it was drawn to commemorate an even older picture I drew back in McQueeney, in grade school. That picture, along with most personal paper media of the period, does not survive. As I remember it, I wanted to have a character that had all the character paraphernalia, someone who was always traveling on adventures and carried his own home with him. Of course he had to have a TV.

Most of the other pictures are enhancement of drawings from when I was first really starting to draw in middle school, using tricks I learned in art class and trying to draw like the Brothers Hildebrandt. My reading of course inspired a lot of my efforts, like King Arthur stories and The Dark is Rising, The Lord of the Rings and Farmer Giles of Ham. Pauline Baynes in particular inspired my dragons. There were a couple of sneaky idealized self-portraits, Vigil and Wormslayer, more aspirational than accurate, but if you could see the originals, you would recognize the obvious sideburns. Only The White Whale is from a later date. All reaching a new apotheosis thanks to AI.

And the Rest!: Today We Wander In Forlan

Humans are not the only sentient race on Ortha, nor even the most numerous. In fact in Forlan they are a distinct minority. They do not take much physical design work, but I try to express their unique presence in the world. I try to do this by having, say, the Ghamen or the Morgs comment on how weird they find Humans and their ways. Here we have another look at Dunwolf, and Melniar, Koppa's friend who is a girl, She was healer and herbalist on their little quest. In proportion to Morgs and Ogres, I have very few sketches of Humans. We have here the legendary first use of the Goldfire by a Morg against an evil spiritual power, and the council pool in Wosehome.