Artist Review: Todd Lockwood

As an up and coming artist, you draw inspiration from many different sources. My first was my mom. She was able to capture the world in art, and that was a fascinating concept to me. I wanted to do the same: to create a physical memory of something that didn't require camera or film. She showed me my first taste of professional fantasy art in the form of the Hildebrandt Brothers, whom I will be reviewing at a later date.

When I started tabletop roleplaying at around 11, my own art grew out of the need to give a visual representation of the characters I was making. They had personality, histories, and stories, but no visual reference. I knew that fantasy art existed in my games, but it was a sort of periphery experience. The Brothers, and my mom were really still the only influences as I began bumbling my way through learning anatomy.

I began playing D&D in earnest in 1995 with some buddies in high school. They had actual D&D books, and suddenly, the monsters were illustrated, the races were comparable. With the advent of D&D version 3.0 and 3.5 in 2000 and 2003 I began noticing one artist above the rest. I began developing a "favorite".

How could he not be my favorite after this?

What totally drew me in about Lockwood's art is his ability to capture light. It excites me in a way that makes me want to TYPE EVERYTHING LIKE THIS!!!

Especially in acrylic medium, I am very challenged by capturing light, and yet his art seems to glow! It absolutely fascinates me. Most of what I see shows me that light capturing talent, and it's amazing to me.

In addition to capturing light, Lockwood has a tremendous talent for grasping the conceived anatomies of animals and creatures that .... well ... don't exist. How do you know what a dragon looks like? You don't. So to make it believable, to bring it into the realm of possible, you have to make it appear like it might actually work. That's a talent in an of itself.

A little bit of info on Todd: He's about the same age as my mom, and went to school for art at the Art Institute of Colorado (which is partially owned by Goldman Sachs, but I'll forgive Lockwood for that.. :) ). He graduated and was doing art for some mediocre companies before he finally started building his fantasy art portfolio. 

From there, he was eventually hired on at TSR, which became Wizards of the Coast, and he's been propelled into the fantasy art genre ever since.

Thank you, Todd, for being amazing, and inspiring. He works on book covers, roleplaying tabletop game as well as roleplaying card games.

Here is his website. Grab a cup of coffee or tea, and just allow yourself to enjoy his rich colours, shades, and the grasp on the surreal that he has: http://www.toddlockwood.com/

He's also got a blog! Yay! http://www.tolo.biz/

I'll leave you with an awesome last piece of his, an oil painting. Look at the shades and light!!

-Me