Friday Fan Art!
This week’s winner came from Silas. And I can’t tell you how touched I was by this one.
You see, Silas has copied a drawing from a book I created when I was 12 called Gondwanaland. It was about an island inhabited by bizarre creatures that I made up, along with dragons and goblins. The book was written by a scientist and structured as a field guide. So in many ways, it was the seed for Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide.
Here is my drawing from the original book I made:
I recap all of this (along with my new take of Captain Bassolf) in the anthology Guys Write for Guys Read, edited by none other than Jon Scieszka. There are a lot of cool short stories in it from a variety of people as well as drawings from lots of my favorite artists…you should check it out.
Thanks Silas! You MADE MY WEEK!
PS-in the letter, Silas also drew Link from The Legend of Zelda and asked if I have ever drawn pictures from that world. As my brother can tell you, he and I are HUGE Zelda fans, and yes – we’ve done lots of doodles from Hyrule:)





Wow, love your art, I didn’t know you had illustrated the Spider and the fly, it’s one of the books I’m dying to buy right now. Your art is wonderful, I will definitely be checking back!
I remember Zelda. I also love your work. In fact, I bought the book, the Spider and the Fly, and SAID I was buying it for my kids, but I was really buying it for myself. The artwork is absolutely stunning!!! In fact, I now rate you as one of my favorite artists, up there with Norman Rockwell, and M.C. Escher. I, however, did NOT know you had anything to do with the Spiderwick Chronicles. I must have passed those books about a hundred times and just admired the work on it, mentally putting it on my wish list. Now, I’ve got to check out those books along with Ted. Thank you for making the world a more beautiful place!
Dear Mr. Tony,
I was wondering if I you could draw a few pictures for me. I love the elves and the mermaids and the nixies. Is there any chance you could draw (and possibly PAINT) a few drawings of those? If I could email you my address, could you snail mail them to me? I don’t want to ask a huge favor or anything…… but it would be AMAZING!
That would be the most incredible gift of my 12 years of my LIFE!
Your Devoted Fan, Emily
Um, just ignore that last comment. Sorry. That was a silly request and totally too much to ask. But let me know if you are ever selling any of your artwork on eBay, or Etsy or anything! So sorry for the totally silly request! So just ignore it please!