Category: Artistic Process
July 5, 2024
After The Monstrous Manual: The Calm Before The Storm Using the money I had earned from Dragon Mountain and the Monstrous Manual, in the summer of 1993 I rented a two-bedroom apartment, dedicating one bedroom as my “art studio”. Well…really I drew and painted all over the place, as you can see in the photo …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 10”
July 2, 2024
TD, Monster Machine Welcome back to a deep dive of my experience working on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual. As I mentioned at the start, I finished illustrating the Dragon Mountain boxed set adventure on February 1st, 1993 and began immediately on the Monstrous Manual the following day. All 100 pieces were due …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 9”
June 26, 2024
Creepy-Crawlies I am sad to say our trip down Monstrous Manual Memory Lane is nearing its end but don’t fret, we still have a few more monsters to cover: Giant creepy crawlers that are iconic Dungeons & Dragons monsters, like… ILLUSTRATION #3: Ankheg The giant subterranean invertebrate known as the Ankheg (ANN-kegg) made its colorful …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 8”
June 22, 2024
Lizard Men, Fish Folk and a Mantis Warrior Welcome back to a deep dive of my experience working for TSR on the 1993 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual. We’ve covered quite a bit leading up to this point–from my humble beginnings as an aspiring art school graduate to rendering some of D&D’s classic creatures. …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 7”
June 18, 2024
“There were virtually no fantasy figurines being produced when Chainmail Fantasy Supplement tabletop battles were being played, and so that is where the conversion of dime store toys into monsters began.” –Gary Gygax, 2007 I’m back and highlighting some classic, iconic monsters of Dungeons & Dragons that I had the opportunity to illustrate back in …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 6”
June 14, 2024
The Fairy Folk We enter the enchanting fairytale world of sprites, sylphs, gnomes and other fae folk in this installment of ‘Behind The Monstrous Manual’. Previously, I spoke about mythology, folklore and J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic books, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy influencing Gary Gygax and his designers when creating Dungeons & Dragons …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 5”
June 10, 2024
Moving beyond Parts 2 and 3 of fantasy humanoids, we’ll now take a look at a several monsters I had the opportunity to illustrate for the Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual that have been celebrated for centuries in epic myths. We’re talking the Cyclops, Medusa, Minotaur and more! ILLUSTRATION #44: Giant, Cyclops Our first monster …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 4”
June 4, 2024
Big Bad Humanoids I’m back with my deep dive into the making of 1993’s Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual, a book that was pivotal in my career as an aspiring illustrator. Previously, I discussed how I came to work on the first colorized edition of this classic D&D rulebook and shared the story of the …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 3”
May 31, 2024
Humanoids “The fact is that I have read so much mythology, folklore, fairytales, and authored fiction with monsters and all manner of strange folk and creatures that it is hard to pin down exactly where a good number of the AD&D monsters got their inspiration.” –Gary Gygax, 2007 In Part 1 of ‘Behind The Monstrous …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 2”
May 29, 2024
Long Time No See It has been eons since I wrote a new blog post. In fact, it was two presidents and a pandemic ago since I’ve added anything new. Wow. I still love sharing what I am up to…but over the years, social media has come to replace posts like this. Most of us …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 1”
December 18, 2017
If you’ve been following me on social media for the past year, you know that in November I celebrated the opening of a retrospective exhibition at The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. To say that the experience was surreal would be an understatement. Having grown up copying Rockwell’s iconic images, it is an amazing …
Continue reading “Never Abandon Imagination: The Fantastical Art of Tony DiTerlizzi”
May 9, 2016
Fast Company magazine recorded a conversation with Game of Thrones creator, George R.R. Martin, and myself on fantastical world building, creative process and finding inspiration. Thanks to Chuck Salter, George (and Raya), Jim Ludwig and the staff at the Jean Cocteau Cinema for capturing this moment. The event at the Cocteau was a fun …
Continue reading “George R.R. Martin & Tony DiTerlizzi: The Minds & Processes That Build Fantasy Worlds”
June 2, 2014
Lucasfilm has released a trailer for my upcoming picture book adaptation of the original trilogy, title The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. Take a look:
May 17, 2014
Patrick Day of the Los Angeles Times interviewed me while on the road promoting The Battle for WondLa last week.
April 26, 2014
Last November the non-profit organization, Reading is Fundamental (RIF), asked if I would donate an original piece of artwork to be auctioned off at their spring “Cat in The Hat” gala held in Washington DC.
January 29, 2014
Last week was “Goblin Week”, where the mischievous monsters were celebrated by artists using all mediums and shared via Tumblr. Since I use an old-fashioned WordPress for my blog, I thought I’d share my goblin contribution here, along with some delightful dice-rolling downloads.
January 22, 2014
The creation of the logo for the Amherst public library was a feature article in our local paper, The Gazette.
November 21, 2013
Last month I visited with Sharon Sharry, Library Director of our public library, the Jones Library. At the suggestion of author extraordinaire, Norton Juster, she’d asked if I could discuss a new award honoring the Pioneer Valley’s local literary luminaries.
October 17, 2013
If you’ve been following this blog for the past couple of months, you know I have been sharing much of my process for the upcoming cover to the third and final book in the Wondla trilogy, The Battle for WondLa.
September 20, 2013
The final stages of creating the artwork for The Battle for WondLa dust-jacket required me to set down my pencils, pens and paper and grab a mouse, Wacom stylus and keyboard.
August 2, 2013
After many concept sketches, refined drawings, and color studies, I was finally able to begin the execution of the final artwork for The Battle for WondLa.
July 12, 2013
Invigorated with feedback from my readers, and my sketch approved by the team at Simon & Schuster, it was time to develop the mood of my cover concept sketch through use of color.
June 29, 2013
While my first draft of The Battle for WondLa was read by my editor and trusted beta-readers, I switched my focus from writing to drawing. In particular, drawing the perfect cover image to depict the climatic conclusion of the WondLa trilogy.
October 22, 2012
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been busy these last couple of of months rendering new artwork to adorn the dustjackets of the 10-year anniversary of The Spiderwick Chronicles. Early next year, Simon & Schuster will unveil the new jackets, along with news about the re-release of the original five chapter books.
October 8, 2012
I recently did a brief interview for the Girl Scouts of America with a focus on the creation of WondLa.
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