Friday Fan Art!

April 4, 2008

It’s one thing to draw things we know, and quite another to draw things no one has ever seen before. This is especially true in the world of fantastical art: some artists stick to the standard fare of dragons and willow-limbed elves, and others venture far afield, creating entirely new creatures for unusual worlds.

I’ve always seen myself as having a foot in either camp. I draw on a lot of traditional mythological imagery, but I always look at it with a fresh eye for invention. If I’m not drawing a newly invented creature I try to add something exciting to the design. Sometimes I am inspired by the natural world, and sometimes by pure fancy. This is a skill that has taken me years to begin to understand, yet it is one that I’ve seen in abundance from these two inspiring fans!

Christopher, age 10, has created some wonderful faerie/insect-inspired creatures. I really love his sense of imagination, this is definitely the sort of thing I was drawing when I was his age…except I wasn’t as technically adept with the pencil as he is.

Valkyrie (yes her real name – so cool!), age 11(!), has created another amazing creature, the Thestequitrix, and her drawings are so nicely done! She has a great sense of anatomy and gesture, and she’s even developed a great storyline and world to back up it all up.

These two have really inspired me a lot, and I’m so glad that my work is perhaps helping inspire the next generation of great creators.