I have been illustrating Tolkien's books ever since I first read them, long before illustration became my profession.

Drawing must seek for interest, not for admiration. Because admiration wears quickly.

I have been illustrating Tolkien's books ever since I first read them, long before illustration became my profession.

My initial plan was to spend a year in France, go to some kind of school and learn a bit of French. I went a year in an American college in the outskirts of Strasbourg, but got a glimpse of a real art school, L'Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, and enrolled the following year.

Occasionally projects just take off unexpectedly, sometimes you can work away at sketches and ideas for years before they are published. There are a number of authors I would be eager to illustrate.

Dragons and bridges are very much something out of fairy tales and fantasy.

What can make your work interesting is as much who you are, as how you draw.