First of the year... with hopes it'll be a good one for all!

So, it's bloody cold outside and there's at least four inches of snow, the car is frozen and the kitchen is cold, ,but at least our one main fire works and I can survive a few minutes at the colder end of the room to bring you the first post of 2013.
[I'd actually typed 'cod' instead of 'cold' then remembered switching the light on helps, I will warm up eventually :)]

 So what news, well I've now finished a few major jobs, including for the French production of Advanced Fighting Fantasy - Défis Fantastiques-Le Jeu de rôle which contains work from many artists including me [I'll post a 'new' picture to wet your appetite later]; for the music group Blackbird Raum [see cover and map last post] and the their record company - the Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club [for whom I'm working on a T-shirt design], and for Kobold Press, which is a bit hush hush at the moment. 

But first a few oldies from a variety of sources. Work first published for the BFS Fanzine of old [mostly spots], Games Workshop and a couple of other places. 

Do not look into the 'cat's' eyes.

A fighting Dark Elf.

                                                                  A Spectral knight

Here you can see an early piece of monster creating, where I was still experimenting with pen, and trying not to be 'pigeon holed' .... [laugh] As if!

 

 

Here [above] we have a 'credits' page for an old copy of a related British Fantasy Society publication, and on the left, a sketch for a disgruntled warrior dwarf.

 

 For the 1988 World Fantasy Convention I was asked to create a few spot pieces each linked to the theme of a vampiric Jack the Ripper.

Below is part of a larger picture drawn for Games Workshop where the performance of a play is effected by a gibbering Chaos moon.

 

 More recent work includes the following ... First from a few years ago where we find Wizard Elves fighting back the world of Chaos.

This one [below] shows shows our warriors menaced from the denizens of the forest.

 

Now for more recent pieces. First a Dragon Warrior, and below a new piece for Défis Fantastiques-Le Jeu de rôle. I could show more but why not buy the book?

To finish; on the previous posting, Chuck commented how much he liked the map and if I'd show a section of it. So for Chuck, and anyone else who'd like to see that below is a couple of sections. 

Th...Th...That's all folks. Till the next time ;).

AS PROMISED ...

As promised ... a final post before the years end. I hadn't planned to leave it so late, but I've been a bit busy [grin] though the Christmas period has slowed me down a little.

First, a couple of pieces from my work on the up and coming new album "FALSE WEAVERS" for the group Blackbird Raum https://en-gb.facebook.com/BlackbirdRaum and produced by Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club.

First the record cover... [FULL COVER & FRONT COVER]

Plus the map that will accompany it... Sorry this is a bit small, but I believe the original will appear A3.
 

Look out for it all in the early new year.

Also a piece for a new adventure to come from Goodman Games.

To divide the 'new' from the 'old' a bit of colour.

This is the Mudworm from Mudworm Swamp, book 3 in the series 'The adventures of Goldhawk' by Ian Livingstone. I had to create the beast so the cover artist had something to work from, whereas the original 'pig' was created by Ian McCaig I believe.

Now in the last post Springinsfeld mentioned his son was reading [playing] a couple of the Robin of Sherwood books and further to my reply and pure serendipity I found some of the original artwork and reproduce it here below.

For those who like the information, these were done with a dip rather than my more usual technical pen.

Atom made a comment on facebook about, 'Always lots of interesting things happening in Russ Nicholson street scenes. Middenheim in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is no exception'. Well here it is and below it another street scene. Hope you like it Andy.

For those that want more apparently you can download the whole book for free.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/93341519/WFRP-1st-Edition-Middenheim-
Warhammer-City. 

I don't know who gave 'them' permission to use my artwork [I know it wasn't me ...laugh] and although Games Workshop have rights to the original book they do not to my artwork being reproduced by another company, or group, but that is the murky world of copyright I suppose. 

Now a couple of other pieces found on the internet. 

 

This [above] from 'The Fiend Folio' ... Meazel's.

Below from one of Dave Morris' excellent creations one of my drawings.

Below is a study for a lizard done in the mists of time. Media ... chinagraph pencil [or similar].

Here we have a spot piece for a Fanzine I think.

 

This picture was never used for 'The Trolltoth Wars'. My final decision was to split the scene into two using it to 'bookend' the text.

Finally a piece for the BFS [I think] for their Bulletins letters page. Remember those days when writing letters was the thing to do? Ah, happy days.

Thanks for being there ... see you in the New Year.

PS: as the record cover and map came out a tad small here they are again.

A Happy New year 2013 to all!

Seasons greetings

I've been very busy these last few weeks on various projects, and feel remiss to not posting anything since my last, especially as I've a lot of old and some new work to post.

Like the old adage 'watch this space in 2013!' 

But I will put up more before the old year is out.

Still, for those who read my blog, here is a reworking of an old piece for the season.

 Have a good time, in what ever fashion you can, and look out for my record cover and new map design that I will be posting soon.

Thanks for 'following', Russ

So what's new?

Having delved into the distant past in the last two posts it's time to look to what is happening now. Well, simply I'm busy with a range of different projects, all with differing schedules, most of which I cannot mention at the moment except to say they are nicely diverse and include work for new games, a record cover, a map and a book cover. 

Fine and good but what can I post? Well here is a selection from at least one new job as well as a couple of oldies to end with.

I recently completed a few pieces for RuneQuest: Monster Island, which comes out next year. See the site for more details. 

 http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/news.php
Having trouble 'uploading' so if the next are oldies you've seen before ... my apologies.

This last was a sort of 'redo' of old pieces showing of examples of my work and to act as banner [I believe] for Bambooraven many years ago.  

Sorry for short post but who knows next time...:)

Thanks for being there.

Now ... back to the drawing board. 

Postscript: Forgot [busy, busy, busy] to mention that one of the games is related to the excellent AFF first brought out by Graham Bottley, and will appear in France soon with some additional work by myself. For those interested the link is 
 http://fr.ulule.com/defis-fantastiques-le-jeu-de-role/
and Graham is soon to bring out the second AFF book in the series and will be at Dragonmeet 2012 http://www.dragonmeet.co.uk/  I had hoped to be there but as I've mentioned; I'm busy, busy, busy ;)!

Also, if you've the time do check out Dave's latest Fabled Lands blogpost about Abraxas.
http://fabledlands.blogspot.co.uk/

Now, once more to the draw mobile! 

Even further back ...

Even although the Fantasy Magazine Anduril 6 is dated 1975, I'm well aware, looking at several pieces of my artwork, kindly used by John Martin [editor and publisher], they in fact date much earlier [in some cases].  

My work had appeared on some comic fanzines covers before this, but Anduril 6 was, I believe [but my memory can be suspect], my first Fantasy cover, certainly my first front and back cover. 

 

And also my last ... [laugh] for a variety of reasons.

One of the characterisatics of these pictures used in the magazine is a slight attempt to do varying styles; I've picked out the 'best' to show you here.

Inside the front cover illustrating a poem about Bilbo in Mirkwood we find a slightly different stylised piece.

The next are two spots, I suspect the latter was originally a rough which I never 'tightened'. As some of you have suspected, even commented upon, on occasion I have, as many artists [if I'm allowed that conceit] have done, reused an idea. This is more apparent in my younger days and less [I hope] as I've aged [grin]. But if you disagree ... don't tell me; I'll just sulk.

It was this type of work that failed miserably with publishers in the 1970's. It was considered to be derivative and not very original ... does wonders for your confidence, and was one of the reasons I decided to become a teacher. 

The next are for a story featured in the magazine.

One of my favourite characters, whose stories I read in the 60's into the early 1970's, were the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser by Fritz Leiber. Here is one of my pictures I used to illustrate an article about them. 

Lastly, her is an other set of pictures for a fun story which I was allowed to experiment with in terms of layout. 

Before anyone asks .. I'm not sure where the originals are or even if I still have them. 

So there we have it. What other news?

Finished my first record cover, which was most enjoyable. Still a couple of bits to complete for that project but it progresses well. Finished five pictures for a new Runequest project ... more detail when I can, and about to start some new jobs, including ... [sound of drums] a book cover. It has an open deadline so it may be a while before I can post more about it. 

Thanks for being there.