Wednesday, April 14, 2010

War Of The Angels: Todd Lockwood


In addition to his Orcus illustration, of which I earlier professed my fondness, Todd Lockwood produced several other pieces of black and white art, appearing in Dragon Magazine in late 1980.

Sixteen years later, Todd Lockwood would become better known for his color illustrations, having been instrumental in defining the look of 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons art.

In the process of discovering his later body of work, I came across another black & white Tom Lockwood illustration, which I believe is entitled War of the Angels. His mastery of light and dark, evident in the Orcus illustration, is re-affirmed in this piece.

Sadly, my ambivalence towards the "modern" D&D rulesets interfered with my appreciation for the artwork being produced by the Todd Lockwoods, Fred Fields and the other, later, D&D artists. While the early illustrators, like Dave Sutherland, Erol Otus and David Trampier will always strongly define the visual representation of D&D for me, its great to see that other artists like Todd Lockwood had a connection to the early days of the hobby, and, even then, made a strong impact on what I thought D&D was meant to "look like".

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