Ready your imagination, Adventurer! Rediscovered Realms is diving into a long-lost 2002 interview with legendary fantasy artist Todd Lockwood from “Realms of Fantasy” magazine, where he opens up about dragons, D&D, Tolkien, mythology - and the then-brewing storm of digital art.
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This Week’s Rediscovered Realms Theme Song:
"Keeper of the Endless Stream" follows a faithful cleric’s quiet journey through an ancient forest where nature itself becomes sacred scripture. As she walks beneath whispering boughs and starlit skies, the beauty and harmony of the wild rekindle her belief in the Eternal Mother - keeper of dreams, life, and the flowing thread that binds all things. Will she emerge transformed by what she rediscovers in the heart of the wood?
Back at a time when The Lord of the Rings movies were still fresh in theaters and Dungeons & Dragons was having a big renaissance with its 3rd edition, “Realms of Fantasy” magazine sat down with one of the premier fantasy artists of the time, Todd Lockwood, to discuss fantasy art & meaning, mythology, D&D, LOTR, dragons, . . . and the negative effects of that newfangled digital computer art.
Strap in tight to your dragon saddle and enjoy this fascinating & visually stunning interview by Hugo-nominated writer and journalist, Karen Haber from 2002!
Wyrmskull Throne: “I didn’t want to paint a bunch of dwarves in scuba gear - so they let me kill them. All seven of them.”
TODD LOCKWOOD’S MYTHIC ROOTS By Karen Haber
When Todd Lockwood was 19 years old he discovered Dungeons & Dragons and fell madly in love with the seminal role‑playing game. He had no clue that he would someday help create the defining images for his favorite game, but that’s exactly what happened when he painted one of the dragons that graces the boxed version of the immensely popular third edition of the game from Wizards of the Coast.
“It was a dream come true,” says the soft‑spoken artist over the phone from his Washington home. “Especially now that D&D seems to be enjoying a renaissance among gamers—it’s more popular than ever.”
A gamer at heart, he sums up gaming’s appeal as “a way to be an adult and still play make‑believe. If you were a creative kid—and I was—I played Cowboys and Indians, and Captain Kirk was one of my childhood heroes—and there just comes an age when it’s not cool to run around on the playground with baseball bats shooting them like guns.”
“The Wayward Knights” was Todd’s second cover for TSR and it won him a job there.
DID YOU KNOW?!
”Realms of Fantasy” magazine was published from 1994 - 2011 under several owners for 102 issues.
Instead of focusing purely on heroic fantasy or sword and sorcery, it celebrated the essence of fantasy with speculative fantasy fiction (including some horror), art & artist interviews, nonfiction folklore, and short stories. (The ads for ren fair-type items, weapons & armor, computer games, books and movies were really cool, too!)
It was originally the fantasy companion to “Science Fiction Age” magazine.
It’s an escape hatch from reality that’s action/adventure oriented.” As to the prevalence of male D & D players, he gives full credit to testosterone: “It was designed by a guy for guys.”
Lockwood certainly has a soft spot when it comes to dragons, and his specific take on those scaly critters can be seen in images like Birdfeeder and Dragonlance. His dragons may be fearsome or funny, but above all, they are convincing.
“I do like dragons,” he says, chuckling. “The challenge is to make them believable. You pretty much do have to use everything you know about reptiles and cats and birds and skin and light and volume. It all comes into play. A lot of artists sculpt their dragons and photograph them before they paint them. If I had enough time to do it I think it would be fun to sculpt them. At the very least you have to be aware of the volumes in your head, think three‑dimensionally.
“My dragons tend to have catlike anatomy in their forelimbs and hindquarters and that’s not by accident. Whatever it is that makes the lion the king of the beasts, dragons have in spades. And whatever it is that draws us to lions and, for that matter, dinosaurs. Fierceness. Intelligence. Predatoriness. Overwhelming presence and power.”
Lockwood finds it a bit ironic that he spends his days creating fantasy art. “Originally I was a science fiction fan, especially of the television shows of the late sixties like Star Trek. Loved science fiction—Larry Niven, Robert Forward, hard science, and astronomy. But I like astrology too, because I like that mythological link. In palmistry, the head line, if it’s straight, means you’re intellectual, and if it’s curved, it means you’re creative. Mine is forked: it’s both straight and curved. But the curved side is stronger than the straight. Maybe that’s why I ended up in fantasy.”
Some of the blame can be laid at the feet of J.R.R. Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, which drew Lockwood at least halfway into the fantasy camp. No small wonder, then, that he was ready and waiting when D & D debuted. A graduate of the Colorado Institute of Art, Lockwood spent 15 years toiling in the salt mines of advertising, playing D & D and Earthdawn in his spare time. He eventually …
Kali, a personal work, was inspired by events at Todd’s first convention.
The man in Crescents has been branded with a glowing symbol by Hecate; the crescent shape is echoed in the composition.
DID YOU KNOW?!
Todd Lockwood won the Chesley Award twice for his artwork in “Realms of Fantasy” magazine!
…escaped to the West Coast and a safe roost with Wizards of the Coast.
Lockwood characterizes his job as a dream job, and his enthusiasm for the work is evident in every image on his Web site (www.toddlockwood.com). One of his favorite job benefits has got to be the Wednesday evening D&D games, although Lockwood says with regret that he doesn’t have time to be a Game Master now.
Another powerful influence on his art and life has been the work of Joseph Campbell. “Myths compel me even more than fantasy now, ever since I discovered Campbell’s work and the relationships of different myth systems to each other over millennia. To see how different belief systems affected each other and came together in different ways and became different things was very illuminating.
“Fantasy connects to those mythical roots that have accompanied mankind from the beginning—perhaps that accounts, in part, for its enduring popularity.”
Mythological roots are tightly wrapped around the elements of one of Lockwood’s favorite personal works in pencil, Kali. This densely rendered tour‑de‑force celebrates life—and death—while taking the viewer from the edges of abstraction into surrealistic detail, from fractal patterns to butterfly wings, and back.
“I became fascinated with the meanings behind the metaphors,” he says. “That’s what led to Kali, although she’s more of an Earth Goddess to me than the legendary destroyer Kali. That’s the kind of work I’d like to do more of, personal work that’s bubbling away on my back burners.”
Lockwood cites Frank Frazetta, Michael Whelan, and Brom among his many artistic influences. “But I’ll confess that I really wanted to be Michael Whelan.” His work has received accolades from the Art Directors …
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Club of New York and the CA Annual, has garnered several Chesleys, and has appeared in the Spectrum annuals.
Lockwood has painted in acrylics and in oils and prefers the latter, although he has worked in many media from pencil to computer. He is struck by the peculiar paradox of creating mystical and mythic images by digital means. Although Lockwood mistrusts the effect of digital media upon young artists, he’s achieved an uneasy truce with it.
“I use Painter, especially on tight deadlines. It’s seductive as can be, so easy and immediate and spontaneous. But when you’re done you don’t have a painting, and that’s what troubles me about it. For 20 years I always had an end product I could sit back and look at or bring out of a drawer and show somebody, or hang in an art show. Or sell.
“It’s troubling, too, in the broader sense that art and the art of painting are going to become lost. There will always be painters, I suppose, and perhaps I’m lucky that I know how to paint. Because every quarter the art schools crank out a new bunch of artists who don’t know how to draw a figure but they know how to open Poser and pose a mannequin. Or they don’t know which two colors to combine to make green because the palette on a computer is just point and shoot.
“My biggest complaint about computer art is that it all looks the same, save for the exceptions, like Rick Berry and a few others, who can also paint like crazy with real media.
“With too much computer art you see the hand of the computer rather than the artist’s. It’s a different kind of thought process. Some guys do amazing things with computers—I don’t want to fault the really good artists—but I think it hamstrings a lot of people, certainly in fantasy, where you have to create things that look real and do not exist.”
“You can’t make a dragon by just sticking wings on a crocodile. You have to have an idea of how an animal goes together. Which sort of animal you’re going to use for what part of the anatomy. A computer won’t teach you that because you don’t think, it thinks for you. It enables mental laziness.”
For Lockwood, the good side of the technological revolution is the ability to get images out of the computer. “I print 8½ × 11 prints on my Epson printer that are far more beautiful than I ever got from a photo lab—and I can tweak it in Photoshop until it satisfies me and afford to print as many as I want. I can print and sell my work directly.
“It’s made me accessible to people who want images, which is a win‑win.”
Nevertheless, it’s bothersome to see so many people so disconnected from their reality—from what we are—by technology.
Given these concerns, it’s no surprise that Lockwood makes a special effort to answer questions from burgeoning artists. “I’ve always been grateful for the help and encouragement I received from established artists like Michael Whelan, Kevin Murphy, and Joe DeVito. The supportiveness of artists in this field is unique. I can tell you it doesn’t happen in advertising. And I want to continue that habit of giving, of helping younger artists along. Even if it takes a lot of time, which it does.”
His Web site has a very generous section devoted to discussion of basic technical concerns for beginning artists.
“I hate to ignore those people because I was one of those people. I was a fan before I was a creator. In 15 years of advertising I never got a fan letter, so the reaction from the fans has been very, very gratifying.
“There’s a considerable connection between fans and artists in fantasy, and I remember fondly the artists—who are good friends—who took the time to give me honest critiques and answer my questions and introduce me to ideas I hadn’t considered before. So I can’t not do the same. At the same time, it’s a lot of work, so nowadays I say, ‘Go to my Web site and read my FAQ.’”
Recently Lockwood rediscovered the delights of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings while reading it aloud to his children. “It added a surprising dimension: those words were written to be read aloud.” As of this writing, he’s seen the movie six times and intends to see it several more times before it closes. And he may read the work one more time.
He’s also drawn his children into playing Dungeons & Dragons, and looks forward to reigning as Game Master in his own home—at least for the time being. Dragons and gaming may be in Lockwood’s blood, and that of his offspring. Time will tell. Right now, he’s happy to have led the way to the escape hatch from reality. Lockwood’s family and fans alike can take comfort in the knowledge that he’s holding that door wide open.
A ghost is caught between good and evil represented by the angel and demon on the columns to either side of her.
Todd’s dragons are pure fantasy, but their anatomy is taken from the beast of this world. This cover graced the cover of the Dragonlance Annotated Chronicles.
You are not only brave, but a Generous Adventurer whose love of Discovery, Imagination & Fun transcends our mere mortal coils . . .
I usually never break out of the fantasy theme, but family is very important to me, especially as I get older and there seems to be less and less of us around. I find myself often saying in quiet reflective moments, “What I wouldn’t give just to see Grandma one more time”, or “I wonder how Grandpa dealt with fast-changing life when he was my age.” Fortunately, my parents are still around, but they’re also getting to an age.
Considering Mother’s Day is right around the corner, I wanted to share a series of books I created on Amazon back in 2020 when I started my creative journey.
It’s the “What’s Your Story” series of keepsake journals with neutral paperback covers for Mom, Dad, Grandma & Grandpa to help fill out with their hand or yours. With my usual style you’ve come to know, I tried to craft the questions in a fun way that can go deep - but without getting boring or tedious.
If you have family members that you may one day wonder about things like: “I wonder what Mom was like as a kid?”, or “What would Grandma say was the most important life lesson she ever learned?” or you want to lay down your own legacy for others, then you may appreciate the prompts these journals provide.
“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” - Unknown
Fantasy to me, like Family, is about connection to our past, present, and future. (They both also start with the letter “F”. 🙄) Until next week, Adventurer.
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Keeper of the Endless Stream [Verse] Beneath the boughs where shadows play The Mother calls to light the way With hands of stars she sows the sky Whispering truths we can't deny [Chorus] Oh Keeper of the endless stream The weaver of both life and dream Through mist and time her voice will soar Guiding us to the evermore [Verse 2] The earth her quill the wind her tune She paints the night she wakes the moon The mountains bow the rivers sing In her embrace all seasons cling [Bridge] Through forest dense and meadow wide Her spirit walks her song our guide Each step a path each breath a tale Through endless lands where myths prevail [Chorus] Oh Keeper of the endless stream The weaver of both life and dream Through mist and time her voice will soar Guiding us to the evermore [Verse 3] Each leaf a story root and bark She writes her name in light and dark In every soul her fire burns The Eternal Mother as the world turns.
Great find with that article and love the artwork. And I really like the What's your story journal idea. Recently talking with my mom she brought up a story from her time growing up in Holland that I had never heard. It reminds me of how we really need journals like this as once someone's gone all of these stories can be lost.
Great find with that article and love the artwork. And I really like the What's your story journal idea. Recently talking with my mom she brought up a story from her time growing up in Holland that I had never heard. It reminds me of how we really need journals like this as once someone's gone all of these stories can be lost.
following your KS, the Lockwood article was interesting, i think i may still have the magazine in question you pulled from