Xmas/Dragonmeet releases?

[Rich H]

Rich, that drawing is amazing.

Heh, thanks fella - was only a messy sketch but glad it amused you. Hope Jon likes it!

I wonder if Jon is more of a messy artist. That's the impression your drawing gives anyway

When he worked on some art for me (he did a commission for my gaming group's TOR player characters), I got to see his initial pre-painted work and he is very sketchy. I also think his finished painting work has an impressionistic quality to it as well. It's a style that I really like. Not sure he's 'messy' in the true sense though.

I think Jon's an exceptional artist - I'm saving up to ask him to do me another painting of the 4 hobbit PCs from my Three's Company campaign but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Beleg]

I think Jon's an exceptional artist

Totally agree with this. His work is my favourite representation of Tolkien's Middle Earth

[Rich H]

His work is my favourite representation of Tolkien's Middle Earth

Apart from one or two pieces by differing artists I'm inclined to agree. When TOR was announced all the while back and Jon was confirmed as the artist I thought it was a completely inspired choice - this was just based on what I'd seen him produce for Dragon Warriors. I think his art is very evocative of the Third Age and the understated fantasy setting of Middle Earth.

Actually, the other artists that have worked on TOR are also very in keeping - obviously John Howe is awesome too but I really like Tomasz Jedruszek's work as well. I think all three artists have very complimentary styles. It give the TOR books a very strong and coherent artistic style. Would love some high-value/collector hardback editions of the main rulebooks.

[trystero]

I'll second the shout-out for Jon's work and for that of Tomas Jedruszek; I love the combination of their two styles with the beautiful layout of the books. The art in TOR was the first thing I raved about, even before I sat down to read the rules: from the covers to the page illustrations to the vignettes for adversaries, it's all wonderfully moody and evocative.

Now, I enjoy the work of other Middle-earth artists like John Howe, Alan Lee, and Ted Nasmith, though in all honesty I have to say that I find them a tad hit-or-miss: some pieces work better for me than others. And I've always adored the paintings of the late Angus McBride, who produced cover art for previous Middle-earth RPG releases in the 1980s and 1990s. But I do appreciate that TOR has found its own look for Tolkien's world; I thought I knew what Middle-earth looked like in my mind, but Jon and Tomas have shown me things (colours, views, qualities of light) that I'd missed.

[Jon Hodgson]

Well shucks. Thanks very much!

I'm pretty tidy in myself - I try to keep my working environment fairly clean and tidy. Depends how busy things get though: Just recently it'd reached a mess of epic proportions and I had to totally go to town on the cleaning up. I work much better with a nice clean desk.

[Hermes Serpent]

Does that clean-up mean you finished a whole load of art stuff for a new release in one of the C7 lines I play?

See anything you say will be taken down and analysed to death to see if there is any underlying meaning as to future releases

[roodie]

Back to the topic... any hope of at least getting a tentative maybe on the release of The Darkening of Mirkwood before Christmas? Having a kid means I have to make plans well in advance, so it would be nice to know my available budget since that book is on my "preorder it as soon as possible" list

[farinal]

Getting the Darkening of Mirkwood for Xmas would have been really nice, yeah

[Jon Hodgson]

Back to the topic... any hope of at least getting a tentative maybe on the release of The Darkening of Mirkwood before Christmas? Having a kid means I have to make plans well in advance, so it would be nice to know my available budget since that book is on my "preorder it as soon as possible" list

Keep an eye on the c7 website and forums!

[roodie]

Keep an eye on the c7 website and forums!

Well, I do that every single day.

And not just for the news - the community here on the forums is quite nice and friendly, good to be a part of it.