Darius and the Frost Giant.

There is a gap of about ten years between the times I played Darius. One of the events that happened in that period was his friendship with the sprite Pixiefied, whom he rescued from a Frost Giant. Later on, she became a baby-sitter for his children. He has twins, Darius and Daria, and an adopted daughter, Raven.

Darius Yellow-Eyes.

This is a portrait in oils of one of my first and favourite role-playing characters, Darius Yellow-Eyes. He started out as a fourteen-year old thief in a party nowadays termed The Chaos-party. Later he became a polar-werefox. I like the polar fox in the background, it came out well.

Deirdre.

Deirdre is one of the characters I played after Darius. She's a sprite - hard going when the rest of the party is human or worse (i.e. bigger). Both Darius and Deirdre are characters from the world Mystara - yes, I started out playing the original plain Dungeons and Dragons version. Sigh...

The Gates of Hell.

I like this piece because of all the separate elements in it - and it still manages not to look cluttered. The character in the middle looks a bit like me. Coincidence, honest! This picture marks the end of the period in which I did mostly colour pictures - I draw a lot of pictures in b&w nowadays, with black ink.

The Hoja.

This is an illustration I once made for an as yet unpublished Dungeons and Dragons Role-playing adventure. It was written by Robin, a friend of mine (and proprietor of The Dice) for the Gen Con D&D Championship a couple of years ago. This is the third of three illustrations I made for that adventure and the only one made after the adventure was actually played. It's a round room - those shadows were difficult.

Merlin's Cave.

This is a picture I once made for an essay I wrote a couple of years ago, about the life of Merlin. The story it illustrates actually precedes Merlin's introduction into Arthurian Legends; it tells about how Vortigern once ordered a tower built, but every night the foundations of the tower collapsed. He was told he had to find a boy with no father and mix his blood with the mortar to keep the tower from collapsing again. That boy was Merlin, and he told Vortigern that the reason that the tower would not remain standing was that beneath the foundations there was a cave in which there dwelled two dragons; one red, one white. Every night the dragons fought each other, shaking the cave and making the tower collapse. These dragons, he said, symbolised the struggle between the Britons and the Saxons. (Vortigern's symbol was a white dragon and to this day, the Welsh people have a red dragon on their flag) Merlin, by the way, is my favourite legendary character - together with Loki from the Norse Mythology.

Redhaired Kender.

Right. Actually, Marius, this picture's called The Wanderer, and it's not a kender! (I thought I told you so!) I like this picture, because everything came out right. It's got a bit of a gloomy atmosphere because of the dark sky - I like gloomy skies. The colours came out rather well - they give it a real autumn-like feel. The tree could have been a bit better, though - it doesn't quite fit in with the rest.