01.09.10: There's finally some news on the Tolkien-front. I'm still working on new paitings, which hopefully will be finished soon. For the meantime there are some new drawings, mostly for The Snake's Checkmate, in the Drawings-section. Some of them were drawn last year, but since I started a new sketchbook in the meantime I somehow forgot to scan them. The drawing below is based on canon LotR, though, entitled "Faramir and Boromir".

Also, I'm very happy to announce that the 2011 Calendar of Heren Istarion, the Northeast Tolkien Society is going to feature plenty of my artwork. The calendar is up for preorder now, so make sure to reserve your copy.

Thirdly, I had to change my entry for the Temeraire Fanart Contest – in fact I had to create a new one, as well as sending in three of my older pieces. The problem were copyright-matters, since I had painted a scene involving characters from the Temeraire-series as well as Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin-series which I greatly adore. Had Naomi written a shortstory and published it commercially in the book that's going to show the winning artwork of the Contest, there would have arise said copyright-issues. So I'm simply going to post the piece here. It's entitled "Sonata for violin, 'cello, flute and dragonhorn".

 

24.08.10: The summer so far has been very busy and productive. I've completed illustrations for three more books for Portal Editions, Shadows among the Trees, The Anatomy of Air and The Explorers of the Chest. As soon as the books have been released by the publisher, I'm going to post the illustrations here.

Another project I have been involved in was layouting a book commemorating the 100th anniversary of a local company in Herborn, Balzer und Nassauer.

A local project I also gladly supported was the creation of a box for a mobile apple-press. As soon as I have photos of the actual box, I'm going to put them up on this site. For now here's the link to Marthas Mobile Mosterei where you can see some of my paintings for the box already, depicting the village of Greifenstein-Beilstein where the press is situated. The illustrations are watercolours.

Also, I've completed a number of private commissions, such as a painting depicting two characters from Karl May's Orient-series, Kara Ben Nemsi and Hadschi Halef Omar Ben Hadschi Abul Abbas Ben Hadschi Dawuhd al Gossarah. As a child I read the series over and over again, and thus found drawing the characters a nice reminder of those times and an interesting challenge. The ink-drawing is A3 in format.

Last but not least I just sent off my entry for Naomi Novik's awesome Temeraire Fanart Contest, and am now working on a number of Tolkien-inspired illustrations. I really missed doing Tolkien-stuff, and am now very much looking forward to completing the paintings I have begun, and to turning the many new sketches I drew in the past months into paintings.

And speaking of Tolkien-art, Silver Leaves Issue #3 features an interview with me and some of my artwork. Do check out the journal, as it contains loads of interesting stuff besides.

26.04.10: I've just returned from the Tolkien Seminar, with many ideas for more Tolkien studies, and more Tolkien art. Now the only thing I need is time to actually get it done. First, however, I have to finish another series of illustrations for Portal Editions, and a couple of other commissions.

Also, there is another publication featuring my artwork, entitled Fastitocalon. More information about the book and its contents can be found at the Fastitocalon website.

07.02.10: The 2010 Tolkien Seminar organised by the German Tolkien Society and Walking Tree Publishers deals with "Tolkien and Romanticism". For the illustration, I "quoted" a painting by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich entitled "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" (1817/18), altering it a little to give it a Tolkienean touch.

This Seminar will also see me as a lecturer, speaking about "The aesthetics of Middle-earth. Paintings and architecture of the Romantic period and their influence on J.R.R. Tolkien" together with Marcel Bülles. The complete schedule can be found here.

05.02.10: I finally managed to put my illustrations for Golgrim's Keys online, the first volume of a series of fantasy books entitled The Scarecrow and the Storms published by Portal Editions. I have created a new section on this website for this project, as there are more books to follow, some of which I'm currenty in the process of illustrating.

11.01.2010: Happy new year! After an extremely busy end of 2009, the new year seems to be continuing along the same lines – which is good. I'm currently working on illustrations for two books published by Portal Editions, and am going to update this website soon with samples of my drawings for the first book I illustrated for them last year.

Also, Beowulf and the Dragon has arrived from the printer, and it looks awesome. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, and am thrilled to finally see it in print. A big thank you goes to Walking Tree Publishers for agreeing to take the risk and publish it, and to all who contributed. Below is the cover again and some sample pages, which can be found at the publisher's website, together with information about prices and availability. Also check out the Beowulf-section of my website where you can read about how this project developed.

Apart from Beowulf and the Dragon, some other books featuring my artwork have been published recently. There are an English and a German version of Music in Middle-earth (Musik in Mittelerde), the former again published by Walking Tree and the other by Verlag der Villa Fledermaus. Both feature my watercolour "Daeron and Lúthien" on the cover. Clicking on the respective covers will lead you to the publishers' websites, where more information about the books and larger versions of the covers can be found.

Lastly, some time ago a book about dragons has been published by Fanfan Chen and Thomas Honegger. It contains a collection of articles concerned with these creatures, and bears the title Good Dragons are Rare: An Inquiry into Literary Dragons East and West. I contributed the cover illustration. The pencil drawing can be seen in a larger version below, as well as its use on the cover. It shows a western and an eastern dragon.

 

28.11.09: Another book I've been involved in the making of has just arrived from the printer: Herborn – Historische Stadtansichten. This book, published by Herborn's Historical Society contains over 300 historic photographs of the various parts of the town, which in 2001 celebrated its 750th anniversary. I was responsible for typesetting and layout, and also contributed some of my Herborn-inspired drawings. More information about the book and some sample pages can be found by following the link below.

 

21.11.09: André Gand of www.tolkien-buecher.de has conducted an interview with me concerning Beowulf and the Dragon. You can read it here:

Interview

19.11.09: More Beowulf: Beowulf Alive is a live-performance of the poem by Hannes Kaiser. I created an illustration to be used on the posters announcing the events, as well as a series of illustrations for the text which was adapted by Hannes. Clicking on the poster will tell you more about the performance, clicking on the drawing will lead to the Beowulf Alive-section on my website where the other illustrations can be found.

13.11.09: I'm very happy to announce that Walking Tree Publishers are going to publish my version of Beowulf and the Dragon which I designed and illustrated for my final project at Colchester Institute in 2003. The book is going to feature a foreword by eminent Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey. I am very pleased that he agreed to it. In fact, it is only fitting. It was because of his book The Road to Middle-earth that I got interested in Old English and Beowulf in the first place. I'm also indebted to John Porter who allowed us to use his verse translation in the published version, and to Thomas Honegger for his editorial assistance. Below is the cover of the published edition. More information about my Beowulf-project and the illustrations can be found here, and at the WTP-website.

08.10.09: A new and somewhat unusual Tolkien-painting, entitled "Tom and the Hobbits", commissioned by Frank Schmelzer. It has the form of a dyptych, so actually it consists of two paintings, 30x40cm in format, and contains a little inside joke.

09.09.09: I've put the artwork for Black Powder War online, the third of Naomi Novik's Temeraire-novels I illustrated for Subterranean Press. The artwork can be found in the Temeraire-Section and also on the Temeraire-Wiki.

06.09.09: Two new Tolkien paintings: one for The Lord of the Rings, the other for my "Gladden Fields"-series from Unfinished Tales. They are entitled "Boromir takes leave" and "Isildur's last counsellor".

12.08.09: There are some more news on the book-front: Firstly, yet another publication by Walking Tree Publishers, a collection of essays about JRR Tolkien and his work by Prof. JS Ryan, I contributed 14 ink drawings to, strongly inspired by Viking art. The book's title is: Tolkien's View: Windows into his World.

Secondly, the fifth volume of Hither Shore, the annual journal of the German Tolkien Society has been released. This edition's topic is The Hobbit.

And speaking of The Hobbit, there is a new painting in the Hobbit-Section, entitled "Smaug over the Lonely Mountain".

18.07.09: Ok, I know it looks like I have fallen off the face of the earth, but that's not the case. In fact, the past months have been very busy (at school, uni, and in the form of commissions), and very productive.

The two books for G&G Verlag I have been working on are now finished, and are going to be released soon. They are Princess Sisi, a picture book, and Fairytales from Austria, a collection of re-narrated traditional folktales.

As much as I enjoyed working on both projects, I am also glad that now, finally, I have some time for new Tolkien-inspired illustrations. I also have a couple of other, smaller commissions, but they should leave me time to return to Middle-earth. I really missed it. So watch out for new Tolkien-pics soon, as well as artwork from other commissions.

22.03.09: By now I have almost completed the "Sisi"-commission for G&G Verlag, and am going to continue with the "Fairytales of Austria". In between I managed to draw an illustration for the poster announcing the 6th Tolkien Conference of the German Tolkien Society, in association with Walking Tree Publishers. It's going to be held at the university of Hannover, Germany from April 24th to 26th. More information and the seminar's program can be found here. A larger version of the poster can be seen in the drawings-section, or by clicking on the image below.

In other news, Portal Editions have just sent me copies of the first part of their fantasy-trilogy The Scarecrow and the Storms for which I created the cover illustrations. They have changed the layout a little to the black covers which I posted on December 12th. I think the change is a good one. Soon, Portal Editions is also going to publish an "Adventure Book" based on the first novel, containing another cover by me and a number of interior illustrations.

10.02.09: I have just received my copies of Jeder Tag ein neuer Anfang ("Every day a new beginning, a bible for children) published by G&G Verlag. By now I'm already working on the next two projects for this publisher: a picture-book about the childhood of von Empress Elisabeth of Austria ("Sisi"), as well as a book about Austrian Fairytales. Following the link below there are some impressions from the bible:

01.12.08: Again it's been some time since my last update. I have by now completed the illustrations for Jeder Tag ein neuer Anfang (the children's bible) for G&G Verlag and have started on a new project for the same publisher.

I have also created three cover-designs and -illustrations for Portal Editions, for their trilogy The Scarecrow and the Storms, and am currently working on illustrations based on the first book for their website. Once they are done, I'm going to create an extra section on my website for this project. For now, you can have a look at the covers below (clicking on the images will lead to the Portal Editions website, where they can be seen in a larger version).

In addition, my artwork for Throne of Jade, the second of Naomi Novik's Temeraire-novels, is online. The third volume, Black Powder War, is going to be released by Subterranean Press around the end of the year, and they have featured two of my illustrations for that book on their website.

29.09.08: It has been quite some time since my last update. The reason is that I am very busy at the moment, working on another commission for G&G Verlag (a Bible for children), with other projects already lining up. So, sadly, there has hardly been time for new Tolkien-artwork lately. Earlier this year, however, I finished a piece entitled "Daeron and Lúthien", which is to be used as a cover illustration for a new book from Walking Tree Publishers : Music in Middle-earth

The book will be published in English and German, and the editors Heidi Steimel and Friedhelm Schneidewind are still looking for contributors. The call for papers can be found here.

In other news, there are two new drawings for The Snake's Checkmate in the Drawings-section: "First fitting" and "The Entertainers"

 

Older posts