Jeff Easley
| Jeff Easley | |
|---|---|
| File:Jeff Easley.jpeg Jeff Easley at GenCon Indy 2014 | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Born: | 1954, Nicholasville, Kentucky, USA |
| Spouse: | Cynthia |
Jeff Easley (born 1954)[1] is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork for role-playing games, comics, and magazines, as well as non-fantasy commercial art.
Early life
Easley was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1954. He spent time drawing as a child, particularly creatures such as ghosts and monsters. "I watched lots of monster movies on the late show, and built every monster model kit I could get my hands on," he said.[1] He attended high school in Nicholasville, and then earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Murray State University in Kentucky.[2]
Career
After Cynthia finished grad school, the couple moved to Massachusetts with some friends, where Easley began his career as a professional artist. "I did freelance work for Warren Publications, including covers and comic strips for Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella, and for Marvel Comics magazines, including covers for Savage Sword of Conan and Bizarre Adventures. But my real income came from my job at the Okey-Doke Popcorn Company."[1] He cites mid-20th-century artist Frank Frazetta as a major influence.[3]
Easley met fellow Kentucky native and artist Larry Elmore through a mutual friend. "When I heard that Larry was planning to leave Fort Knox to join TSR, Inc., I got in touch with him and discovered that there might be other job opportunities there."[1] He applied for a job with TSR: "I... started here in March 1982. My first project was to paint gemstones on the spines of the first four Endless Quest books, but it was definitely uphill from there."[1] Easley's first RPG piece for TSR was Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, as an interior artist.[4]
He went on to do much of the front cover artwork for the popular series of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons hardback rulebooks of the 1980s and 1990s. Some of his artwork from the period was featured on the covers of book such as the AD&D Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master Guide, Tome of Magic, the Monstrous Manual book, and over a dozen Monstrous Compendium supplements, as well several editions of the basic D&D box.[2] Some of his notable works include the cover art of the first edition incarnations of the Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, Legends & Lore, Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, and Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, as well as the second edition core books (the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monstrous Manual). He also painted the first edition Battlesystem cover, the revised Gamma World cover, and numerous adventures and Endless Quest book covers and a Dragonlance Calendar cover.[1] He did the cover of Dragonlance Adventures and other artwork for the Dragonlance series.[5][6] One of his pieces of artwork, "Red Dragon", was featured on the cover of the AD&D book, Monster Manual, from 1983-1989.[7] With the acquisition of TSR by Wizards of the Coast, Easley provided illustrations for forty-nine cards for the Magic: The Gathering game sets from Mercadian Masques through Eventide (Magic: The Gathering).[8] While working freelance, Easley designed gold-and-ivory dragon inlays for deluxe limited-edition guitars.[2] He also provided the artwork for Italian power metal band Rhapsody of Fire's 2006 album Triumph or Agony.[citation needed]
In 2014, Scott Taylor of Black Gate, named Jeff Easley as #5 in a list of The Top 10 RPG Artists of the Past 40 Years, saying "His work covered every single AD&D 1E hardcover core book as well as the AD&D 2E Player's Handbook and DMG. He has also done countless b/w illustrations and there is no artist out there who has filled more RPG pages with artwork than Jeff."[9]
Works
Greyhawk-related works
- World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting (1983): Cover artist
- WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (1984): Interior artist
Non-Greyhawk works
Basic D&D
- X4 Master of the Desert Nomads (1983): Interior artist
- CM1 Test of the Warlords (1984): Interior artist
- B7 Rahasia (B7) (1984): Cover artist, interior artist
- XL1 Quest for the Heartstone (1984): Cover artist, interior artist
- XSOLO Lathan's Gold (1984): Interior artist
First edition
- S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982): Interior artist
- Monster Manual II (1e) (1983): Cover artist
- MV1 Midnight on Dagger Alley (1984): Cover artist
- C3 The Lost Island of Castanamir (1984): Cover artist, interior artist
D&D magazines
Dragon magazine
- Dragon #138 (Oct 1988): Cover artist
- Dragon #170 (Jun 1991): Cover artist
- Dragon #206 (Jun 1994): Cover artist
- Dragon #254 (Dec 1998): Cover artist
- Dragon #260 (Jun 1999): Cover artist
- Dragon Annual 1 (1996): Cover artist, interior artist
- Polyhedron #61 (Jul 1991): Cover artist
- Polyhedron #144 (Oct 2000): Cover artist
External links
References
Citations
- ↑ a b c d e f "TSR Profiles". Dragon. No. #109. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc. May 1986. p. 60.
- ↑ a b c Varney, Allen (December 1998). "ProFiles: Jeff Easley". Dragon (#254): 120. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ About Jeff Easley.
- ↑ Art Evolution 7: Jeff Easley. Black Gate , 27 October 2010.
- ↑ Loohauis, Jackie (August 4, 1996). "A guide to the Gen Con galaxy", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, p.10.
- ↑ D'Ammassa, Don (January 2003). "Masters of Dragonlance Art", DNA Chronicle 25 (1): 30.
- ↑ "Monster Manual printing history", Monster Manual|http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/monster.html]]
- ↑ Magic: The Gathering Gatherer (Search for Jeff Easley). Wizards of the Coast]] , 4 May 2010.
- ↑ https://www.blackgate.com/2014/02/12/art-of-the-genre-the-top-10-rpg-artists-of-the-past-40-years-2/
Bibliography
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