I was trying out my new Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen the other night (Righteous, BTW), and drew and inked a study of Russ Nicholson’s fantastic front illustration to the original Fiend Folio (seen here, pencil marks and all). You know, the one with the great black and white illustrations, rather than the full color, super-hero-y bullshit that TSR started putting out after the First Editions.
Man, I’m old school about my monster drawings. I loved Russ Nicholson- he was part Gahan Wilson, part Gerald Scarfe, part Shel Silverstein. His creatures always had a comic menace to them, as if they would crack wise whilst slitting your throat. His ink work is so organic, and although there’s so much mark-making, it never feels busy to me.
I also loved Dave Trampier, Erol Otus, Jeff Dee, Jim Roslof (at times), and Bill Willingham (also at times). Trampier’s Wormy was amazing, and Otus’ stuff was weird to me as a kid, but I find it stuck with me in an odd way. I’d love to see a collection of this stuff, besides the horrible scans from old, dying websites.
So Russ, if you’re out there, you should really put up an official website. I’d love to see either an online collection of your work, or a book (which I’d most definitely buy). And Erol, you’re website has been promising to come into view “in the near future” for far too long. Come ON, man!
(If anyone has any leads where I can find any of these collections, I’d appreciate it.)
UPDATE: By the way, I do commissions. If anyone wants me to either draw and ink them an illustration, let me know. We’ll work out the price.
Kenwoode 
inkwork by “the Hack” in question sorta reminds me of William Stout. Very nice stipple action.
Thanks for the comments Ken – I’ve seen a lot of ‘copies’ of my rawings over the years and this is not as bad as you describe. Russ
This is fantastic- THE Russ Nicholson commented on my study of his work! (The internet is awesome.) I edited out Russ’s email, as I’m sure he would appreciate not having every D&D fanboy in the know universe contacting him.
Now, a deeper mystery reveals itself. Who is Ken? Did Russ think I was Ken, and was responding to the body of the post? Or was Ken one of Russ’s tattle-tale minions, scouring the net for ill-advised studies of Russ’s work? “Russ, you’ve got to see what this guy did to your stuff! He butchered it!” Or perhaps there is a third possibility, that of “Ken” being a British term (I believe Russ is British) for an American hack. Is “Ken” Cockney-rhyming slang? Did Russ Nicholson call me a wren? I won’t have it, I tell you!
Thanks again, Russ. And, I think from your comment, I can assume that you understood I meant no disrespect in doing a quick study.
I imagine Russ thought this was the blog of someone named Ken Woode. That was my impression at first, as well.
That’s exactly right, Jon. And was needlessly embarrassed about it.
Great study piece, how bout a few more! 😉
In case he didn’t list his web address when he posted, Ross has a blog:
http://russnicholson.blogspot.com/