After working on 2 sets of Star Wars sketch cards for Topps, I found myself scribbling away on 350 sketch cards for Topps' latest release, Lord of the Rings: Evolution.

It was a wonderful experience to work on these three sets, Star Wars: Heritage and ROTS, as well as LOTR. The creative freedom, the ability to interpret characters in our own way, whether cartoon-ish or realistic, allowed me to contribute more than a small part of myself artistically. How I draw often depends on the mood I'm in at the very moment I sit down at my drawing desk. Likewise, sometimes a specific character will connect with something in me. For example, I can't help but feel child-like whenever I scribble an Ewok, and so many of my ewok sketches have an innocent expressiveness to them. Drawing Vader, or a Ring Wraith, often puts me in touch with my own dark side and so those sketches tend to be heavy-handed and moody. It feels good to surrender to those characters as they gently nudge me to allow my feelings to come to the surface.

To collectors who may be reading this, I hope you enjoy all the sketch cards you pull or win at auction, whether it's from an artist you've been following for a while or from someone whose work you're not familiar with. There's a little piece of us in each and every sketch.

If you'd like to learn a bit more about my process for the Lord of the Rings sketch cards, you can check out my recent interview at The One Ring.net.

http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/8/1141178964