Now that the cat's out of the bag, the time for hinting is over . . .

Like many of the other Official Star Wars Artists who have blogs here, I'll be contributing 1000 (yes, one thousand) hand-drawn sketch cards to the new Lord of the Rings trading card line from Topps. The line will be dubbed, "Evolution". No idea why, but I couldn't be more excited about this illustration gig.

Here is a full list of artists contributing to Evolution (I've included links to those with blogs here at Star Wars.com):

Allison Sohn
Amy Pronovost
Brent Woodside
Brian Rood
Cat Staggs
Chris Eliopoulos
Christian Dalla Vecchia
Cynthia Cummens
Dan Norton
Dan Parsons
Dave Dorman
David Rabbitte
Davide Fabbri
Dennis Budd
Gabriel Hernandez
Grant Gould
Howard Shum
Jake Myler
James Hodgkins
Jan Duursema
Jeff Chandler
Jeff Zapata
Joe Corroney
John McCrea
Joseph Booth
Juan Carlos Ramos
Justin Chung
Mary Mitchell
Matt Busch
Michael Duron
Mike Lilly
Monte Moore
Otis Frampton Image
Paul Gutierrez
Rafael Kayanan
Randy Martinez
Ray Dillon
Renae De Liz
Rich Molinelli
Robert Teranishi
Russ Walks
Ryan Benjamin
Sarah Wilkinson
Scott Erwert
Thomas Hodges
Tom Mandrake
William O'Neil

I'm late to the party where Rings is concerned, having never read the books growing up. In fact . . . I just became a fan of the film versions this last year, after watching all 3 Extended Edition DVDs in a single day. Before that, I was something of a Rings detractor. I liked Fellowship (it's still my favorite of the three), thought The Two Towers was a step down in quality, and savaged Return of the King after seeing it in the theater (some of my online pals still haven't forgiven me for that one).

I'll admit, part of the reason I was so hard on the Rings films was out of pure, green envy . . . I hated that these films were taking so much attention away from my beloved Star Wars prequels. My team was apparently losing, and my colors showed in the way I reacted to the films upon my initial viewings.

But with each Extended Edition DVD I viewed (in the comfort of my home, on a great home theater, and able to take breaks when I wanted), I grew to enjoy and understand the films better. After seeing Return of the King EE DVD, I finally saw the light. I had a religious-geek conversion, if you will.

Here is my post from a message board after watching the Return of the King DVD in December of 2004:

"Okay, I just finished watching the ROTK EE DVD (watched all 3 EE DVDs in a row today, actually). So if anyone has any questions about the new (vastly improved) cut of the film, fire away.

I may write some kind of review of the final version of these films, but here's the short version: I'm a Rings fan now. I see it. I get it. Watching all of the EE DVDs in a row was an eye opener, and I can honestly say I look forward to repeating the experience someday."

I've watched the films about 4 or 5 times since then (all 3 over the course of about a week, each time). And I've grown into a real Rings fan.

I think my reaction to/disappointment with Revenge of the Sith really opened my eyes to why I was so hard on the Rings films at first, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I was being so petty about a series of movies. Oh well, live and learn.

Anyway, that's my history with the Lord of the Rings films. And it's wonderful that now that I'm finally a fan, I get to actually contribute to this new card line. I'm already hard at work drawing cards, and I'm really happy with how they're coming along. My new love for these films is showing in the work, and I'm experiencing real joy in drawing again (something I haven't felt in a while).

I'll post scans of the cards at my website or personal blog when I can. Topps isn't letting us show any of them yet, but I can't wait to pull back the curtain on the work I'm doing. You can see a bit what I'm doing style-wise in the sketches I posted a few days ago on my personal blog. Those were some warm-up drawings before actually starting work on the cards.

Speaking of which, it's time for me to get back to working on them.

One thousand cards . . . December is going to be a LONG month.

-Otis