Artist Spotlight: Kristina Carroll

Kristina Carroll is another talented artist with work featured in just a few official cards. Her other pieces, like Oshun above, capture a sense of magical realism in an evocative style. She has a gallery page where you can find more of Kristina’s excellent paintings.

Artist Spotlight: Borja Pindado

The repackaged content mostly features reused art from the original releases. However, new art was commissioned for the boxes and some of the campaign cards. Above you can see an excellent piece by the Spanish painter Borja Pindado, which adorns the Angmar Awakened Hero Expansion. Borja’s work is included on several official cards, and you can find more excellent paintings on his artstation page.

Artist Spotlight: Julia Alekseeva

Julia Alekseeva is another talented artist with some excellent Middle-earth themed pieces. Her art is featured in ALeP and First Age cards. Her striking representation of the dramatic moment at the Ford of Bruinen can be seen above. You can find more of Julia’s beautiful pieces on her DeviantArt page.

Artist Spotlight: Jon Hodgson

As with all forms of coordination amongst adults, it can be difficult to schedule a time when everyone can attend our Austin LotR meetups. One the weeks when others cannot attend, a smaller set of us in Austin have started a campaign of The One Ring roleplaying game. The game even offers a “strider mode” where we can play cooperatively without a game master. For any fans of Tolkien and thematic RPG settings, I wholeheartedly endorse this game. The mechanics are setting differ considerably from more traditional “hack-and-slash” roleplaying games.

In any case, the paintings of Jon Hodgson are feature prominently in the first edition of The One Ring. His art has be used in several ALeP cards, but nothing in the official game. As you can see from the piece above, his painting are beautiful and he does a great job of capturing a mood that I think suits Middle-earth perfectly. You can find more of his excellent work on his site.

Artist Spotlight: Sasha Jones

Hundreds of artists have contributed work to this game over the decade plus of its existence. In many cases, an artist might only have one or two pieces featured on official cards, and these pieces might not represent their best work. Golden Shield is the only work of artist Sasha Jones to be included in the game. It’s a fine piece, but one I never paid much attention to. However, you can go to the artist’s site and see that she has some truly beautiful pieces, including the crow featured above.

Artist Spotlight: Oleg Saakyan

Everyone has preferred art styles as aesthetic is inherently subjective. Many of my favorite paintings are ones which evoke a powerful emotion. Impenetrable Fog above, by Oleg Saakyan, is a great example of an evocative piece. Looking at this makes me feel the apprehension of creeping through a fog-filled forest, where you cannot even see what’s in front of your face. Oleg’s art is featured on multiple official cards, but this one is my favorite. You can find more of his evocative art on Oleg’s artstation page.

Artist Spotlight: Sandara Tang

Sometimes an artist’s best Tolkien-related work is not even featured in the game because it is from a part of the Legendarium outside of the Third Age. Sandara Tang’s portrayal of Gothmog fighting Ecthelion is truly epic. Since it takes place so far before the events of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, it only really fits as a First Age card. In any case, she has some excellent official cards and even more pieces on her artstation page.

Artist Spotlight: Leanna Crossan

A fascinating irony is that the more powerful cards can sometimes receive less attention for their art. This makes sense, in that the card text is grabbing players’ attention so the art is at the risk of being overlooked. One such example is the Host of Galadhrim by Leanna Crossan. This card was the capstone to one of my favorite archetypes: Silvan Bounce. The card is undeniably powerful, arguably even game-breaking, but the art deserves more attention. Leanna’s site has more of her excellent work and you can see the official cards featuring her paintings on the Hall of Beorn search engine.

Artist Spotlight: Jenny Dolfen

The Silmarillion includes so many fantastic stories, and the First Age expansion at Tales from the Cards does an excellent job of capturing many of the characters and moments from Tolkien’s foundational mythology. The work of Jenny Dolfen is featured on several cards from the First Age, and my favorite among them is her painting of Eärendil the Mariner, above. You can find more examples of her beautiful paintings on her blog.

Artist Spotlight: Eva Maria Toker

Alongside the epic events, Tolkien’s writing includes some moments of peace and tranquility. Many games focus on the former but intentionally exclude or diminish the beautiful and innocent aspects of the Legendarium. This is unfortunate as the contract between innocence and vile treachery is one of the aspects of Tolkien’s writing which can be so affecting. Eva Maria Toker has several excellent pieces featured on official cards, but my favorite is probably the Hobbit Pony. There is something so sweet about this pony, laden with supplies, that it just evokes a picnic in The Shire. You can find more of Eva’s beautiful paintings on her website and I encourage readers and art fans alike to pay it a visit.