Painting Heroes
By Michael G. Ryan
For fans of the Knights of the Silver Dragon series, the art is just as exciting as the stories. And artist Emily Fiegenschuh, who has done every cover and the black-and-white illustrations inside each book beginning with the first (Secret of the Spiritkeeper), loves creating that excitement.
"The first Wizards project I worked on was Monster Manual II for Dungeons & Dragons," she remembers." I worked on several other D&D books over the next year, and one of the art directors suggested I send my portfolio to the folks who worked on the young adult novels. They liked my work, and that's how I got started doing the Knights of the Silver Dragon covers."
Creating a Work of Art
Emily has always loved fantasy. When she was a kid, she spent tons of time drawing monsters and dragons. "Working on the Knights of the Silver Dragon series has brought a lot of my interests together," she says, "so it has been really fun to work on!"
So far, she has done about one cover every two months for the series, and she has just begun work on another one. The actual watercolor paintings are three or four times larger than the actual covers of the books. "When I start, I usually have a description of what the cover should be about and what characters are important to include," she says. She designed the looks for all of the characters to make their clothing, hair, and overall look really reflect each different personality.
"I hope the fans can tell what each character is like just by looking at them!" she says.
Sometimes she or her husband will pose so she can get an idea how the characters should be standing on the cover. "And Moyra's jacket is based on a jacket I actually own," Emily admits. So, if you think you see Moyra at the mall one day, you might actually be seeing artist Emily Fiegenschuh!
Getting Started, Being Successful
"When I was young," Emily says, "my dad took a lot of business trips to Japan. I was always sort of a tomboy, so I was into things like Transformers and dinosaurs and video games, so he'd bring back Zoids and other cool toys, including Japanese video game magazines. I couldn't read them, but I loved the artwork."
She says that her art has been very influenced by manga and anime (two kinds of Asian comic art) and even by old cartoons like Bugs Bunny or comic books from when she was growing up. "I was never very good at drawing in an American superhero comic style. I tried very hard to do that in middle school, but I couldn't!"
And now, she gets to see her work on the bookshelves in the stores! Secret of the Spiritkeeper, Riddle in Stone, and Sign of the Shapeshifter are already available, with more books to follow. "It's very exciting!" Emily says. "Since these are my first covers, I was especially looking forward to their release. My family is really excited about them too, and I think it's nice for them, especially my parents, to see something that was a hobby for me as a kid turned into a career."
