Inspirational Art: Richard Hescox

This week's artist is Richard Hescox. The image to the left (source) is an illustration from Towers of Darkover. Like our last Richard this image features flying people. Blame it on having been a huge Runequest and through it mythology as much as fantasy literature fan back in the day. There is something about grand heroes who can, among other things, fly that really puts me in the fantasy mindset. I realize that goes against much of the grain of the OSR and early D&D by being destined to greatness. However, aspiring to it and being destined are not the same thing. I think a game where we encourage our players to aim at being flying women women who control grand psychic technology is very different from insuring they are. There is a heroic game in D&D as well

Our second image from Mr. Hescox (source) I think is more directly inspirational to OSR game masters. Is she a witch calling forth water the drowned, a sorcerer summing water spirits, a wizard animating water, or an alien like those seen in The Abyss. Actually, with the interest in science fantasy using this painting to inspiring the use of those creatures might not be beyond the pale, although they make me think Mutant Future more than D&D.