The Wizard Archive

I’m making this account to archive and share my love for wizards, dragons, and other retro fantasy artwork as well as related graphics and gifs from across the web. My main focus is wizards but there are a lot of really wonderful pieces that feature other things that interest me that I would like to archive here as well.

Dates, names and artist credit can be hard to find for some of these that are lost to time and I am trying my best to document them as well as I can in the best quality I can find. I hope you enjoy my love letter to the fantastical and arcane.

Since this is an archive rather than just an art sharing account I will upload some pieces in varying quality when I have multiple different images. Sometimes i’m unable to find the “best” version online and I’d rather showcase all variations. Some pieces may be without credit or poor quality but I will hopefully come back to them in the future when I find more information about them!

If you have any information about the artist or date of any piece feel free to let me know so I can date and credit things correctly. I may upload incorrect artist names and dates when it’s harder to find, but try my best to find the correct information over time.

None of the art posted here is owned or created by me unless stated otherwise. All rights go to their respective artists.

Wizard and Unicorns by Adrian Chesterman

(2014 or earlier)

Wyrnn the Bookwyrm by Robert Crescenzio (2015?)

Taking a temporary break from posting as I build up my queue again! Been too busy to go and find pieces to post lately and I’ve been stressing myself out rushing to post each day manually. I know I have no obligation to post daily but I do like the consistency!

I’m unable to reply to posts for whatever reason but have a good new year everyone! See you next year!

Edit: I will continue to post but infrequently! I do not have the energy or time to do so daily at the moment but will post when I come across things

Steve Crisp

Skies of Pern by Les Edwards (2000)

“Hardcover and paperback cover a book in the Pern series, by Anne McCaffrey. Published by Corgi. If someone offers you the job of painting the cover of an Anne McCaffrey book you don't really say no. I was pleased with the sense of drama and the author was very complimentary about it. Used on the US paperback, hardback and audiobook covers, the Polish and Russian editions and on a Dutch paperback.”

Way Shower by Gilbert Williams

The Wizard by Les Edward (1982)

Used on the cover of Wizardry and Wild Romance by Michael Moorcock, on a White Dwarf cover, a German magazine cover and a French paperback.

Sue Dawe

Dragonshadow by Les Edwards (1998)

Commissioned by Harper Collins/Voyager for the UK paperback edition of Barbara Hanbly's Dragonshadow. It was published in 1999 and also used on a Russian book cover aswell a German one.

Gilbert Williams

Creature Fantastic by Les Edwards (2001)

“Cover for an anthology of original stories of mysterious and fantastical creatures. It was edited by Denise Little and published by DAW.”

Gilbert Williams

Dragonsinger by Les Edwards (2001)

Commissioned by Transworld for their reprint of the Corgi paperback edition of this novel by Anne McCaffrey

The Hand of Chaos by Keith Parkinson

Cover for The Hand of Chaos: A Death Gate Novel, Volume 5 by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Note from Keith: Painting the dragon in this piece was a bigger challenge than I had expected it to be. Anyone who has seen the original piece will see that the dragon is anything but white, as it appears to be in the printed versions. I used just about every color of the rainbow in the shading and highlighting, except white, to give it that magical effect.

Tales of Othertime by Les Edwards (2021)

“A CD cover painted for the band Stormkeep for their album Tales of Othertime. Interesting to work in this square format for a change and I like the off kilter composition of this piece. You can see the preliminary sketch in the Prelims Gallery.”