Fred Fields is an American artist whose work has appeared largely in the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

from TSR.

Biography

Fred Fields was born in northern

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. He grew up in the small town of

Burlington, Kentucky Burlington is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Boone County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 17,318 at the 2020 census. History Burlington was incorporated in 1824. However, today Burlington is unincorpora ...

. Fields wanted to be an artist since childhood: "I don't know that becoming an artist is a decision you can make... I've been drawing since before I can remember, and I started painting at age nine. I used to do all these monsters and stuff, and my mom was frankly a little concerned about it. Now that I'm making a living at it, I think mom's OK with it. My parents always encouraged me to draw and do what I wanted with it. They've always been 100% behind me." Fields attended the Central Academy of Commercial Art in Cincinnati, and moved to Chicago after graduation. He worked there for about a year in advertising, producing illustrations and concept sketches for both television commercials and print ads. He worked at Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago as a storyboard comp artist. Fields continued painting on his own time, and began sending out samples of his work; ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' magazine was among the clients those who were interested in his work. Fields painted his first cover for ''Dragon'' in 1988, for issue #142. He applied to TSR's art department soon after and was hired. "I went from freelancing, completely on my own, to sitting in a room with the likes of

Clyde Caldwell Clyde Caldwell (born February 20, 1948) is an American artist. Self-described as a fantasy illustrator, he is best known for his portrayals of strong, sexy female characters. With his work at TSR in the 1980s, he is considered one of the artis ...

, Brom, Tony Szczudlo,

Robh Ruppel Robh Ruppel is an American artist best known for his work on role-playing game products. Critic Joseph Szadkowski of ''The Washington Times'' has referred to him as a "horror genius". Early life Robh Ruppel grew up in Bellaire, Texas, and atte ...

, Dana Knutson,

Randy Post Randy "rk" Post is an illustrator of fantasy publications. Background Post was raised in Illinois on a farm. Post has done freelance work for TSR, including ''Red Steel'', ''Cutthroats of Lankhmar'', and '' Spells & Magic''. Post garnered a f ...

, and

Todd Lockwood Todd Wills Lockwood (born July 9, 1957) is an American artist specializing in fantasy and science fiction illustration. He is best known for his work on the role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and for his covers for the books of R. A. Salv ...

. I just sort of stopped and thought, 'Wow, I've arrived.'" Fields worked on scenes from worlds such as

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setti ...

, and even

Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a '' pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land piece ...

, saying "It was fun doing the Gothic horror stuff. In some cases, I think I took it further than other artists. I put a lot more blood in there." His work was represented in the 1996 collection ''The Art of TSR: Colossal Cards''. Critic Joseph Szadkowski of ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...

'' singled out Fields's work "Dragon Claw" as "stunning", and later named the collection as the year's "Best Trading Card Release Based on Fantasy Art". Archangel Entertainment released a book of his artwork in 1999, entitled ''The Art of Fred Fields''. In May 2010, artwork by Fields appeared as part of the "Lucid Daydreams" Exhibition at Gallery Provocateur in Chicago.http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org/visual-arts/node/26562

Works

Fred Fields has had his art appear in various ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game books and their associated novels throughout the 1990s, as well as in other games such as ''

Shadowrun ''Shadowrun'' is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic in fiction, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy, and crime fiction, crime, wit ...

''. His artwork has appeared on numerous ''D&D'' covers, such as '' Greyhawk Ruins'' and '' Book of Artifacts''. Fields has illustrated cards for the '' Magic: The Gathering'' collectible card game.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fields, Fred American game artists American role-playing game artists Living people People from Burlington, Kentucky Year of birth missing (living people)