Larry Dixon (born July 28, 1966) is an American fantasy artist and novelist.

Background

Dixon, the son of a

Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as Task Force Green, is a Special operation forces, special operat ...

career commando, studied at The North Carolina School of the Arts and at

Savannah College of Art & Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a Private school, private art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, Vaucluse, Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not ...

. In 1992, he married fantasy author

Mercedes Lackey Mercedes Ritchie Lackey (born June 24, 1950) is an American writer of Fantasy literature, fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar (fictional co ...

; they live in the

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

area. Dixon, a sports car enthusiast, is also a storm spotter and

volunteer firefighter A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond ...

Writing

Larry has collaborated with his wife, Mercedes Lackey, on a number of her books, including: *''Storm Breaking'' (illustrator) *The ''Mage Wars'' Trilogy (DAW) **''The Black Gryphon'' (co-author) **''The White Gryphon'' (co-author) **''The Silver Gryphon'' (co-author) *The ''SERRAted Edge'' Novels (Baen) **''Chrome Circle'' (co-author) **''Born to Run'' (co-author) *The Owl Trilogy (DAW) **''Owlflight'' **''Owlsight'' (co-author) **''Owlknight'' (co-author)

Artwork

Dixon has contributed artwork to several roleplaying games, including ''

GURPS The ''Generic Universal Role Playing System'', or ''GURPS'', is a tabletop role-playing game system published by Steve Jackson Games. The system is designed to run any genre using the same core mechanics. The core rules were first written by St ...

'' and ''

Talislanta ''Talislanta'' is a fantasy role-playing game published by Bard Games in 1987 that forgoes many of the tropes used by popular games of the genre in favor of a unique world and many new game mechanisms. There have been six different English-langu ...

'', and to

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

's ''

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 ...

'' source books, including ''

Oriental Adventures ''Oriental Adventures'' (abbreviated OA) is the title shared by two hardback rulebooks published for different Editions of Dungeons & Dragons, versions of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy roleplaying game. Each version of ''Oriental ...

'', '' Epic Level Handbook'', and ''

Fiend Folio ''Fiend Folio'' is the name of three separate products published for successive editions of the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). All three are collections of monsters. The bulk of the material in the first edition c ...

''. His skill with depicting birds of prey has often led to commissions with the

United States Military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

and with Save Our American Raptors, an organization devoted to raptor rehabilitation.

Other work

As a birds-of-prey rehabilitation specialist, Dixon, along with Lackey, has returned over four hundred

hawk Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are very widely distributed and are found on all continents, except Antarctica. The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks, and others. This ...

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

s and

corbie Corbie (; ; Picard:''Corbin'') is a commune of the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The small town is situated up river from Amiens, in the département of Somme and is the main town of the canton of Corbie. ...

s into the wild. Dixon's wildlife rehabilitation led to a minor role in the creation of the digital effects for the giant eagles in the ''

Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually developed into ...

'' movies. Dixon took digital photographs of a stuffed

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

he is currently keeping for its owner, a local tribal elder. These photographs, along with castings of the beak and talons, were sent to Weta Digital in New Zealand to provide texture mapping for the digital model for

Gwaihir In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Eagles or Great Eagles, "The Council of Elrond", "Of the Ruin of Doriath" are immense birds that are sapient and can speak. The Great Eagles resemble actual eagles, but are much larger. Thorondor is said ...

and the other great eagles of J. R. R. Tolkien's

Middle-earth Middle-earth is the Setting (narrative), setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Midgard, Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf'' ...

Appearances

Guest of Honor appearances include: * CrackerCon (1992) * ICON 17 (1992) * FenCon II (2005) * Lunacon 2009 *

GenCon Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

2013 * InConJunction 2017

References

External links

Official homepageDixon's blog
*
Official CAPEday website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Larry 1966 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists American fantasy artists American fantasy writers American male novelists American role-playing game artists Living people