Keith Parkinson

Parkinson graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design in 1980. His first job was with a company called Advertising Posters, where he worked on the artwork for pinball games and early arcade games, including Tron and Krull.[2] Parkinson was heavily influenced by Frank Frazetta and Roger Dean in his own fantasy work.[2] At Advertising Posters, Parkinson was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons by a coworker. Parkinson recalls, "The first night I played a ranger in B1 [sic], Keep on the Borderlands, and I was hooked. We played every week."[2]

In November 1982, he went to work at TSR, Inc.: "I didn't like a lot of the art I saw on D&D game products, and the company was in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, just over the border, so I drove up one day to see if I could do some freelance work. Elmore, Jeff Easley, and Tim Truman had all just joined the company, and the art they were working on was fantastic. It really blew my mind. Jim Roslof, who was the Art Director, hinted that I could join the staff full-time, but I missed the hint. A few days later, I called him about a job, and he had just hired somebody else the day before, but he'd keep me in mind. The next day, he called back, and had an opening.”[2] Parkinson also worked on projects including book covers, game boxes, magazines and calendars.[3] Among his book covers are such titles as Star Frontiers, Forgotten Realms and Gamma World.[4] He is also known for his Dragonlance art.

After five years working at TSR, Parkinson left and pursued a freelance career for seven years. During this time, most of Parkinson's work was painting covers for the New York publishing market. His clients included Bantam Books, Palladium Books, Penguin Books, and Random House. Some of the authors that he painted covers for include Terry Goodkind, Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Terry Brooks,[3] and David Eddings.

In 1995, Parkinson's first attempt at game design, Guardians, was published by Friedlander Publishing Group (FPG),[5] which also published Parkinson's first book, titled Knightsbridge: The Art of Keith Parkinson. He published two more books of his artwork: a sketchbook, Spellbound, and a second full-color artbook, King's Gate. Other works from this time include a set of art trading cards and a screensaver produced by Second Nature Software.

In 2000, Parkinson devoted more of his time to writing and shifted his commercial art to the game industry. He produced art for THQ's Summoner and painted the well-known artwork for the original EverQuest as well as its first three expansion packs. In painting the box art, he also created the character Firiona Vie, who has adorned the cover of almost every expansion since.

Parkinson was hired as the art director and co-founder of Sigil Games Online, and worked there on the MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes until his death in late 2005. Although Parkinson became ill before he could create the box art for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, he did create the game's three 'mascot' characters: Jeric, Eila, and Idara. According to Brad McQuaid, when Parkinson knew he could not finish the box art for Vanguard, he hoped that his friend Donato Giancola would complete it. The left side of Donato's painting emulated Parkinson's personal style, as a tribute to him (the left was used for the box art, similar to EverQuest). Moving to the right, the painting transitions into Giancola's style. As a further tribute to Keith Parkinson, Giancola put a character resembling him into the painting.[6][7]