Larry Elmore is an iconic figure in the tabletop gaming realm. Hailing from Grayson County, Kentucky, Elmore has left a defining mark on the fantasy and science fiction art scene for over four decades. His extraordinary talent has graced the covers of numerous Dungeons & Dragons, AD&D, and Star Frontiers books, among others, captivating the imaginations of gamers and readers alike. Perhaps most notable is Elmore’s artistic contributions to the Dragonlance series.
Beyond Dragonlance, he has worked on illustrations for many industry giants, such as TSR Inc, FASA, Mayfair Games, Games Designer’s Workshop, and White Wolf, to name a few. The OSR Vault recently had the privilege of speaking with Larry Elmore to delve into the depths of his creative process, his boundless imagination, and hear about his legendary career.
I graduated from High School in 1966, but while I was in my last two years of high school, I started looking at paperback book covers and seeing what kind of art was going on. Nothing really caught my eye, and at that time, I was trying to learn to paint. At Christmas, in 1965, I had gotten a set of oil paints and I started trying to paint– anything. In the Fall of 1966, I started attending Western Kentucky University, majoring in art. I was always walking downtown to any store that sold paperback books, and I would stare at all the covers. I love to see what all those artists were doing.
When you finally attended Western Kentucky University, did you find that the illustrative techniques that you developed on your own were similar to the ones that were taught to you? When did you first start drawing fantasy scenes?
While in college, there were more Sci-Fi paperback book covers. Sci-Fi books were super popular and were selling bigtime. I was also fascinated about “outer space”. My father loved learning everything about space and while I was in grade school, He would tell me about the vastness and the possibilities of space. He taught me that the speed of light was one hundred eighty-six thousand miles a second, talked about other solar systems, other galaxies! This was the time when our space race with Russia became obvious.
At college, during the late 60’s, my drawings and paintings were taking on a type of surrealism: mixing weird settings in space, with people on floating landscapes and such, but not hardcore Sci-Fi. My art teachers were stunned. They had not seen drawings like that, and they called it Surrealism, but the BEST thing that happened, they stopped getting on my ass for NOT painting or drawing abstract art. I had a drawing teacher, Mr. Fernandez, who saw my talent. He pushed me to keep following my gut, no matter what other teachers said!
Around that time, I saw the first Frank Frazetta painting on a Conan paperback book. I was mesmerized! Not only the way he painted, but the power and danger of the scene. It sparked my imagination! Go beyond what is real, let my mind go to the mystical, magical, ancient times and ancient fables. I can paint anything I want!! This was also the time I got interested in ancient history and the myths and lore of “very ancient times”! I started doing fantasy art… although, it did not have that title then. It was mainly referred to as weird art.
I graduated from college in the fall of 1970 and I was drafted a month later into the army in January of 1971! Both my wife and I were born in Kentucky, and both our families have lived in Kentucky for generations! I do know that my grandmother’s family, on my father’s side, have been in this general area of Kentucky since before the 1800’s. I remember my great grandfather, Hessi Carr Decker, died at 94 year old, around 1952. He would give me a nickel every time we visited him. He remembered, when he was a young boy, the Civil War troops coming back home, both Union and Confederate. Most of my wife’s family came to this area in the mid 1800’s, they were a newer group of immigrants, and generations of her family line are still here.
How do you find inspiration for your pieces? Is there a particular fictional universe out there that really gets your imagination going?
I really do not know where my inspirations come from… exactly! I do know they come from nature, moods, seasons…? One reason I love living in Kentucky is that it has a great variety of vegetation, grasses, weeds, flowers, trees, many lakes, rivers, hills, cliffs and caves! And on top of that, it has four definite seasons! And each season has its own mood, colors, weather, and is capable of extreme temperatures. There are still a lot of good people living here. In some ways, it seems like you can go back in time, with a little imagination!
I also think that a lot of my imagination and ideas came from my youth. I remember that most every family had an older person, or grandparent living with them. People visited their friends and neighbors a lot back then. There were storytellers. When I was a child, back in the ’50’s, my favorite question to older people, especially the oldest people, was simple, “can you tell me a story about when you were a kid?” Man, I got some great stories. Back then, people were greatly superstitious. They believed in the unexplained. There could be about any kind of a varmint or “something” living down there in those big, deep, wooded hills and “hollers” (hollows). Man, I loved those stories, even if they scared the crap outta me! There were some great storytellers! My father was also a good storyteller.
Have you ran your own tabletop game with friends/family or been a player? If so, I bet you are an amazing dungeon master! Do you have any memorable characters you created?
No, I have never run a tabletop game or created one. But as a child, we played all kinds of games. Some of those games were spooky. If you played them today, you would scare the crap outta some kids! But I have played D&D, only as a player. Art is a time consuming occupation!
I never had the time to run a game, I loved playing, but again, I had to meet deadlines and had to PAINT! D&D is the best darn game I ever played. It is a game with a basic “set of” rules, but still a game with no rules! I knew that if I started playing all the time, my family would starve to death! I would be blowing deadlines all the time… and work would end!
Do you have any memorable characters you created?
When I played D&D, I always played a fighter! I loved playing! My favorite character I played was Elrod the Red (a dwarf fighter)!
Not really, but the longest game I played in had a lot of great scenes and landscapes that filled my imagination and were very inspiring.
Besides dragons, what’s your favorite monster?
Hummm… I really don’t know… but in one game, a beholder scared the crap out of us and killed several of us. It took us a long time to get those characters back alive again… one was gone forever! But there are so many cool monsters and creatures, I really don’t have a favorite besides dragons.
You were hired by TSR, Inc. in 1981, and became their first professional illustrator! That is quite an impressive title to have. Do you have any fun stories you could share from your time at TSR?
There were too many crazy stories, I wouldn’t know where to start. We all had a great time there. It was the dream place to work, until the higher ups started fighting over who would OWN the company. Things changed then, I think it affected all the creative people that worked there.
Are there any modern up-and-coming artists that you admire?
There are so many good ones out there, I can’t name any names, but I would love to see more paintings with actual paint, creating ORIGINAL PAINTINGS WITH PAINT. My originals have brought prices that I never dreamed of! Keep in mind that an original drawing or painting done by hand, is the ONLY one in the world. You can make high quality prints, but that original is IT… everything else is a copy. Any original painting or drawing I do, has my DNA in it, flecks of skin, fingerprints, probably a beard hair and brush hair or two, you can see how I painted it. You can rub your hand across it and feel the paint… I could never duplicate all that, I would never try!
Do you have any advice for beginner artists out there who want to create artistic content for tabletop games?
Art for tabletop games? Hummm, that’s a difficult question.
I did a lot of cover art and interior art. When I did cover art for a game, I wanted to make it look exciting. A little dangerous, and mysterious. Usually you can’t put all that into one painting… but I guess the best thing to do is to show danger, excitement and/or mystery. That gets the viewer more mentally excited.
Also, the viewer is curious about the event going on in the cover. You want to catch their attention. The interior art is different, you want to teach or explain what is going on, Make the art interesting and also represent some of the characters, settings, weapons, of both the players and the opponents, human or monsters and bad guys that you may encounter in the game. But still leave a lot of room for the players to be creative throughout the game!
Do you have any future projects you can tell us about?
Future projects? I have one simple answer– to be free, no deadlines, paint what I want, and keep a few paintings to pass on to my children and grandchildren. I will always paint fantasy type paintings. I feel that if I can still stir up some mystery and imagination in a painting, then I have accomplished what I want the viewer to feel. I will keep creating art until I physically cannot, or go crazy or die! Whichever comes first!
See more of Larry Elmore’s work at his website: https://larryelmore.com/store/