Though I would love to overload this page with nothing but some of the most beautiful artwork known to man...

     My love of books is perhaps what inspired my love of art as well. Most of the books that I've ever read always had these wonderfully paintings on their covers, depicting, nay, bringing to life some scene in the book. Given that I've read a lot of fantasy/ sci-fi books over the years, it's only natural that I would fall in love with such art.  In short, Larry Elmore rules.  Then of course, there is Parkinson, and Caldwell, and Hildebrandt, and... well, the list is too long to name them all.  However, if you read sci-fi/ fantasy, then you'll probably recognize this short list as part of a esteemed class of fantasy cover artists.  These guys just know how to give fantasy that realistic taste.  Perhaps that's why I love it so much.  I mean, a book is something which should transport you to another world.  Only, for a world which has little to no basis in reality, as far as their physical nature goes, I suppose realistic pictures are the only way to bring that world to you as if those things did, in fact, exist.  There are other books which deal with the real world, both fiction and non-fiction, but as they are based in reality, it's not hard to imagine them at all.  For a completely fictional world, however, artwork does tend to make it easier to see what the writer is imagining.  When art breathes life in a single painting, methinkst I find reality ever more fascinating.  Dragons are so cool, too.  Magic dragons, even better.  Girls in skimpy armor, can't go wrong there...