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), referred to variously as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), "The Unit", or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Task Fo ...

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 nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Unit ...

. In 1992, he married fantasy author

Mercedes Lackey Mercedes Ritchie Lackey (born June 24, 1950) is an American writer of 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. Her Valdemar novels include i ...

; they live in the

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

area. Dixon, a sports car enthusiast, is also a

storm spotter Storm spotting is a form of weather spotting in which observers watch for the approach of severe weather, monitor its development and progression, and actively relay their findings to local authorities. History Storm spotting developed in the ...

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 t ...

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

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

's ''

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

'' source books, including ''

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

'', ''

Epic Level Handbook The ''Epic Level Handbook'' is a rule-book by Wizards of the Coast for the 3rd edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The book was published in 2001, and contains optional game rules for playing characters who have reached a higher experience leve ...

'', 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 ca ...

''. 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 forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

and with Save Our American Raptors, an organization devoted to

raptor rehabilitation Raptor rehabilitation is a field of veterinary medicine dealing with care for sick or injured birds of prey, with the goal of returning them to the wild. Since raptors are highly specialized predatory birds, special skills, facilities, equipment, v ...

Other work

As a birds-of-prey

rehabilitation Rehabilitation or Rehab may refer to: Health * Rehabilitation (neuropsychology), therapy to regain or improve neurocognitive function that has been lost or diminished * Rehabilitation (wildlife), treatment of injured wildlife so they can be retur ...

specialist, Dixon, along with Lackey, has returned over four hundred

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

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. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

s and

corbie Corbie (; nl, Korbei) 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. It lies ...

s into the wild. He is currently working toward his

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

license with a

horned owl The American (North and South America) horned owls and the Old World eagle-owls make up the genus ''Bubo'', at least as traditionally described. The genus name ''Bubo'' is Latin for the Eurasian eagle-owl. This genus contains 19 species that ar ...

. 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 by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' 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 p ...

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" were immense birds that were sapient and could speak. The Great Eagles resembled actual eagles, but were much larger. Thorondor is s ...

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

Middle-earth Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is t ...

Appearances

Guest of Honor appearances include CrackerCon (1992), ICON 17 (1992), ConFurence 4 (1993), Odyssey-con (2001), CONvergence (2005), FenCon II (2005), Swancon (2006), CAPEday (2007),, 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, and 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 writers American male novelists Fantasy artists Living people Role-playing game artists