Paul Bonner is a fantasy artist who has been producing artwork for major fantasy gaming companies and others for over 20 years.
Education
Paul Bonner spent four years at Harrow on an illustration course.
Career
Paul Bonner illustrated the covers of the '' World of Lone Wolf'' series of gamebooks, including
Grey Star the Wizard
''Grey Star the Wizard'' is the first book in the World of Lone Wolf book series created by Joe Dever
Joseph Robert Dever, also known as Joe Dever (12 February 1956 – 29 November 2016) was an English fantasy author and game designer. Original ...
,
The Forbidden City
''The Forbidden City'' is a 1918 American silent drama film starring Norma Talmadge and Thomas Meighan and directed by Sidney Franklin. A copy of the film is in the Library of Congress and other film archives.Beyond the Nightmare Gate, and War of the Wizards.
His portfolio includes
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''.
Founded in 1975 by John Peake (gam ...
,
FASA Corporation
Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city date ...
, Riotminds and
Rackham
Rackham (later, Rackham Entertainment) was a French miniature and role-playing games production company founded in 1997 by Jean Bey, CEO and Creative Director. At its peak, Rackham had over 70 employees, including designers, illustrators, writ ...
. He has also illustrated several book covers, and a pair of
poster
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
s for long-standing works in the fantasy genre (
Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
and
Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924 – May 17, 2007) was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been tran ...
). In 2008 his first collection of artwork 'Out of the Forests' was published. While not all-inclusive, it contained a sampling of most of his major projects. Bonner's work has also appeared numerous times in the yearly Spectrum art books.
His work for ''
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 ...
'' includes cover art for the adventures ''
Die Vecna Die!
''Die Vecna Die!'' is an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ''(AD&D 2nd edition) module released in 2000D ...
'' and ''
Into the Dragon's Lair
''Into the Dragon's Lair'' is an adventure module for the 3rd edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game.
Plot summary
''Into the Dragon's Lair'' takes place in the Forgotten Realms setting, and takes place after the novels ...
''.
Bonner's art work is notable for its use of vivid colors, contrast, and somewhat exaggerated features. Practically none of his work contains elves either, though most other 'standard' races are frequent. While typically depicting scenes of violence, few of his works actually show blood. Furthermore, his illustrations of typically savage creatures such as
orc
An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, a ...
s, show a more sympathetic side than norm, including a fair amount of whimsy.
Bonner's work has been featured in each recent ''Magic: The Gathering'' expansion, beginning with ''
Eventide
Eventide, an archaic word for evening, may also refer to:
* ''Eventide'' (EP), a 1998 EP by Monique Brumby
* ''Eventide'' (''Magic: The Gathering''), a 2008 trading card expansion set
* '' Eventide: A Scene in the Westminster Union'', an 1878 pa ...
''.
In 2005, Bonner won a silver-level
Spectrum Award
The Spectrum Awards were established in 1994 by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner to recognize the best in fantasy, science fiction, and horror artwork created each year. Spectrum Award categories
* Spectrum Award for Grand Master, Grand Master
* Spect ...
in the book category, for ''Cadwallon Goblin''.
A 2007 book published by
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of Titan Entertainment Group, which was established in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cinema reference books; and graphic novels and co ...
was produced about Bonner and his works, called ''Out of the Forests: The Art of Paul Bonner''.