Brian Froud

For the Canadian comedian, see Brian Froud (actor).

Brian Froud
Education	Maidstone College of Art
Known for	illustration, painting, writing, conceptual design
Awards	Hugo Award, Chesley Award

Brian Froud (born 1947 in Winchester) is an English fantasy illustrator. He lives and works in Devon with his wife, Wendy Froud, who is also a fantasy artist. The landscapes in his paintings are frequently inspired by Dartmoor.

Biography

His work has been used as the inspiration for creatures in films such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth (both in conjunction with Jim Henson's Creature Shop). He collaborated with Terry Jones, who was a screenwriter on Labyrinth, on The Goblins of the Labyrinth (1986, re-issued in abridged form as The Goblin Companion: A Field Guide to Goblins in 1996), and subsequently on a number of non-Labyrinth-related books about fairies and goblins, namely of the "Lady Cottington" series, such as Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. He has also worked with American writer Ari Berk on more recent books, including Goblins and "The Runes of Elfland", and produced art books such as Good Faeries/Bad Faeries. One of his most famous art books is simply titled Faeries, in collaboration with Alan Lee. His latest book were The Secret Sketchbooks of Brian Froud (2006) and World of Faerie (2007).

Froud has also dabbled in other media and has recently created a deck of Oracle cards entitled "The Faerie's Oracle". He also designed the album artwork for the German band Qntal's 2006 release Qntal V: Silver Swan. The enhanced 2CD version of the album also featured a second CD featuring a short gallery of his fairy and goblin work.

Illustration works

• Romeo And Juliet (1971)
• The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate (1972)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1972)
• Ultra-violet catastrophe! Or, The unexpected walk with Great-Uncle Magnus Pringle (1975)
• Are All the Giants Dead? (1975)
• The Wind Between the Stars (1976)
• The Land of Froud (1977)
• Master Snickup's Cloak (1979)
• Faeries (1979) — With Alan Lee
• The World of the Dark Crystal (1982)
• Goblins: Pop-up Book (1983)
• Goblins of the Labyrinth (1986)
• The Goblin Companion: A Field Guide to Goblins (1986)
• The Dreaming Place (1990)
• Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (1994)
• Quentin Cottington's Journal of Faery Research: Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells (1996)
• Good Faeries/Bad Faeries (1998)
• The Faeries' Oracle (2000)
• The Runes of Elfland (2003)
• Goblins! (2004)
• The Secret Sketchbooks of Brian Froud (2005)
• Chelsea Morning (2005)
• Brian Froud's World of Faerie (2007)

Brian Froud's Faerielands series

Froud also produced a collaborative series of books collectively known as Brian Froud's Faerielands. He produced the Faerielands artwork in 1991, then invited four top fantasy authors (Patricia McKillip, Terri Windling, Midori Snyder, and Charles de Lint) to choose their favorite pieces and write the story that the pictures evoked for them. The first two books were published in elegant hardcover editions with numerous Froud illustrations; sadly, Bantam then cancelled the series due to changes in their fantasy and science fiction lineup. Windling's and Snyder's books were later published by Tor Books and Viking Press respectively.

• Something Rich and Strange by Patricia McKillip (1994)
• The Wild Wood (1994) by Charles de Lint
• The Wood Wife (1996) by Terri Windling
• Hannah's Garden (2002) by Midori Snyder

Conceptual works

• Faeries_(television) (1981)
• The Dark Crystal (1982)
• Labyrinth (1986)
• The Storyteller (1988)
• Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1988)
• The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus (2000)
• Peter Pan (2003)
• Power of the Dark Crystal (2008)

Toby Froud

Froud's son, Toby Froud, played the baby in Labyrinth, one of his father's works. Toby Froud is currently studying filmmaking and special effects techniques in London. He is also apprenticed at the Muppet workshop in New York City, and on the set of the Lord of the Rings films in New Zealand, in addition to working as a stilt-walker with a troupe in England.

External links

• Brian Froud at IMDb
• World of Froud, official website of Brian Froud
• Short biographies of Brian & Wendy Froud
• Endicott Studio article on Froud
• The Froud Collectors Group on LiveJournal