BIO

Child prodigy, or messy kid? Hmmmmm, what to tell you about myself? Might as well start at the beginning....I was born May 2nd, 1972 on Martha's Vineyard. This tends to be novel in conversations, even funnier are the questions/comments I have received: 'Do you have electricity?', 'Do you get television there?' (no, television signals are like vampires, they can't cross water!) and 'I thought they locked the island up in the winter!'. I wish I had said,"Yes I am the Key Master, I guard the padlock for six months a year to make sure nobody breaks in." I didn't have the typical 'Vineyard experience'; my family would winter there, and summer in northern Vermont (I know, generally a WINTER resort!) To be quite honest, I'm not big on crowds... so it was just as well that way.

My parents were a children's book writer/illustrator team for years. My mother (Carol) has written over fifty books (look for our collaboration: Mothers Are Like That, in the spring of 2000). Not only did my father (Donald) illustrate my mother's books, he illustrated for other writers as well as his own books. By the time he died (June, 1989) he had illustrated over eighty books. If you look around, you will find some of their books about a little boy named Paul. Growing up at a summer resort was a tad uneventful in the 'off season', if it weren't for a keen interest in art and role playing games... bad scene! A lot of kids did some stupid things out of sheer boredom in the off season. If it wasn't racking up a car, knocking up a girl or knocking over a store- it was something worse! I thank my lucky stars that I could entertain myself.

My family @1988: Mother,Father, Brother and Me

growing my beard out for the viking costume... Barely having survived high school (to quote my brother Christopher, "High school is the worst thing you can do to your children."), I went on to formally study art at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. R.I.S.D. is a great school, I was much more comfortable in this environment. In high school I was a 'weirdo', but I never heard that in art school! My only qualm was their evident disdain for 'fantasy art', I felt it took the full four years to earn the respect from some of the teachers. Some felt this type of art in no way could be sophisticated... white trash 'van-art'. Well, isn't the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel a form of fantasy art? Many of histories most famous paintings and sculptures contain supernatural imagery and 'dramatic' lighting =fantasy art! Ah well.

At the tail end of school I first started professionally illustrating Role Playing Games, and once I made it to my first GenCon (the largest game convention in the universe) to meet the publishers things really started to flourish and snowball.Since then I have worked for Chaosium, Precedence Publishing, Green Knight Publishing, Foreverworld Books, Atlas Games, T.S.R., Alderac Entertainment Group, Scapegoat Games, XID Creative, Five Rings Publishing, Pagan Publishing Eclipse, Houghton Mifflin and Mind Ventures. In my free time (ha!), I enjoy motorcycling, wargaming, ophidian lore, hiking, lurking and painting some more.

Child prodigy, or messy kid?	Hmmmmm, what to tell you about myself? Might as well start at the beginning....I was born May 2nd, 1972 on Martha's Vineyard. This tends to be novel in conversations, even funnier are the questions/comments I have received: 'Do you have electricity?', 'Do you get television there?' (no, television signals are like vampires, they can't cross water!) and 'I thought they locked the island up in the winter!'. I wish I had said,"Yes I am the Key Master, I guard the padlock for six months a year to make sure nobody breaks in." I didn't have the typical 'Vineyard experience'; my family would winter there, and summer in northern Vermont (I know, generally a WINTER resort!) To be quite honest, I'm not big on crowds... so it was just as well that way.
My parents were a children's book writer/illustrator team for years. My mother (Carol) has written over fifty books (look for our collaboration: Mothers Are Like That, in the spring of 2000). Not only did my father (Donald) illustrate my mother's books, he illustrated for other writers as well as his own books. By the time he died (June, 1989) he had illustrated over eighty books. If you look around, you will find some of their books about a little boy named Paul. Growing up at a summer resort was a tad uneventful in the 'off season', if it weren't for a keen interest in art and role playing games... bad scene! A lot of kids did some stupid things out of sheer boredom in the off season. If it wasn't racking up a car, knocking up a girl or knocking over a store- it was something worse! I thank my lucky stars that I could entertain myself.	My family @1988: Mother,Father, Brother and Me
growing my beard out for the viking costume...	Barely having survived high school (to quote my brother Christopher, "High school is the worst thing you can do to your children."), I went on to formally study art at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. R.I.S.D. is a great school, I was much more comfortable in this environment. In high school I was a 'weirdo', but I never heard that in art school! My only qualm was their evident disdain for 'fantasy art', I felt it took the full four years to earn the respect from some of the teachers. Some felt this type of art in no way could be sophisticated... white trash 'van-art'. Well, isn't the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel a form of fantasy art? Many of histories most famous paintings and sculptures contain supernatural imagery and 'dramatic' lighting =fantasy art! Ah well.
At the tail end of school I first started professionally illustrating Role Playing Games, and once I made it to my first GenCon (the largest game convention in the universe) to meet the publishers things really started to flourish and snowball.Since then I have worked for Chaosium, Precedence Publishing, Green Knight Publishing, Foreverworld Books, Atlas Games, T.S.R., Alderac Entertainment Group, Scapegoat Games, XID Creative, Five Rings Publishing, Pagan Publishing Eclipse, Houghton Mifflin and Mind Ventures. In my free time (ha!), I enjoy motorcycling, wargaming, ophidian lore, hiking, lurking and painting some more.

Since it is a bit odd for me to just go off about myself, I welcome suggestions
as to what else to include in this section, what would you like to hear about?

Oh, there have been numerous comments on my previous bio pics, people seemed to enjoy them,
but they had a hard hard time taking me as a professional with all the 'funny faces'. I can appreciate
that, but please know that I do takemy work seriously don't let my 'face-making' make you think
otherwise. I hope that they make you feel that I am not a 'stiff', and that I enjoy having fun. If you
would still like to see some of these pictures: CLICK HERE

Contact Info

Paul Carrick

P.O. Box 15281

Boston, Ma 02215

paul@nightserpent.com

resume

HOME