Simon Underwood

Lizardbrain Art Gloomy art and merch by Simon Underwood

Money is tight this month, so I suppose now is a good time to mention that I have a store with some neat stuff in it. Skeleton T-shirts! Lizardman prints! A full-length sword-and-sorcery kaiju graphic novel! Anything you feel like picking up is much appreciated.
lizardbrainart.bigcartel.com

My twitter is dead. I don’t wanna a burner. All I want is 27K bluski subs

Photograph of me. I am standing on a dock with a cup of coffee overlooking a large lake surrounded by firs. Mt. Hood is visible in the background.

Photograph of Mt. Hood in the evening taken through a binocular lens.

Photograph of an ink sketch of Mt. Hood being held up in front of the actual Mt. Hood, out of focus on the background.

Turned 32. Spent some time with @esque-arts.bsky.social and the local mountain.

Squid is the name of my recently deceased cat, so I imagine my wife would think I was having a moment of Hollywood-style grief

Nothing wrong with trying to achieve the platonic ideal of fantasy art

In my top 5, without question

"IT'S SATAN! EL DIABLO!" from a youtube video from 2012 I could never find again. It wormed its way into my brain and has never left

Closeup of a rad silver skull earring

Great minds...I literally proposed to my wife with these since neither of us like rings

Love it!

Two comic panels showing an extreme close-up of a man's dirty, tired face as he wakes up. A large, pale insect is licking the dirt off his skin. They notice each other with alarm as the man comes to.

Our long-suffering protagonist wakes up to some new friends

Thanks! I'm most happy with the background, tbh

Gouache painting of Ged, the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea, sailing in his boat Lookfar. He holds onto the rigging, his staff leaned on his shoulder. A couple of craggy, forested islands are visible in the background over the foggy ocean, and a dragon flies through the overcast sky in the distance.

More painting practice. I have been reading the Earthsea books and they are just what I need right now. Here's Ged and his boat.

I think there is a bit somewhere about torturers only wearing the fuligin cloak with no shirt, but given how Severian is as a narrator I feel like he's actually a wiry little guy with an incomprehensible ego

Album cover featuring a warrior descending a winding staircase in a huge cavern. Behind him, the stairs lead up to an open doorway surrounded by shattered remnants of the door and with light pouring through. Ahead of him, a horde of undead and demons advance up the stairs, and he fights them with an axe and shield. Small dragonlike creatures flap about overhead.

Cover for the debut album from the band SALTYR. I love when the brief is basically "make it as trad heavy metal as possible"

I would pay heinous amounts of money I don't possess to have the Isle of the Dead one in my home

"I asked ChatGPT" "I asked Grok" ok well I asked Gandalf and he said he has not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm

The Finnish mythological hero Vainamoinen sits under a pine tree in a mossy meadow, playing a kantele made of a large jawbone. His sword leans against the tree trunk. Various forest animals gather to listen to his music.

Vainamoinen in the pines for @elyvilon.bsky.social .
I really enjoyed this one. Tried to infuse it with some of that Scandinavian Golden Age of Illustration energy.

Thank you!

Gouache painting of a fully armored warrior standing in the desert with sunset clouds behind them. Their armor is brick red and resembles a carapace in places. They carry a falchion which also has an organic quality to it. Their eyes glow green from behind a full face mask.

Painted a weird little guy. I still flounder every time I break out the paint, but this felt like I learned some things.

"He can't keep getting away with this!"

He can, because you refuse to decapitate him

a black and white illustration of 4 ICE agents standing at the other side of an open door. They are silhouetted except for their glowing eyes and bared teeth. The text reads “our dire investigations had led us here. danger is everywhere - it is best to comply. may we enter?”

don’t let them in. fuck ice. fuck fascists

Costume design is absolutely top tier in that movie. I love Conan's sausage link tunic in this scene too

Paper maps are great! We always had a road atlas in the car when I was a kid. I guess I was lucky that I was taught how to read maps at a young age, but it's mind-boggling to me how many people under 40 are totally lost if they don't have access to phone navigation.

Behold! Cover art for our upcoming issue of Old Moon Quarterly! Hand-drawn and inked by Robin Harris of Mystic Barbarism (and Wormwitch)!

I feel like it's all implied worldbuilding and rare but impeccable vibes. Simon Stalenhag seems to me like a modern example of this--someone whose work has such a coherent and powerful aesthetic that media giants will waste millions failing to capitalize on it

Nice! Great books, I have them both

Photo of my workspace with a drawing desk and art supplies. The wall behind it is covered in a variety of skeleton-based art

Got the Wall of Skeletons back up and thus the new studio space is complete

Absolutely killer! Great sense of momentum

The great Stephen Fabian is one of those artists from the 2E era of AD&D that just doesn’t get enough credit or attention. His interior illustrations in the Ravenloft line and Tome of Magic especially stand out. Pitch perfect aesthetic… and what an amazing talent. Pure 💯.

"Show me how you draw armor"

I should draw some more armor again, it's a lot of fun