Paul Kidby

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Paul Kidby (* 1964 in Middlesex ) is a British artist and draftsman . He became known primarily for his illustrations for Terry Pratchett's Discworld - novels . Discworld fans first saw him and his work in a flyer that was enclosed with the first Discworld computer game .

Kidby was born in Middlesex, near London , in 1964 and has two older siblings. During his childhood he spent a lot of time drawing and modeling. He left school with good grades in art and technical drawing.

He then began training as a dental technician, where he learned to make dentures. This was particularly useful in his later work with three-dimensional projects.

In 1986, at the age of 22, after further training as a scientific illustrator, he became a freelance artist. During that time he was responsible for the design of several products, for example computer game packaging.

He found another job at Future Publishing between 1991 and 1995, where he created several hundred magazine covers. In 1995 he began working on Pratchett's Discworld novels, the cover of which he designed from then on. He later replaced former illustrator Josh Kirby , who passed away in 2001.

Kidby's works were influenced by Jan Vermeer and Albrecht Dürer as well as by fantasy artists such as Roger Dean and Rodney Matthews . Particularly noteworthy are his allusions or parodies of famous paintings such as The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn or the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci .

Discworld works

  • In addition to a series of Discworld Christmas cards, some large prints, illustrations for the Discworld calendar and other projects, he published "The Pratchett Portfolio " in 1996 , a large-format art book with many new drawings.
  • "GURPS Discworld" followed in 1998 , an adaptation of the role-playing system GURPS for the Discworld, also with countless illustrations by Kidby, in 1998 and 1999 various fold-out maps of Discworld, Ankh-Morpork, Lancre and Death's Domain.
  • In 2001 the first large-format, illustrated novel "Wahre Helden" (Eng. The Last Hero ) was published, of which several editions were published, including leather-bound copies and gold embossing.
  • In 2004 a sequel to the “Pratchett Portfolio” was released: The Art of Discworld - and here too, countless large-format new drawings by Paul Kidby on glossy paper could be seen.

Since Josh Kirby's death in 2001, Paul Kidby also officially continued the illustration of the book covers of Pratchett's novels.

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personal data
SURNAME Kidby, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British artist and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Middlesex