It’s been more than 20 years since Keith Parkinson last painted an EverQuest painting. He painted the key artwork for the Original EverQuest box art, as well as Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin and Planes of Power.

EverQuest Key Art

But the final art that you see, isn’t always the original take on the characters and world of Norrath. The art evolved over time even from the original sketches.

Keith passed in 2005. Nick Parkinson, Keith’s son is now the curator of many of his works, and maintains a wide variety of artifacts from Keith’s painting.

Keith’s Sketches of Firiona

“Earlier on it was a lot more back and forth discussions about how how could things be. How could they evolve? There was a lot of back and forth over the look of not just of Firiona Vie but all the the cover characters.”

Other Characters

One of the most interesting artifacts that Nick shared were emails between Keith and SOE, outlining the concepts for the artwork, and, as time went on, changes as the artwork progressed.

Emails Between Keith and SOE for Planes of Power

These specifically were for the Planes of Power artwork which was the last piece that Keith did for EverQuest.

Some of the changes are pretty simple. Others require the deletion of characters altogether. Some are a commentary on what sells for the gaming industry at the time, but it also gives you an idea of what the developers of the game intended with the artwork.

“Brad and my father became friends and I think that relationship really helped drive the art because they kind of understood what one another were going for. I think you saw it the most in Kunark.”

Ruins of Kunark

The Kunark artwork is arguably one of the best EverQuest art pieces but it was also considered somewhat controversial.

Early Sketches for Ruins of Kunark

Though sensibilities of the time were perhaps not as keen as today, it raised some eyebrows to show Firiona (already provocatively armored) bound and held captive by the Iksar.

But consider the original sketches : Where Firiona was chained and kneeling in front of her Iksar captor with the chains prominently displayed.

The sketches went through several iterations before they made it to the canvas. The changes are made to what we see today in the Kunark artwork and the Iksar themselves underwent some changes.

The Iksar

“In terms of a ‘bipedal lizard person,’ that’s pretty general. There’s a lot of examples in fantasy literature to pull from. It is interesting because you look at his art and then you look at in the game and it’s like ‘Okay those don’t always match up.’

And why is that? That’s because a lot of the art was done before the game.

One of the looks that you’ll see that differentiates the way the Iksar look than the other characters are a lot of tighter chest armor. Almost mummy kind of wrappings. Bindings. A lot of beaded chains around the neck. That sort of thing.

Those were all conscious decisions that they talk about when when formulating the look of the Iksar.

For Nick Parkinson, things come full circle because his father’s active role in EverQuest led to his passion for the game and his future career.

“When he first started working on the painting, they ship him a beta disc. And then I stole it and played.”

“I was showing him right? So that was when I started. It was amazing because I literally got to watch the game get created.

In fact I can say confidently that I was there when Blackburrow first launched. The first time that zone came up, they brought the servers up. It launched. And the first thing I did was ‘Oh look at that tree! I’m going to step right inside.’

I think I was the first person to die in there. Lost my corpse and everything.

But that was where I started, and I’ve been involved in some form for 20 plus years. I helped run a fan website called The Safe House. I played and then worked on EverQuest 2 eventually.”

What do you think he would think about the game being around 25 years?

“I don’t think he’d be that surprised to be honest. Yeah it’s impressive, but remember he was in a D&D group that ran that long. So I think he got that this could be the next thing.

I think 25 years probably nobody expected that. I think we would have been happy with like three. But I don’t think the concept of it of it blowing up and becoming a thing would have really surprised him. He passed in 2005 so he got to see that happen.

It’s been what 25 years now and we’re still talking about it so that’s uh hard to beat.”

Keith Parkinson passed in 2005 but the legacy of his artwork lives on. If you’re looking to support that legacy you can purchase artwork from his official website, that continues to be run by his family.

There you can find prints for sale from various intellectual properties.

After Keith Parkinson

After Planes of Power, EverQuest continued the high bar that was set by Keith Parkinson.

Lost Dungeons of Norrath

The Lost Dungeons of Norrath artwork was painted by renowned artist Don Maitz.

Gates of Discord

For Gates of Discord, Jeff Easley continued the legacy and for the next four expansions we were treated to the artwork by the one and only Larry Elmore.

Omens of War

Elmore painted the artwork for Omens of War through Prophecy of Ro.

Dragons of Norrath

Depths of Darkhollow

Prophecy of Ro

Current Artwork

There have been various artists since Elmore that have taken over the key art duties. In the announcements for the latest expansions for both games the key art was released for EverQuest : The Outer Brood and EverQuest II : Scars of Destruction.

Both pieces are beautiful works of art by Kerem Beyit, who continues to be utilized by Darkpaw for expansion artwork.

Kerem Beyit is a Turkish artist who has created key art for both games going back more than a decade. These two pieces are some of the best works yet, from an artist whose resume includes art for Dungeons and Dragons Pathfinder and Magic the Gathering.

For The Outer Brood artwork, dragons are the star. Well they’re dragons with four wings.

And they’re huge. One of the giant space dragons has an entire city on its back as it appears in the Norrathian sky.

For Scars of Destruction we got even more dragons. But we also got to see the antagonist of the expansion front and center, as Lucan D’lere returns to the storyline.

Beta has started for both expansions in EverQuest and EverQuest II.