The same year, his concept art for the film was published in the companion book The World of the Dark Crystal. Froud served as the conceptual designer of The Dark Crystal, released in 1982. įroud's artwork in Once Upon a Time and The Land of Froud brought him to the attention of Jim Henson, who sought out Froud to collaborate on his all-puppetry film The Dark Crystal. Faeries reached number four on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and by 2003 had sold over five million copies. In collaboration with his friend and fellow artist Alan Lee, Froud created the 1978 book Faeries, an illustrated compendium of faerie folklore. In 1977, an anthology of his artwork, The Land of Froud, was published. In 1976, Froud was featured in Once Upon a Time: Some Contemporary Illustrators of Fantasy, a survey of modern British illustrators. Between 19, he illustrated four books by children's author Margaret Mahy and Are All the Giants Dead? by Mary Norton. Career Īfter graduating, Froud spent five years working as a commercial illustrator in Soho, London before moving to Chagford, Devon in 1975. In 1967 he enrolled as a painter at Maidstone College of Art, where he graduated with a first class honors diploma in Graphic Design in 1971.

An only child, he grew up in rural Hampshire before moving to Kent. Most recently, Froud developed the 2019 streaming television series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.įroud was born in Winchester, England in 1947. According to Wired, Froud is 'one of the most pre-emiminent visualizers of the world of faerie and folktale'. He is most widely known for his 1978 book Faeries with Alan Lee, and as the conceptual designer of the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). Brian Froud (born 1947) is an English fantasy illustrator and conceptual designer.

Froud faeries