“Elfwood’s mission is to provide a place for amateurs from all over the world to share, teach, and inspire a new generation of dreams.”
Of course, Elfwood isn’t just a bunch of amateurs. The talent on Elfwood ranges from excellent to…pretty amateurish, sure…but some Elfwood members are actually professional artists and authors for whom Elfwood is a springboard and peer-critique forum for their fantasy work.

A Selection of Art on Elfwood

Emerenta put together a slideshow sampling of the art you can find at Elfwood! Keep in mind that this is only a small fraction of the gems you can find if you go there.

The History of Elfwood

Originally called Lothlorian, Elfwood was launched on May 1, 1996, and focused on amateur high fantasy art. It had exactly three members, including founder Thomas Abrahamsson. Originally, Abrahamsson would manually put up pictures sent to him by email, but Elfwood grew rapidly enough that, in less than a year, this became unfeasible. So, Lothlorian launched its Extranet in August 1997, giving members the ability to manage their own accounts.

In April 1998, Lothlorian expanded to include Wyvern’s Library, an area in which members could post original stories. In August of the same year, the Fantasy Art Resource Project (FARP) was launched. This provides resources and tutorials for people learning to create fantasy art and fiction.

On October 26, 1998, Elfwood reached an important milestone: The 10,000th picture was added. On February 16, 1999, the 1000th member joined, and Elfwood has been growing ever since.

To help bring order back to growing chaos, the Elfwood Rules Board (ERB) was created. They became like the friendly neighborhood cop: nice, but they will enforce the rules.

The FanQuarter was opened in June of 2001 to give members a place to put their fan art. By this time, members had a lot of fan art, so they were given three months to move their stuff to the appropriate area.

To help with the addition of new material, the idea of a ticket queue and moderators was tested in January of 2002 and made permanent in February of the same year. This helps ensure that new material will stay within the Elfwood rules.

In September of 2007, Elfwood switched from being a nonprofit entity to a for-profit business. The most noticeable result of this change was the addition of advertising. Ongoing changes include the addition of a Facebook-like “Friends” system, increased size limits for Elfwood Patrons, the phasing out of the Extranet, and the addition of a discussion forum.

Visit Elfwood to See More Excellent Art!

More Elfwood Art

Featured Elfwooder: Frank Creed

If you like “The Matrix,” you’ll have fun with the Underground Trilogy by Frank Creed. The Underground pits weapons of the spirit against the vast power and resources of the One State run by a frightening unholy trinity. This trilogy has been called a cross between The Matrix and the Left Behind series for readers who like exciting action in their fiction.

Fantasy Art on eBay

[ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”http://rest.ebay.com/epn/v1/find/item.rss?keyword=%28Fantasy+art%2Cscience+fiction+art%2Ccomic+book+art%29&categoryId1=550&categoryId2=1&sortOrder=BestMatch&programid=1&campaignid=5337337555&toolid=10039&minPrice=150&listingType1=All&lgeo=1&feedType=rss” limit=10]