Your Characters. Your Story.

My name is Todd Cowden, and I'm a illustrator specializing in character art for massively multiplayer online games (MMO's for short).

Odds are, you're already familiar with MMO's if you're here, but for those that aren't, MMO's are games where players create their own unique characters online and spend countless hours interacting with the characters in ongoing, everchanging virtual worlds. These original characters are the player's face, body and persona in the game world. These are games such as "Everquest II", "City of Heroes", "World of Warcraft" and "Lord of the Rings Online".

After all that time spent in these virtual worlds, these characters develop a story, and a life, all their own. They have adventures, make friends, and in some instances even have the opportunity to buy a house and get married.

Unfortunately, with today's graphic and technical limitations, the artistic representation of these characters falls more than a little short of what the player has in their head.

That's where I come in. I work with the player, find out as much about the character as I can, then develop a work of art that shows that character the way the player has envisioned in their imagination.

Take a look at the gallery for some examples. Or, if you're already interested, have yourself added to my queue.