During the early to mid 1980s I was in friendly contact with the late British fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones. I loved her work, though I never read very many of her books. I ended up illustrating a number of her tales for various small magazines. During one of her visits to the USA, Diana commissioned me to do an illustration of a scene from her book "The Homeward Bounders." In this climactic scene, all the main characters storm an interdimensional fortress belonging to the demons who "play" the worlds as a multi-user roleplaying game. The central figure, the girl in black, has a right arm that can shape-shift, in this case into a fiery beam that can shatter the fortress door.
"The Homeward Bounders" is acrylic on illustration board, 14" x 10", Summer 1982. Click on the image for a larger view.
Oh wow, just finished reading that book to my son and we love that picture. It captures the excitement just before everything goes wrong. Thanks for posting this ten years ago.
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