My name is Simon Schmidt, I live in the beautiful, rural Allgäu in Southern Bavaria. My main interests are art, photography and history.

My orientation to the fantasy genre originally arose from my fascination with Tolkien's work, with the excellent "Lord of the Rings" movies by Peter Jackson and with the amazing illustrations by John Howe and Alan Lee.

Besides the artists mentioned above I'm inspired by some more "old" masters such as Alfons Maria Mucha, Albrecht Dürer, Caspar David Friedrich, Joseph Mallord William Turner, El Greco, Francisco Goya and many more.

My main tools of trade are watercolors and acrylics as well as pencils and sometimes charcoal or chalk.

At the moment I'm studying informatics, but my excitement for arts remains unchanged and I try to invest as much time as possible in painting and drawing. I would love to study illustration after my current studies.