After graduating, Froud spent five years working as acommercial illustrator inSoho, London before moving toChagford, Devon in 1975.[13][14] Between 1972 and 1976, he illustrated four books by children's authorMargaret Mahy[15] andAre All the Giants Dead? byMary Norton.[16] In 1976, Froud was featured inOnce Upon a Time: Some Contemporary Illustrators of Fantasy, a survey of modern British illustrators.[17] In 1977, an anthology of his artwork,The Land of Froud, was published.[18]
In collaboration with his friend and fellow artistAlan Lee, Froud created the 1978 bookFaeries, an illustrated compendium offaerie folklore.[14]Faeries reached number four on theNew York Times Best Sellers list,[19][20] and by 2003 had sold over five million copies.[21]
In the late 1980s, Froud formed an artistic-literary partnership withTerry Jones, who was ascreenwriter onLabyrinth. Together they producedThe Goblins of Labyrinth (1986), a companion book containing Froud's concept art for the film,[32][33] and subsequently a number of non-Labyrinth-related books about fairies andgoblins. TheirLady Cottington series parodied theCottingley Fairies phenomenon.[1] For his artwork in the first book of the series,Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (1994), Froud won theHugo Award for Best Original Artwork[3] and theChesley Award for Best Interior Illustration.[4]
In 1991, Froud created over 50 paintings and drawings for hisFaerielands series, a collaborative project in which he invited four fantasy authors —Charles de Lint,Patricia A. McKillip,Terri Windling andMidori Snyder — to choose their favourite of his pieces and write stories to go with them, based on the premise that "Faerie, inextricably bound as it is to nature and natural forces, is gravely threatened by the ecological crises that human beings have brought to our world”.[34][35] The resulting novels were to be published byBantam Books.[36] However, only de Lint'sThe Wild Wood and McKillip'sSomething Rich and Strange were published in 1994 under the banner "Brian Froud's Faerielands" before the project was cancelled.[37][38]
His artwork has been exhibited in the United Kingdom and the United States.[2] By 2003, Froud had sold over eight million large-format books of his paintings of fairies.[21]
Froud is married toWendy Froud (née Midener), a puppet-maker and sculptor whom he met atJim Henson Studios in 1978 while working onThe Dark Crystal.[13] The couple married on 31 May 1980, inChagford.[39][40] Their sonToby (born 1984) portrayed the infant of the same name inLabyrinth at the age of one,[41] and later became a puppeteer and creature fabricator,[42] working alongside his parents onThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance as design supervisor.[43] Through his son, Froud has one grandson.[44]
Among Froud's major influences are the 19th and early 20th-century illustratorsArthur Rackham,Edmund Dulac,[11][24] andRichard Dadd.[48] Froud cites the early influence of Rackham, "in particular, [Rackham's] drawings of trees that had faces", as sparking his interest in illustrating fairy tales, and describes having had a love of nature from childhood that has informed his style.[49] He is frequently inspired by the landscape ofDartmoor.[30] Other influences Froud cites include the Robinson brothers (Thomas,Charles andWilliam),[48] thePre-Raphaelites,William Morris and Northern European art from the 1500s and 1600s.[49] He has stated that he was fascinated byGreek,Druid,Celtic and German 15th-century history and mythology.[48] Froud's work has also been influenced byArthurian legend, "com[ing] fromGlastonbury as a sacred centre".[50] Jeremiah Horrigan of thePoughkeepsie Journal wrote that Froud's style "echoes not only the great 19th century illustrators he reveres, but also harbors a wealth of elements ranging fromMedieval to ancientCeltic andNordic folk art."[11]
In 1979, Froud was nominated for theBritish Fantasy Award for Best Artwork for Plate 12 of his 1977 book,The Land of Froud.[51] For his 1978 book with Alan Lee,Faeries, Froud won second place in the 1979Locus Award for Best Art Book[52] (Froud has been a runner up four times through to 2015).[53]Faeries was also nominated for the 1979Balrog Award for Best Professional Publication.[54] The same year, Froud was also runner up for the Locus Award for Best Artist (he has been a runner up four times through to 1999).[53]
Four years later, Froud was a nominee at the 1983Hugo Awards in the category ofBest Non-Fiction Book forThe World of the Dark Crystal, for which Froud was the illustrator in a partnership with writer J. J. Llewellyn.[55]The World of the Dark Crystal won fifth place in the 1983 Locus Award for Best Nonfiction/Reference Book.[56] The same year, Froud was also nominated for the Balrog Award for Best Artist.[57]
In 1995, Froud won theHugo Award for Best Original Artwork for his illustrations inLady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, a collaboration with writerTerry Jones.[3] The book also won theChesley Award for Best Interior Illustration, and Froud was also nominated that year for the Chesley Award for Artistic Achievement.[4] ForThe Wise Woman, Froud won a certificate in the 1995Spectrum Award for Best Book.[59]
For his illustrations inTerry Windling's novel,The Wood Wife, Froud was nominated for theBSFA Award forBest Artwork in 1998.[60] The following year, for his artwork inGood Faeries/Bad Faeries, another collaboration with Windling, Froud won his second Chesley Award for Best Interior Illustration[5] (he has been a finalist six times through to 2008).[53]
In 2001, Froud, along with his wife, was awarded theInkpot Award.[6] Froud received a lifetime achievement award from the New YorkSociety of Illustrators Museum in 2011.[61]
^"Locus Awards 1979".Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved10 March 2020.
^abc"Brian Froud".Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved10 March 2020.
^"Balrog Awards 1979".Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved12 March 2020.
^"1983 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. 26 July 2007. Retrieved6 December 2019.
^"Locus Awards 1983".Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved12 March 2020.
^"Balrog Awards 1983".Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved12 March 2020.
^"Spectrum Awards 1995".Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved25 December 2019.
