I wish I knew where this picture came from – if you know the illustrator, please let me know so I can drop him a link … and perhaps hire him someday.
When I first saw this illustration, I immediately thought of Raistlin Majere (though there are obvious reasons why that shouldn’t be). Regardless, I think this illustrator deserves epic accolades for arguably creating the best painting of a mage drawing on arcane sources for his magic. If nothing else, it makes me want to write a story about one…
Not Raistlin – that looks like Rye Zel – orange eyes and all … excepting that Rye Zel has lankier features and more perfect hair.