I think we can all admit that life would be way more interesting if Dragons were real and magic was more than just a slight of hand. If you’ve ever found yourself daydreaming of far off lands with enchanted forests filled with faeries and sprites, or the midnight rendezvous you’d have as a Vampire, then the art of Anne Stokes will seem like your dreams come to life on a t-shirt.

Anne Stokes conjures up vivid fantastical images of dragons, fairies, vampires, unicorns, and more as if she had a magical wardrobe she could walk through to observe these creatures in real life. 

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From The Vibrant Enchanted Forest To The Gothic Underworld, There Is An Anne Stokes T-Shirt Design For Every Fantasy.

Naturally, we were curious about the woman behind the art, so we sat down with Anne to ask her about her work and her inspiration.

The Mountain: When did you first begin creating and how has your artwork evolved over your career?

Anne Stokes: Right from when I was a little girl I loved to draw and make things. My mother was very long suffering and always encouraged my creativity finding me things to use for my various craft projects. I was later able to combine this with my love of fantasy subjects and fortunate to be able to make my career as a fantasy artist. My first jobs were doing designs and commissions for merchandise and publishing companies and as such the art always had to fit a description and set purpose. However as my career progressed I was able to move solely into licensing my art and my own ideas and concepts. This gives much greater creative freedom and a big part of the process is deciding what subject to paint as well as how to achieve the desired look. I find this very rewarding.

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The Mountain: What mediums do you primarily use to create your artwork?

Anne Stokes: I usually sketch my ideas out in pencil on paper and then colour a scan of this on the computer using a graphics tablet and pen. As many of my artworks and designs are licensed on a variety of products this gives greater flexibility if the art needs to be altered to fit different formats.

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The Mountain: England has such a rich mythical and fantastical history. How has this environment influenced your art, if at all? What else inspires your fantasy art?

Anne Stokes: England certainly is a wonderful country with much history. There are many very old buildings here with medieval or gothic architecture which are great inspiration for designs. I also find animals and natural environments a great source of inspiration and many of my dragons have been inspired by real life creatures. There are many amazing fantasy stories and films that I enjoy and also inspire new art.

The Mountain: What would you say are some of the core messages and themes illustrated in your art?

Anne Stokes: I like to paint a wide range of subjects and themes and fantasy is great for giving a scope to do this. One of the recurring themes in my pictures is strong female characters, in control of their own destiny by their strength of mind. I also like to use symbolism within my pictures to express and emotion or sentiment. For example in my Angel Rose painting the sentiment is remembrance. The angel holds a rose with the petals falling and the scene around her of falling leaves suggests that something has passed as she remembers the beauty of a life. People have been drawn to this piece as a symbol of their remembrance of a special someone. With art you can communicate without words, I feed an emotion into a picture by what I paint and then someone looking at it gets one out. That is a really special thing to do.

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The Mountain: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Anne Stokes: I have a young son and two dogs and much of my spare time is taken up doing things with them, which always gives me great pleasure. I also enjoying travelling and have visited a number of countries this year including USA, Mexico, Germany, Belgium and France. I find it really interesting to visit different environments and cultures.

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