BIOGRAPHY
Rob Carlos started his art career working as a digital graphic designer for a printing company in Florida, illustrating the D&D games he ran with friends and drawing and painting whenever possible. When that company folded, he started selling prints on his website (the worldwide web was a brand new thing at that point) and was asked to do some paintings for the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time TCG, starting his official professional work as a fantasy artist.
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In 2001, Rob and his family moved from Florida to the Seattle/Tacoma area, and discovered the convention world that exists up here. A couple of years later, a bookstore/art gallery in Kent, WA called “Browser’s Books” was displaying and selling work by local artist Amy Brown, and decided to add Rob to their walls as well. Browser’s Books became Rob’s home base for many years, and most of his paintings from that time started as sketches done there in the bookstore.
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In 2007, Rob started showing his work at Norwescon in Seattle, and various other sci-fi/ fantasy conventions. For years, Rob concentrated on illustrating for independent and small-press writers and musicians, being able to work directly with other creators without intervening art directors. During that time, Add An Accent produced a line of pewter dragons and ceramic tiles based on Rob’s artwork. Meanwhile, his convention appearances took him from one side of the country to he other, and abroad to Worldcon art shows in Helsinki and Dublin.
These days, Rob stays busy doing both self-directed and commercial painting projects, drawing people’s personal dragons, and occasionally creating enormous murals for locations around Washington and Oregon. Things came full circle during the 2020 pandemic, when online D&D games became more popular, and Rob started back into illustrating characters for the Camp Dragon online RPG company, along with his own personal group’s games. That period also saw him moving into digital sculpting using Zbrush to make gaming character minis, which has become an all-consuming passion! After the pandemic subsided, and conventions started again, Rob was thrilled to learn that he was chosen to be Norwescon’s Artist Guest of Honor – the show that started him on his convention artist path 15 years earlier.