How did you get involved with Quest’s End Whiskey?
That was kind of funny, because Matt had called Kate and she was kind of showing off to me like “Hey, Matthew Lillard's calling me!” And then the first thing he said was “Hey, can I talk to your husband?”. He asked me about becoming the artist for Quest’s End and I immediately said "yeah, let's do this." It sounded super fun and it's my target: fantasy stuff and role-playing related. I've worked on D&D forever, so it was the perfect thing for me to jump on.

You’ve created a lot of dragons in your career, what makes this one special?
I think what made this one special was that I got to kind of create the look for it, but also it's like the biggest, baddest dragon. I've done a variety of red dragons and black dragons, some of them mega dragons, but this one is unique in that I got to come up with a design for it, and it’s always really fun for me to make the design myself. I've designed a lot of dragons, but I've never gotten to showcase them on the front of a product. 

What do you try to bring out when you create art for stories?
The most important thing for me is to tell a story visually. I always want to show depth and character and lead the viewer through imagery alone. I prefer illustrations and art to work without words. I'm always wary of paintings that have big paragraphs next to them describing the meaning of the art. You could have done that with just words, you didn't have to do a painting! I'm kind of a purist in that way. I think at least for illustration, it should be able to stand on its own. I like to get the characters posed just right, or get the expression just right, so I can tell a story that way.

What is your favorite class to play and why?
When I was a kid, it was always Barbarian, because I loved Conan the Barbarian. Nowadays I like the roleplay aspect of getting to inhabit something different; now it's often like a little rogue or thief.

How do you like your whiskey?
I've been to some scotch distilleries where they say to put in a good amount of water. That's become my favorite way to drink whiskey, it brings all the flavors out for me. For me, whiskey is always a little bit harsh on that first hit, and I like that water brings out all of that extra flavor and barrel nuance.