Brett laughed when he saw that:)
The art was originally for Birthright. Jeff Easley (whether he was aware or not) was the Birthright guy but then Tony S wound up doing the box set cover (not originally for the box set) which became the Birthright campaign painting and he inherited Birthright (whether he knew it or not) and they funneled the art through him ala Brom with DS and Robh with Planescape and whatnot... U understand so far? so... those monochromes were originally for the booklets you get when you open the box up. The painting for the cover was never actually painted though (in that possible world) and so those went unused for the Birthright campaign as far as I'm aware. I am aware though that TSR never let art go to waste, especially art by two of its lead artists, so where it appears is your guess. LMK when you find it:) Contacting the artists will not help you. Trust me;)
The 3rd one I have, with the orcs attacking is my favorite of the two I had but yours is neat. Enjoy!!
More trivia!!!
Did you know that my painting, Stalemate, and the 1st Chess painting were done on a pinball machine? They're giant pieces and Den, an up and coming artist, couldn't afford a draft table at the time to experiment with his airbrush. Some loser complained that he was out $84,000 when he wasn't able to purchase Stalemate due to being an idiot loser...
Szczudlo was an ink guy. He was staff at FASA and TSR hired him on to do inks. He wound up with cover art due to the info I provided above. His inks are superior examples
imo. Those ones for the Birthright houses are a good example but his B/W inks are top notch.
