Jason E. Collinge

Avertis Burns (8.5 x 10 inches: Charcoal on Paper)

Avertis Burns depicts a scene from the nightmare of Little Ashta, a character from Jason's first novel, Highwick: The Mage-King and the Thief.  In the dream, Little Ashta's earlier encounter with a curiously engaging street-performing monkey transforms into a terrifying inferno.  The town of Avertis blazes against the night sky while demonic creatures called Youkai look on.  Even the innocence of the monkey is horrifyingly perverted into a horrifying creature.

Celtic Dragon (11 x 14 inches: Pen & Ink on Paper)

The Celtic Dragon rendering was originally begun as a tattoo design in the year 2000.  However, completion occurred after the date of the tattoo appointment.  Moreover, the final design worked more as a free standing art piece than as a tattoo.

In the upper half of this drawing, the viewer may observe the broken lines employed to render the unstable rainy weather that threatens the Irish coast during the dragon's flight.  Here, the sky is highly characteristic of Jason’s manner, the seemingly unkempt rapid execution like Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891).  However, there is a free expression of emotion, not a technically stylized improvisation; along with his emotional response, he always strives to convey that which is most abiding in his visual impressions.  The belt and scabbard for his sword are similar to that used by the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers) circa 1250 AD.  Also of note is the shading used on the castle in the background, which is meant to render the structure more three dimensionally realistic.  Shading was employed on the dragon, especially on the legs, to shape his muscles.  The dragon's Celtic harp was shaped and defined by a curved, broken line - as are the wings.  The decoration on the harp is made with wavy lines, while the harp's strings are rendered with straight, thin lines to emphasize the delicate nature of the melodies they produce as the well travelled dragon plucks and strums.

This image was drawn for Jason's first novel, Highwick: The Mage-King and the Thief.  In it, Geryon Asher, a reluctant mage, approaches the secluded ruins of the an orphanage run by the Pendsen monastic order.  It is a place from his childhood and early adulthood, to which he is returning, yet now it is only crumbling circles of fire-blasted stone.  Though he has come to this remote place in order to warn the order of an impending demon raid, he has arrived too late; the orphanage lays in ruins, and his purpose becomes one of rescue.  Are their any survivors?  What awaits his approach within the stone confines of the orphanage?

Lonely Doctor (14 x 17 inches: Acrylic Paint on Rag Paper)

Pirates (8.5 x 11 inches: Pen & Ink on Paper)

Captain Strosyn Gildrake and the crew of the Devil's Stumpet are long standing non-player characters in a table top role playing game.

Saika Enters Nobinne's Chamber Window (8.5 x 11 inches: Charcoal on Paper)

Drawn for Jason's first novel, Highwick: The Mage-King and the Thief, this image depicts the thief Saika Corbin, also known as The White Raven of Pannese, breaking into the ancestral home of the Nobinne family.  She has already opened the wooden shutters, and now braces herself in the frame as she attempts to open the inner bottle-glass windows. From the throwing knives, to Saika's hip pouch, to the reflections of the moonlight on the glass behind Saika, Jason places a lot of detail into this image.

Saika Enters the Nobinne Ancestral Home (8.5 x 11 inches: Charcoal on Paper)

Jason depicts Saika Corbin, a character from his first novel, Highwick: The Mage-King and the Thief, as she scales the protective wall of the Nobinne ancestral home.  She is breaking in to confront Emperor Nobinias.  What she discovers inside, however, is not what she expected.

Stirklyn's Journey: Mountaintop Farewell (75.5 x 55.5 cm (27.5 x 21.625 inches): Acrylic on Canvas) 2024 06 12

Jason depicts Stirklyn Gilwater the Unlucky, a long standing table top role playing game character. Stirklyn stands atop a snowy mountain range and bids silent farewell to his homeland of Kreigmark. A chill wind tugs at his coat as he stares out through a mountain pass to a sunset over the coast beyond.  At this point, he is shown without much in the way of travel gear, merely a hiking staff and hooded tunic to stave off the wind's icy bite.  He carries no provisions and will have to forage for his meals - not an easy task this high up in the mountains, but he is past caring and takes one last glance at the past prior to bending his steps toward his future, whatever that may be.

Stirklyn's Journey: Forest at Sunset (49.5 x 39 cm (19 x 15.35 inches): Acrylic on Canvas) 2024 11 28

Jason depicts Stirklyn Gilwater the Unlucky, a long standing table top role playing game character.  Stirklyn, once more alone, hikes his way across the continent of An Glas Mor Tir in search of a calling and his life's purpose.  The last of the summer sun blazes through the trees like fire as it sets somewhere off to his left and illuminates the crimson leaves of the the canopy in silent defiance of the coming dark.  In his left hand, he grips a normal quarter staff, a useful weapon in battle and more than a match against a sword when weilded correctly, but also a useful aid when hiking.  His long brown cloak will be proof against night's imminent chill indicated by the lengthening shadows of the trees crossing his path.

Stirklyn's Journey: Castanmir Island Homecoming (40.6 x 30.5cm (16 x 12 inches): Acrylic on Canvas) 2025 04 14

Jason depicts Stirklyn Gilwater the Unlucky, a long standing table top role playing game character.  Stirklyn's small skiff glides silently through the calm waters of Castanmir Lake toward Castanmir Island.  He raises an old oil lantern to signal the elderly caretaker, Salinn, on the shore of his imminent arrival.  A solitary raven, one of the island inhabitants, alights on the prow as if to greet him and welcome him home.  He wears his usual black long coat and transposer cloak and grips his stave in his left hand to help him balance as the boat approaches the shore. 

Stirklyn's Journey: Summoning the Coach de Bauer (48.5cm x 68.5cm (19 1/8 x 27 1/8 inches): Acrylic on Canvas) 2026 03 11

Jason depicts Stirklyn Gilwater the Unlucky, a long standing table top role playing game character.  Stirklyn summons the Coach de Bauer, the coach of the dead in Irish folklore.  A wail of a banshee amid a clap of thunder sounds, dark clouds billow across the sky, and thick fog rolls over the landscape.  From out of this billowing fog cloud there apparates a dark, ghostly coach in the distance pulled by up to four fearsome black phantom horses usually bedecked in funeral plumes.  Constantly exuding plumes of glowing black ephemeral smoke, the coach feels uncomfortably chill to approach, and merely touching one of the horses or the silent driver (the Dullahan - the headless horseman who carries a whip made from human spines) may be painful.

The Coach de Bauer is said to rumble or silently traverse the streets of villages and where it stops is an omen of impending death.  Once summoned, often by the wail of a banshee, the true Coach de Bauer, it is said, must return to the ephemeral realm of the dead with at least one soul on-board and that soul cannot escape its final destination.  It is believed that if the Coach de Bauer is approaching, then gated roads should be opened to allow the coach to pass onto somewhere else.  People are afraid to witness the Coach de Bauer as it might mean their imminent death or the death of a loved one.  Therefore, anyone witnessing the apparition of the Coach de Bauer could experience an unreasonable haunting chill and fear lasting up to a week before dissipating, but the fear remains in the back of the mind for years.  While in the grip of fear people will often attempt to either flee or lay flat on the ground and try to bury/hide their face in the dirt.