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When discussing a question about the cover of an album by Conquest in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Alex noted that YouTube user Songofwyrd has written a comment referencing another album:

Cover of a Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons novel from the mid 1990s. That's just the artist's drawing of a Red Wizard of Thay, washed over in blue. The cover of Endless Power is stolen too.

Being curious, I looked up the album cover for that album.

Album cover of Endless Power by Conquest

It immediately struck a chord. I'm certain I've seen that picture before. But where?

So what is the original image ripped off by used as inspiration for the cover of Endless Power by Conquest?

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While searching for the image of the cover to use in the question, I happened across a page where someone had tracked uses of the original artwork. (Warning: that site contains some NSFW material as well (gore/nudity), some of which may be visible in its sidebar).

From there, the original wasn't hard to find. It's Dragon Rex by Ciruelo, which I recognised from the cover of his Book of the Dragon, which I indeed own.

Cover of Ciruelo's Book of the Dragon

I don't know whether Conquest licensed the work from him, but given the apparent copyright violation of their other album cover, I don't think they'll have. I haven't contacted Ciruelo about this.

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    There's a copy of the inlay card, cd cover and booklet here; aaevteev.narod.ru/albums/conquest/2002/power.html - Note that there's zero mention of a copyrighted image
    – Valorum
    Nov 22, 2018 at 17:47
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    I've contacted the artist to find out if he licenced it. I find it highly unlikely, but you never know unless you ask
    – Valorum
    Nov 22, 2018 at 17:54
  • @Valorum thank you.
    – SQB
    Nov 22, 2018 at 17:54
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    As long as you post the full image and link to the site where you can buy prints, I can't imagine that he'd mind the publicity
    – Valorum
    Nov 22, 2018 at 17:57
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    I've spoken with the artist. The image used was never licenced for their use. He's making his own enquiries but I think we can assume that this is proof-positive that the image was simply re-purposed without permission
    – Valorum
    Nov 27, 2018 at 19:13
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Echoing SQB's excellent answer, this is a cropped, rotated and re-coloured version of the picture Draco Rex by artist Ciruelo Cabral.

I've spoken with the artist (via email) and he is unaware of the band having obtained the appropriate rights to use the image. He also noted that another of the band's covers (Frozen Sky) contains an edited version of one of his pictures, also used without obvious permission.

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  • It didn't even cross my mind that the stalactites and stuff (on Frozen Sky's cover) could be stolen too, and I guess it's kind of "lucky" Ciruelo could ID it. Now I'm wondering whether the wheel thingy behind the dragon is "borrowed" too...
    – Jenayah
    Nov 27, 2018 at 19:36
  • @Jenayah - I'm working on that as we speak
    – Valorum
    Nov 27, 2018 at 19:39
  • And the castle behind the dragon as well, while you're at it?
    – SQB
    Nov 27, 2018 at 19:42
  • @Valorum so, did you ever find out?
    – SQB
    Aug 13, 2021 at 10:41
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    @SQB - I did not. I tried a few avenues including cropping the image and checking it on Google Images/Tineye and recolouring it, asking a few likely artists, but came up with duck egg.
    – Valorum
    Aug 13, 2021 at 12:04

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