For all its overabundance of sweet rolls and murderous dragons, Skyrim is absolutely beautiful. Mods enhance the windswept plains and craggy mountain peaks of the Nord homeland into a truly spectacular vision , but it all arose from the RPG's original, bleak, Scandinavian-style landscape.

Among the artists responsible for illustrating the first fledgling looks during development was Adam Adamowicz, a concept artist best known for his numerous Fallout 3 designs. Adamowicz is no longer with us—he passed away due to lung cancer complications last February—but his exceptional skill lives on through the piles of environment and character concepts he created for Skyrim. Beyond marveling at the amount of Adamowicz's ideas that appear in the final game, it's worthwhile to appreciate these illustrations as standalone works of art.

Click through for more of Adamowicz's masterful work.