Chris Hopkins is an American artist known to gamers for illustrating the U.S. box art for the NES releases of Dragon Warrior III and IV. He’s also responsible for the box art for the first Age of Empires.

Chris attended the prestigious ArtCenter College of Design, graduating in 1979 alongside fellow future video game illustrator Mick McGinty. Chris and Mick both went to work for the design studio Willardson + White, which was headed by legendary airbrush illustrators Charlie White III and Dave Willardson. Chris thus began his career illustrating for major motion picture companies, the music industry, and other commercial clients such as Levis and Nike. Chris left Willardson + White in 1983 and not long after gave up the airbrush in favor of traditional oil painting. Write-ups of Chris illustration’ work frequently cite to his advance marquee one sheet for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), coincidentally one of the last airbrush pieces he painted. Chris did substantial work for the NFL in this period.

In 1988, Chris relocated to the state of Washington, which positioned him for limited yet significant video game work for Nintendo, Microsoft, and Cavedog/Humongous Entertainment, all of which were located in the greater Seattle area.

An out-of-use Facebook page Chris Hopkins Art - just off the easel includes amongst its photos numerous instances of his 1980s commercial illustration work.

OVGA has included below Chris Hopkins’ full known video game box art catalog:

Dragon Warrior III (Enix | NES | 1992)
Dragon Warrior IV (Enix | NES | 1992)
Age of Empires (Microsoft | Windows, Macintosh | 1997)
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms - The Iron Plague (Humongous Entertainment | Windows | 2000)