Tom has been illustrating since 1989 and worked in several sectors. Starting with architecture drawings and technical illustrations. He went into board game and video game art and was lucky enough to work with most German Video game companies during the 90s.

During Tom’s studies he met the famous film poster illustrator Renato Casaro and that is what inspired him to become an illustrator. He spent a few years at the video game company "Software 2000" as an art director. Sometimes illustrating cover artworks for them Ex. “Amon Amarth”. Today his main works are sketches and moods for event agencies.

OVGA asked Tom how he honed his style:

I was always fascinated by photorealism, and I love the work of Casaro. So, I tried to become a good photorealist. In the early years of this millennium, I had to change my working style. My early works are airbrush and brush on canvas or Bristol paper, and I really loved this kind of artisan work, but I had to change my style into digital illustrations with photoshop. Today I paint for my pleasure in my free time.

OVGA has included below Tom Thiel's full known box art catalog:

1. Die Höhlenwelt Saga: Der Leuchtende Kristall (Software 2000 | DOS | 1994)
2. Archibald Applebrook's Abenteuer (Software 2000 | DOS | 1995)
3. Space Marines: Der Stahlerne Kaiser (Software 2000 | DOS | 1995)
4. F1 Manager Professional (Software 2000 | DOS | 1997)
5. Incubation: The Wilderness Missions (Blue Byte Studio | Windows | 1997)
6. Montezuma's Return (Software 2000 | DOS, Windows | 1997) German Fun Edition
7. Game, Net and Match (Blue Byte Studio | Windows | 1998)
8. The Settlers III (Blue Byte Studio | Windows | 1998
9. Swing (Software 2000 | Game Boy Color, PlayStation, PC | 2000)
10. Castlevania 64 (Konami | Nintendo 64-EUR | 1999)
11. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (Konami | Nintendo 64-EUR | 2000)
12. The Settlers: Forth Edition (Ubisoft Entertainment | Windows-EUR | 2001)
13. Neocron (CDV Software | Windows | 2002)
14. Knights of the Temple II (Playlogic International | PS2, Xbox, PC | 2005)
15. Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales (Playlogic International | Windows | 2006) - Digital
16. Secret Files: Sam Peters (Deep Silver | Windows | 2013) with Ricarda Thiel - Digital
17. Lost Horizon 2 (Deep Silver | Windows | 2015) with Ricarda Thiel - Digital