When he was alive, Withick was considered a genius. He was best known as Deltora's greatest artist, but he was also a writer. Withick lived at the palace of Del in his early days, and at some point he was commissioned to paint the ceilings of the palace with scenes from Deltora's history. The most well-known of these paintings are the scenes on the ceilings of the palace library, depicting Opal dragons swooping down to fight alongside Adin's army against the Shadow Army on the Hira plain.