Well, he probably DID toss those off quickly.
I'm not an expert in the matter (although I do draw a great deal), and I certainly don't know what kind of deadlines WotC imposes on its artists, but my impression was that most of the production time of the monster was spent writing up and playtesting monsters, not illustrating them.
They probably had much more time to prepare for MM1, as well. They must have commissioned Lockwood's Dragons in advance for them to look that good
Of course, he DOES consistently publish superb artwork, so he may just be that amazingly good...
I'm not an expert in the matter (although I do draw a great deal), and I certainly don't know what kind of deadlines WotC imposes on its artists, but my impression was that most of the production time of the monster was spent writing up and playtesting monsters, not illustrating them.
They probably had much more time to prepare for MM1, as well. They must have commissioned Lockwood's Dragons in advance for them to look that good

Of course, he DOES consistently publish superb artwork, so he may just be that amazingly good...