D&D 5E D&D Next weekly art column!

Klaus · Feb 22, 2012

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (An Introduction)

By WotC Creative Director Jon Schindehette!

I'll be sure to point him this way, so feel free to provide feedback, suggestions, etc, below!

Yora · Feb 22, 2012

Tell me what is important to you. Let me know what you liked in past editions and also what you didn’t. Remember though, I’m an art guy. Complaining to me about the abandonment of THAC0 isn’t going to get you anywhere.

I like that guy.

With 5th Edition appealing to old-school players, I'd also like a return to old-school aesthetics. I almost hate to say it, but since 3.5e, the art of D&D has become more and more... well, Warcraft-y. There is a place for the warcraft art style and I like it, but I think it's not the best thing for D&D. I would like to see 5th Edition to go more "medieval". Not neccessarily with normal chainmail and gothic plate armor (no really, please don't!), but less spikes, shoulderpads, and ludicrously shaped blades would do nicely.

Astrosicebear · Feb 22, 2012

I am a huge Wayne Reynolds fan, and at the beginning of the 3.5 era the art was cool and sparse. But then it seemed 'hero' creep took in, and every character was loaded with 50 items, crazy blades, and so on. Now, I love the action Wayne brings to a scene, the moving dirt, the flowing combats, it really looks alive. But that stylized look of high fantasy action can only be carried so far before it starts to blend in with the motif. Pathfinder suffered greatly from this as well.

I would like to see the occasional over-styled action pic. I would also like to see some more grounded, realistic art. We need a fresh mix of both, but something that blends together to create a gritty but fantasy motif. Nothing like a good character or action pic to get the creative juices flowing on character ideas.

I mean how many of us looked at that 3E Champion of Bahamut and just drooled?

Mattachine · Feb 22, 2012

I like old-school artwork AND the new stuff.

Part of the reason I liked old school artwork so much was the variety. Artwork by Elmore, Erol Otus, and Dragon-Mirth style cartoons all existed in the same books.

I would love to see that again.

Yora · Feb 22, 2012

I like Wayne Reynolds a lot. His artistic craftmanship is great, but in the recent years the art he did for D&D and PF had an design style that I really don't like. However, when you look at his older works, he's completely capable of drawing more traditional fantasy outfits. I think it's probably that the people who paid him wanted to have the characters he draws to look warcraft-style.
If we can go back to more traditional designs, I think he would also be a great artists for the new Edition.

But that's exactly what I assume the job of the Art Director to be. Making the descisions about the look and feel of the game, and explaining to the artists what kind of design they want to see in the images. The style of drawing and painting is still left to the artists.

I'd also like to see more from Rebecca Guay again. She also has a very distinctive style that is much more fantasy-oriented than the cool action stuff we've been getting the last years.

What was kind of sad in 3rd Edition was, that the guy with the most appaling and ugly style also seemed the one who followed the most traditional design. The one who did almost all the black and white art in 3.0. I really hate the way he draws, but that man knew how to capture the feel of older editions, which I appreciate a lot.

delericho · Feb 22, 2012

One of the few areas where I have absolutely no worries with 5e is in terms of artwork. Basically, I've enjoyed the art (mostly) in every version of the game so far, and I don't doubt 5e will follow that trend. The one thing I hope is that they don't copy the style of any previous edition (or Pathfinder, for that matter), but let 5e develop its own style... but I'm sure they will.

Chris_Nightwing · Feb 22, 2012

I like big scenes, with lots happening - DM screen type landscapes. I want background detail, and less emphasis on the characters themselves. I think it was at some point in 3E when characters became excessively detailed, at the expense of what they were actually doing..

steeldragons · Feb 22, 2012

Mattachine said:
I like old-school artwork AND the new stuff.

Part of the reason I liked old school artwork so much was the variety. Artwork by Elmore, Erol Otus, and Dragon-Mirth style cartoons all existed in the same books.

I would love to see that again.

I am 100% with Mattachine on this.

I love the "realisitc snapshot" looking stuff of Elmore, the hazy-edged fantasy-"not quite real" look of Easley, the clear but almost impressionistic/Van Gogh-esque of Otus, the ink-line drawings and humorous cartoons, and the "near-comic book" dramatic character looks and fight scenes of later books.

IMHO, 5e ought to have samples and examples of every and all! The game is supposed to evoke imagination and creativity, so show some...a diverse amount of some. Having a single artist's/the same style throughout detracts from that...for me.

Also, LANDSCAPES & SCENERY...background in general! Not every image has to be a close-up or even "mid-range" shot of the characters. Show a group of tiny adventurers in the corner of some HUGE cavern or sprawling vista with monsters charging (or not even noticing them) from afar. Make me wonder, what else is behind those trees, around that cavern wall, or over that hill?

One of the most evocative image/series of images for me, is from the 1e DMG. Those 4 pages or so, showing a group of really poorly drawn, but still distinct, adventurers entering the "dungeon", moving from place to place encountering different creatures and eventually finding that tiny passage that ended in a great treasure trove.

It was an illustration, pure and simple. What was that female magic-user casting on the Stone Giants? Was that elf going to hit those Salamanders with his bow again? HOW did they get through that chamber with all of the trolls?! How were they going to get all of that treasure out again when only the dwarf and halfling were going to be small enough to get in there?

That's the art I want to see. Make me wonder again. Make me imagine.

(and PS: If you want/need any "simpler/older" style drawings, let me know.

I don't "draw" on a PC. It's all by hand.)
--Steel Dragons

Yora · Feb 22, 2012

Well, it's a new decade. AD&D artwork as coined by Larry Elmore was just pure 80s! The hairstyles and outfits on the characters look just hilarious today, which is true about pretty much everything that was made in the 80s. Then in the 2000s, it was the decade of the warcraft cartoon-style. With those barrel-like limbs and blades that would get stuck in everything without being able to actually cut.

For the future... I don't really know. I think I would prefer some kind of gritty "realism". Landscapes that actually look like nature and clothing and equipment that would actually be worn and used by actual people.
It was in the PHB2 of 3.5e, where I think I first saw something like that.
[1], [2]
Images I've seen of Game of Thrones look a lot like what I have in mind, and given how popular it seems to be these days, maybe there's some hope the style could become more common in fantasy of the 2010s. Or the art style of the Witcher games.