dave2008
Legend
Nah, it wasn't that dragonlance had it's own art direction, it was that each artist had leeway. That's why Easley's dragons look different than Elmore's, or Caldwell's, even if they were illustrating the same 1ed dragon type.
I don't believe that is correct. There was a sort of dragon "bible" for dragonlance dragons as I recall. Notice the white dragon in your 1e image by Elmore matches the unique crown of horns as the white head on Caldwell's Takhisis. Similarly, Keith's blue dragon matches the blue head on Takhisis as well. Now, I think Easley generally ignored this standard, but the other three seemed to adhere to it (for dragonlance dragons that is).
FYI, I am not making this up, I remember reading about this in an "Art of Dragonlance" book I believe, but I don't have it anymore so I can't verify that.
EDIT: If I remember correctly, whoever illustrated a dragon first set the standard for the dragonlance look of the dragons.
Clive Caldwell:
Larry Elmore:
Keith Parkinson: