D&D 5E That Eberron Cover Is Just A Placeholder

According to WotC's Jeremy Crawford, Ben Oliver's cover for Eberron: Rising from the Last War on Amazon and WotC's website is an interior illustration serving as a placeholder.

Crawford added that "That warforged has customized itself in unusual ways. Each warforged can alter how it looks. That said, the book has plenty of traditional-looking warforged." There's more to the art, as you can see in the banner across the top of WotC's webpage. I rather like it.

Ben Oliver is credited as the cover artist in WotC's product page; his cover art will presumably be revealed soon, as the book is only three months away.

Ben Oliver was the artist who illustrated the covers of Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd.

 

[Mistwell]

YAY!

 

[Zardnaar]

On the downside it's still in the book.

 

[Mistwell]

I was OK with the picture as a generalization but I didn't think it was up to "cover" quality.

 

[Morrus]

Man, whoever that artist is... I feel terrible for them. They've not been treated well (by some industry publishers too). Anybody know who it is?

I think it's fine. Especially in the wider piece.

 

[Zardnaar]

The wider piece is nicer. It's not gouge your eyes out bad.

I think some settings are very heavily associated with certain artists styles. I don't like WAR that much as an artist but it worked for Eberron.

Dragonlance, Darksun, Planescape kind if have iconic artists as well. It's not set in concrete but I imagine it would make it hard especially when the art is average.

It's also just bland cgi type art doesn't really stand out, it could be Ravnica or a magic card.

 

[Azzy]

Man, whoever that artist is... I feel terrible for them. They've not been treated well (by some industry publishers too). Anybody know who it is?

I think it's fine. Especially in the wider piece.

Agreed. It's not a bad piece (especially after seeing more than the mockup cover). My only real complaint was that it wasn't proper cover material imo.

 

[Abstruse]

Man, whoever that artist is... I feel terrible for them. They've not been treated well (by some industry publishers too). Anybody know who it is?

I think it's fine. Especially in the wider piece.

Ben Oliver, who also did the cover art for Curse of Strahd.

 

[Kaodi]

Thank. The Host.

I am not a 5e player right now (if I ever find a RL group to RPG with I would not hesitate to play it). But I do have every Eberron book from the original v3.5 run and that as the cover art was going to be a serious letdown. I am fine with it as interior art though.

 

[Abstruse]

...which is one of the reasons I don't buy the whole "This is just placeholder" argument.

1) It's three months from release. That book should be already locked and on its way to the printers soon.

2) It's a full wraparound piece, not the kind you'd use for internal art. That's a piece of cover art.

3) It's at the forefront of the marketing campaign for the book. It's part of the banner ads, splashed at the top of the D&D front page, and part of the press releases.

4) It lists the cover artist in the sales pitch on the product page at the same time it lists the alternate cover artist and cover art.

5) It's not marked as "Cover Art Not Finalized" as they normally do when they announce a product without finalized art.

None of that makes any sense if this was always supposed to be placeholder art from the start. It only makes sense if this was a reaction to the social media backlash against the art and a scramble to appease the ones upset.