I don't know, that last illustration is just straight up #%#%# up.Erol Otus is certainly a better artist than I am . . . but I also think that this art looks awful. D&D art is just waaaaay better now. I would never, ever want D&D's art style to go back to looking like that abomination.
I like a lot of his art. I still prefer 5e's art, but his Astral Dreadnought art is amazing. I'm not so much of a fan of Elmore's art, there's a lot of random people standing around in boring landscapes, but it's not bad quality. Above the average quality of a lot of the early D&D art that I've seen.Jeff Easley
I can see that. However, a lot of 5e art (especially the monsters) are just portraits with nothing happening or context also.I'm not so much of a fan of Elmore's art, there's a lot of random people standing around in boring landscapes, but it's not bad quality.
Sure. I just think that a lot of 5e's landscape art is just more interesting and attention-catching than most of Elmore's. Like this:I can see that. However, a lot of 5e art (especially the monsters) are just portraits with nothing happening or context also.
I think Elmore's technique involves (or at least used to) taking pictures of models and then drawing them, reusing them, plugging them into different settings. Where I live in Kentucky isn't too far from where he worked. A friend of mine used to model for him. I don't know which character(s) she represented though.What are those guys looking at? Why are they standing like that? What's with their poses?
Definitely agreed. 100% accurate to say. There's more than a few pieces of 5e artwork that I extremely dislike (most of Tyranny of Dragons, some of the Gem Dragons and Draconians from Fizban's, etc), but in my personal taste, 5e has a lot more really good art than bad art.I just don't agree that all of the best art is being done now. There's stuff to like from all eras.
Hey, why not both??Yeah, I just cannot imagine how someone could see art as awesome as this:
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. . . and somehow think that D&D would be better off with art looking like this:
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Erol Otus is certainly a better artist than I am . . . but I also think that this art looks awful. D&D art is just waaaaay better now. I would never, ever want D&D's art style to go back to looking like that abomination.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.