Is Larry Elmore still popular?

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Sundragon2012

First Post

• Sep 12, 2005

• #41

Henry said:

Agreed - and I don't get inspired, I get sad.

The shot clearly shows Fistandantilus' night-blue spellbook that Raistlin recovered in Xak Tsaroth. That moment, before travelling back to Solace (which they discovered plundered and burned) was the last time that Raistlin ever really "fit in" with the rest of the companions. From that point, he increasingly became the power-hungry soulless mage that he was born to be, and the rest of the companions' lives would be changed forever. In a way, it's like the time just before the Fellowship of the Ring enters Moria - a shattering of stasis and innocence, as it were. That's why I've always loved that particular art by Larry.

Click to expand...

What he said.

Good interpretation.

In my post I was just looking at it superficially.


Chris

 

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WizarDru

Adventurer

• Sep 12, 2005

• #42

Heh. I can't argue with that, Henry.

I used to HATE Erol Otus artwork...and now I truly love it. As stated above, he is a very competent artist: his line work is clean, his sense of composition is excellent and his visuals can be very compelling. They can also be very Cthulu-esque and sometimes over the top. Trampier was another one who really knocked my socks off. I have always loved James Holloway's work.

Oh, and Denis Beauvais' Chess covers are near-iconic, in my eyes.

Art is very subjective. Certainly, I remember being impressed by the Brothers Hildebrant back in the 80s, though today not as much. My tastes have changed along with me in the last 25+ years. I didn't used to like Asparagus that much, either.

 

wingsandsword

Legend

• Sep 12, 2005

• #43

To me, Larry Elmore's art pretty much sums up "D&D Style", the look I think of when I think "Dungeons and Dragons". The 3e "Dungeonpunk" look with spikes and extra buckles and odd pointy bits and straps found in modern WotC books never really found much appeal in me, I can appreciate that newer artists may want to take fantasy in new directions, but Elmore always seemed to get that classical fantasy look dead-on.

When Elmore depicts a scene, he makes it come alive in the way only the very best DMs or a master novelist can, as he is a true master of his genre. A friend of mine has a copy of a poster he did for the computer game Might and Magic VI framed on his wall, a huge battle between some adventurers and a dragon in a snowfield, and every time I see that it that sums up my image of a huge fantasy battle far better than the slick-but-uninspired art I see in most modern books.

 

Last edited: Sep 12, 2005

K

kenobi65

First Post

• Sep 12, 2005

• #44

At his best, I love Elmore's work. I have a framed, signed print of "Avalyne the Life-Giver" (the picture BiggusGeekus posted) on the wall of my office.

As someone who started playing D&D in the early 80s, Larry's style was one of the things that defined D&D for me.

And, I got to meet him several times at GenCon in the early 80s; he always came across as a very nice guy. He used to set up an easel and a big pad of flipchart paper at the entrance to the Exhibit Hall, and just draw all day. If you stopped and talked to him for a while (and, amazingly, he never seemed to have too many people doing so), he'd do an illustration of your PC for you.

That said...

I feel like he does way too many iterations of the "chainmail chick" picture, including what may be his personal signature piece, the "chainmail chick being ogled by a short goofy-looking alien critter." (Unfortuantely, one could probably reduce "Snarfquest" to that summary; an example is attached.) But, the chainmail chicks probably pay his bills.

 

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jcfiala

Explorer

• Sep 12, 2005

• #45

I'm a fan of Elmore - I like his work. I was looking through the 'Women of Fantasy' book that he published back in the early d20 days, and looking through the book I was surprised at how the six women he illustrates aren't like each other. I will admit I was somewhat expecting and looking forward to a series of rather lush figures.

And I'll throw a positive vote in Erol Otus' art - looking through the gallery that the previous poster linked to, I was impressed again at how good a job he does. The 'Giant Flying Beasts' on that page are really nightmarish, and the 'Gibbering Mouther' beneath is just trippy. No one does a Gibbering Mouther like good old EO.

 

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Tarangil

First Post

• Sep 12, 2005

• #46

I've always found that Elmore has always been very mechanical with detail in all of his fantasy subjects, but as an artist myself I've always been bothered that his figures are rigid and unmoving....There's no movement at all in the picture. Example when one draws a sword no matter where you freeze the frame there's the illusion of movment with body posture and angle. Now Elmore doesn't really achieve that. I don't know if he's setting up his GI Joes or something as a template but he doesn't quite capture the movment in the moment. I do like his pictures with snow in it though.

You can click on thumbnail for closer view
Look at it, the chick drawing the sword is practically saying "Dum de Dum de Dum"


:\ Now Easley captures movement with his work...But don't get me going on his use of colour.

 

Desdichado

Hero

• Sep 12, 2005

• #47

Someone needs to page buzz -- I can't believe he hasn't responded yet!

I'm not a huge Elmore fan, but I can certainly appreciate some of his pictures. The series he did for the red/blue/green boxed sets in the earlish 80s are true classics, but a lot of his work seems kinda tired and ho-hum to me.

Then again, I don't mind the "dungeonpunk" aesthetic. In fact, I quite like it. I really love the artwork for Privateer Press, for example, and I think Matt Wilson's work for them is among the best rpg art around.

 

Cam Banks

Adventurer

• Sep 12, 2005

• #48

I've loved Larry's work since I first saw it being used in the "new" Red Box Basic Set, the one with the bad-ass cleric chick swinging a mace. Those D&D boxed sets were full of his wonderful art.

Cheers,
Cam

 

Thanee

First Post

• Sep 12, 2005

• #49

This is a really cool picture...

Bye
Thanee

 

R

Ranger REG

Explorer

• Sep 12, 2005

• #50

*points to me*

Fan of Larry Elmore's art here.