What do you find most Magical about 3E/3.5 art?

Destil · Dec 20, 2006

Nyaricus said:
Three cheers, mate! WAR is very possibly one of the best D&D artists in this edition, and he defined for me what amazing artistry is. The sheer epicness, and finished feel to his work is awesome. I bought Creatrues of Freeport simply for the cover (and 'cause it was 75% off )

Jerry Jarvis, though I despised him when he first surfaced (in 03, perhaps?) is slowly creeping up behind WAR, Lockwood and Wood for my favourite D&D artists.

cheers,
--N

I really, really like WAR's black and white work in the 3.0 splatbooks, his work there was some of the best in any version of D&D (Joazn casting a fire spell in defenders of the faith, Nebbin in tome and blood). In fact even his more simplistic black and white stuff in the oringal Starcraft manual is pretty good. On the other hand I often find his color work much less... evocitave? It seems to lack something whenever I see it, and he also has the misfortune of having 'fixed' two peices of MM art that didn't need it to much more 'acton packed' but overall worse peices (the blink dog and satyre).

Melan · Dec 20, 2006

Some of the art in the DMG (of which I only own the 3.0 version) was pretty good, especially the pieces done by Wayne Reynolds - dungeon dressing, some magic items, etc. WAR is a pretty good artist and would probably be even cooler under a better art direction. In the PHB, some "illustrative" graphics, such as the one demonstrating concealment through orcs in a cave, is fun.

Muh huh. Yeah, and if we go into d20land, that would be a long-long list. Suffice to say, Dungeon Crawl Classics are most excellent, and so is a lot of material released through the White Wolf partners (i.e. the Sword&Sorcery label).

Nyaricus · Dec 20, 2006

Destil said:
I really, really like WAR's black and white work in the 3.0 splatbooks, his work there was some of the best in any version of D&D (Joazn casting a fire spell in defenders of the faith, Nebbin in tome and blood). In fact even his more simplistic black and white stuff in the oringal Starcraft manual is pretty good. On the other hand I often find his color work much less... evocitave? It seems to lack something whenever I see it, and he also has the misfortune of having 'fixed' two peices of MM art that didn't need it to much more 'acton packed' but overall worse peices (the blink dog and satyre).

Yeah, some of that B&W stuff is great - I've always enjoyed it as well.

For the Satyr, I liked the 3.0 piece better, anyways

(Blasphemy!

)

cheers,
--N

Hussar · Dec 20, 2006

Lurking around the P&P database, there are just lots of bloody fantastic artists working in gaming right now. No matter what your tastes are, dollars to donuts, there's SOMEONE somewhere cranking out stuff that you'll like.

Psion · Dec 20, 2006

I like evocative art that expresses concepts and makes me feel immersed in the setting.

There was some of this in 1e. I still love, for example, the picture of the paladin with his sword in the skull of a black dragon in 1e Rogues Gallery.

2e has some good artists (Easley being one of my faves), but lots of the interior art stunk towards the end.

All editions have some great art in terms of Dragon magazine covers. I consider Den Beauvais in particular is one that is equal to any artist working today, and he repeatedly immersed me in a fantasy world with his evocative covers.

The difference is that nowadays, I can expect to see evocative art in nearly every book I buy.

Early 3e has some sucky art, but the two artists that pained me to see the most seem to have tarried on...

Patryn of Elvenshae · Dec 20, 2006

Destil said:
In fact even his more simplistic black and white stuff in the oringal Starcraft manual is pretty good.

Wait, that was him? No wonder I liked it so much!

Prince of Happiness · Dec 20, 2006

Dragonhelm said:
I love that pic. It really cemented in my mind what elven chain looks like.

Plus, that's an elf! If I have any complaint about 3e's art, it's Mialee. When I think of elves, I think of Laurana and Gilthanas. They were beautiful creatures who evoked the fantasy mindset. Mialee isn't beautiful, IMO. Really, I think her head is shaped weird.

Yay! I was worried that I was the only one that noticed this. She looks really...off.

Captain Howdy · Dec 20, 2006

What's magical about 3.x art? Wayne Reynolds and Todd Lockwood.

One of my favorites was the picture of Tordek fighting the red dragon in the 3.0 PHB. It's not there in the 3.5 edition, but it's a great pic. When I first got the 3.0 PHB back in 2000, that was the one piece that really made me want to play asap.

Scribble · Dec 20, 2006

Prince of Happiness said:
Yay! I was worried that I was the only one that noticed this. She looks really...off.

I didn't really like Mialee when I first saw her, but then I kind of got the feeling that they were trying to make the image of elves closer to like a norse or celtic fairie myth...

Slightly creepy looking fairie creatures, that didn't just look like hot humans with pointy ears. Kind of like the elf boy in Legend...

DM_Jeff · Dec 20, 2006

tx7321 said:
What are the things that you like best about 3E art?

The monsters, there's no doubt. As a 99% DM, the new art has really jump-started my descriptions and ideas about how the beasties act. As comparison, I like when WotC does the Alumni articles and puts old art next to their new versions, really shows how far the game's ascetics have come.

As for Mialee, I like her. A little 'off'? Here and there I suppose, but I felt it was to envoke the fact she wasn't just a human in elf-ear makeup. And different artists do her different levels of justice. This pic is really cool IMO!

-DM Jeff

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What do you find most Magical about 3E/3.5 art?

Destil

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Melan

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Nyaricus

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Hussar

Legend

Psion

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Patryn of Elvenshae

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Prince of Happiness

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Captain Howdy

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Scribble

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DM_Jeff

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