D&D 5E Check Out Joy Ang's Alternate Covers for the D&D Gift Set

Looks cheap.

Divine1943 said:

Looks cheap.

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How so, the art looks very good quality to me. Like you can not like the style, but cheap is not a word I would use for it.

MonsterEnvy said:

How so, the art looks very good quality to me. Like you can not like the style, but cheap is not a word I would use for it.

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It’s a word I would use. They look cheap. The white background with the cartoony design looks like something my son would see in one of his “how to draw manga” books. Maybe they look better in hand, but as with everything else in regards to this project it has the look and feel of a cheap cash grab done with little effort expanded. But you can like them.

Divine1943 said:

It’s a word I would use. They look cheap. The white background with the cartoony design looks like something my son would see in one of his “how to draw manga” books. Maybe they look better in hand, but as with everything else in regards to this project it has the look and feel of a cheap cash grab done with little effort expanded. But you can like them.

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They are pieces from the DM's Screen

darjr said:

View attachment 150473

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MonsterEnvy said:

They are pieces from the DM's Screen

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That, uh, didn’t help with the whole “not looking cheap” thing. Nor with the “let’s see how little effort we can put into this thing, the fanboys will buy it up regardless” vibe this whole gift collection has.

MonsterEnvy said:

This is a game were we pretend to be elves and wizards, this line of thinking is silly.

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I'm not sure what you think is "silly." I didn't make a value judgment on them trying to appeal to a younger demographic, just calling it like I see it. But sure, the art isn't for me: it doesn't inspire me.

You can like the art if you want, but don't be upset that some don't. Art is ultimately about inspiring the reader, and I personally don't find this sort of thing inspiring at all. On the other hand, I have no issue with these being the covers, if only because I wasn't planning on buying this set.

Divine1943 said:

That, uh, didn’t help with the whole “not looking cheap” thing. Nor with the “let’s see how little effort we can put into this thing, the fanboys will buy it up regardless” vibe this whole gift collection has.

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It's not really for fanboys, as for new people.

"This product not meant for me doesn't appeal to me" is such an odd stance to continually post.

it's a core2 for people who don't have those books yet. if you have the books you don't need it. No matter what the art is like you don't need it because you already have the books.

Do you walk into a shop selling horse feed and complain that it isn't hamburger?

Divine1943 said:

It’s a word I would use. They look cheap. The white background with the cartoony design looks like something my son would see in one of his “how to draw manga” books.

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As an artist myself, and having worked with professional artists for the past 20 years, I have to take some issue with this.

First, Manga is just a different style, it's not any less skilled or "cheap" than any other art.
Secondly, let's say for the sake of argument that manga is is faster to paint/draw. Let's compare a manga piece with the cover and look at the differences. The covers of these books contain many more layers than the manga piece does. There's hue, saturation, shading, and highlights for every color used in these covers, and there are many more colors compared to manga. The pencils and lineart are much more detailed. The amount of time spent on one of the cover images compared to above manga image is exponentially greater. That's not "cheap" art.

Quite frankly, anyone who thinks this art is comparable to basic manga and is cheap doesn't understand anything about art. You (general you) can not like it, and that's perfectly fine. But making value judgments about something you don't understand is different.



But again, that assumes that Manga is less skilled or time consuming than any other type of art, which it's not. I used a very basic Manga piece up there for comparison, but if you look at much Manga, it has all of those things I mentioned that makes a piece of art complex and time consuming (dozens of layers, etc). Take this for example. It also includes shading, hue, highlights, lineart, etc. Bottom line, Manga is just a style, it's not any more "cheap" than any other form of art. Whether or not we like a particular art is entirely subjective. How much work and talent goes into a particular art style is not.

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