3E art and age

[I'm A Banana]

Artists are always a product of their environment.

Environment includes time period.

Nothing is truly timeless...all turns to dust, eventually. Is dust timeless?

Perhaps true beauty really is only in the eye of the beholder...

...and in which case, which eye is it in?

~BABBLING MIDGET~

 

[ced1106]

The art's great, but I'm only neutral, b/c 3e art, like much of RPG art, "just sits there". If any of you play Paranoia, you have an idea of what art can really do for an RPG. Likewise, if you read The Duelist or Top Deck, they've used art to add some humor to the text, and sometimes the character portrayed in the art will have a personality.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[mythago]

3e art has (IMO) whole-heartedly embraced style to the point of marginalization of substance.

See, I can't really agree with this. Fantasy artists have always pushed style over substance. Chainmail bikinis; women swordmaidens who don't have enough arm muscle to lift a hairbrush, let alone a greatsword; mighty barbarians crossing the frozen tundra clad in a loincloth; cyberpunk warriors with long hair blowing loose in the wind --these are nothing new. We're used to them. But when we see something we're NOT used to, like uberbuckle armor, suddenly the rusty ol' suspension of disbelief creaks to life.


As long as we're picking on poor Larry Elmore, I'd add that's the very defense he used in a debate about 'bimbo art' (that style, and the artist's aesthetic preference, trump realism), and you will hear similar sentiments from many artists. One well-known RPG artist actually told me that spike heels make sense in a cyberpunk game because they give you a smaller step area, thus you are more likely to miss traps.

Tattoos--well, they went through a period in the US where people other than bikers had them openly, and young people found it was a good way to shock old people. Now you can no longer express your bourgeois disapproval of body mods by claiming health or social class reasons, so the outraged are falling back on the "you'll end up like disco music!" argument.

 

[MaxKaladin]

Sigil pretty much sums it up for me.

 

[beta-ray]

I am 34... *sniff* and I am generally positive about the 3e art (sorry sigil).

I don't find them dated at all, but then again I never had much fashion sense, nor do I care about fashion. Yeah I find the amount of tattooing a little odd, but I do see 3e as a fantasy world, not a medieval one.

I thought Elmore was ok. But I enjoyed Parkinson much more. I like the variety, fluidity, and quality of the 3e stuff much more than other editions in general.

And I like big boobs. Hahaha!

 

[Droogie]

Dangit, I wish i could have posted to this thread earlier.

My thoughts in no particular order:

I agree with kenjib and sigil mostly on this. I'm more of a traditionalist, and would like to see the style reeled in a bit. Less science fantasy, more medieval fantasy. "Its all fantasy", good point, but I prefer (I prefer, not everyone,) a more earth-like renn-european style. The closer the fantasy world is to my own, the more I can relate to it, ya know? Not to say that spiky armor doesn't have its place...Sauron himself wore it quite fetchingly in the LotR movie.....but the PHB armor illos HAVE...TO....GO.

No issues with the tattoos. Tattoos have been around for centuries. Same with body piercing, but some characters should NOT have them...Nebin in Tome and Blood and Elminster in the FRCS are two examples. El, lose the earring, bro. You are trying way to hard.

Iconics: Can't stand the illos of Hennet, Mailee and Alhandra for the same reasons everyone else mentioned. I DO like Vadania's pic, tho. However, my most hated iconic illustration: Sovelis. I'm not sure how a few sparse metal pimples sprinkled on leather could be called studded leather. And why do all elves in the core books have a look on their face like they just stepped in ettin poo?
For some reason, Sovelis reminds me more of a VULCAN than he does an elf.

Technically, this batch of artists are some of the most talented I've seen for this game. But as for style, hhrrmm... Lockwood: super talented, just don't care for his design.

I hate to be hypocritical, but there is just something about 3e art that connotes a feeling of..I dunno...immaturity?

 

[hong]

looks as fine to me now as it did when I first beheld the curved skyline of Sigil

That's a terrible thing to say about Sigil's male pattern baldness.


Hong "but an ingenious euphemism, I must admit" Ooi

 

[Malin Genie]

27.

DiTerlizzi is my all-time favourite artist of any edition.

3e art - there's good, bad and indifferent, but overall the quality is high. As a previous poster noted, the 'parchment' chapter headings are beautifully done.

 

[Nightstorm]

I'm a 35 year old with a BFA and while I feel that most of the artists are talented, I feel most of them are wrong for a fantasy setting. Does anyone know what ever happen to Jeff Dee? havent seen anything done by him in a long time.

 

[JeffB]

I'm a 35 year old with a BFA and while I feel that most of the artists are talented, I feel most of them are wrong for a fantasy setting. Does anyone know what ever happen to Jeff Dee? havent seen anything done by him in a long time.

He's around he also has a website for his Villians & vigilantes and the supers game that he's worked on to replace it....Legend-something or other. You should try a google search for it.

Funny thing is growing up I had no idea what he looked like and when I finally saw his pic I realized he looks just like the characters he did..LOL...

ahhh... here's the link http://www.io.com/unigames/