D&D 5E A noteworty gripe for 5e

[Gargoyle]

You can buy Mike Schley's DMG art.

Good to know. Now I guess I just need to figure out what stuff in the core books are his. I do like his website. Good stuff.

 

[MoutonRustique]

Are you one of the uncredited artists?

In absolutely no way, shape or form. I can only attest to my reaction - and it was one of feeling insulted. Perhaps it was in regards to the artists, might be... I'm not sure. I just recognized the feeling as what it was.

Intellectually, I am angered that major contributors to the oeuvre of the books (at least in great part in the case of the Monster Manual) are not given what I feel to be proper reward/acknowledgement for their contributions. Take out the art and the cool typesetting and funky page effects and I'd be ready to wager a very great deal that the reception would not have been as it was. The art (in the broad sense : not just the monster depictions) is an integral part of the books; I feel its creators should have been granted more of a thank you.

You will have gathered that this is a very emotional response. I do not expect others to share it, nor do I consider those who do not to be "lacking" something. In this instance, it is very much a case of : it is what it is.

But it did (and still does) bother me.

...

A lot.

 

[Queer Venger]

So the rules are good, the play is smooth(ish) and everything is right withe the world...

Except the artwork. Not that the artwork is bad, quite the contrary, some of it stellar, the problem, who the hell did what? With the exception of the cover art which is tagged in the credits, there is really no way to tell unless you contact the artists themselves, and most of them aren't talking (NDA evidentally). For some reason WotC has removed all the artists tags from the art, which in editions of old was one of the best ways to find out who did that awesome monster, scene, item pic you were drooling over.

Thoughts, comments, explanations. Please enlighten us.

It would be cool to know who did what. Overall I think the artwork in 5e, and in particular the MM (which is all that matters to me because I like to 'show n' tell' with it) is award winning. My least favorites are the halfling splat in the PHB and the art by that same artist (whoever she/he is).

 

[Thunderfoot]

Part of it for me is that I know a couple of the artists, and I can sort of, kind of, maybe, guess which pieces are theirs, but it would be rather embarrassing to say, "Hey, artist A, loved your pic on pg 211 of the PHB", only to hear, "Uh, that wasn't mine."

And Trampier, Baxa, Dee, Easley, et al were all known to me simply because I could put name to art, otherwise, the artists would be an afterthought. And even Todd Lockwood got his tag in 3.0 and 3.5 (and not just on the covers), so WotC/Hasbro has done it too.

 

[pemerton]

The 4e books generally had the artist's name on the inner margin of the page. So this is a change of practice for WotC.

 

[rjfTrebor]

its obvious that they summoned the art in a dark ritual. what other explanation is there for the halfings?

 

[lutecius]

Yeah, I had the same issue.

The 4e books generally had the artist's name on the inner margin of the page.

So did the 3.5 books. Not sure about the 3.0 books but there were also complete (low resolution) galleries with full credits for each 3.x book on the wotc website.
Then the 4e galleries were put behind the subscription paywall but you could still find most pictures on each artist's website.
Maybe that's a behavior WotC wants to discourage with 5e... Fewer people will copy and share hi-res copyrighted art if they don't immediately know where to look.

Not that the artwork is bad, quite the contrary, some of it stellar, the problem, who the hell did what?

My least favorites are the halfling splat in the PHB and the art by that same artist (whoever she/he is).

its obvious that they summoned the art in a dark ritual. what other explanation is there for the halfings?

Or maybe that's the issue. Definitely not all the artwork is "stellar".
As with all editions for me it's really hit or miss (with some critical misses in the PHB race and class sections, which is a shame because these are the pages new players will look at the most. Every single piece should be exceptional). Maybe the art director didn't want an artist to be singled out. I think the one who produced the halfling in question had already received pretty negative comments after some early concepts were shown in an article.

 

[Klaus]

I can try and identify some of the artists, just post the book and page #.

Incidently, you can also buy prints of my PHB pics here (I'll upload my DMG piece soon): http://claudiopozas.zenfolio.com/

 

[Talath]

I can try and identify some of the artists, just post the book and page #.

Incidently, you can also buy prints of my PHB pics here (I'll upload my DMG piece soon): http://claudiopozas.zenfolio.com/

I love the cloudkill piece and the druid doing insect swarm. Those are really good illustrations.

 

[guachi]

I can try and identify some of the artists, just post the book and page #.

Incidently, you can also buy prints of my PHB pics here (I'll upload my DMG piece soon): http://claudiopozas.zenfolio.com/

That was your insect swarm? One of my top 5 pictures in the PHB, easily.