An interesting art comparison

[Pants]

Of course, some of that art was pretty bad (glabrezu), but I've always had a fondness for his vrocks. And succubi....

DiTerlizzi's fiends were a mixed bag. I have a certain fondess for his babau, molydeus, cambion, and maralith, but my god, his hezrou and glabrezu pictures were horrid (I'll not speak of his hamatula and arcanaloth). The Nabassu didn't even really get much of a picture.

(Incidentally, I've always thought that putting the nalfeshnee in the same picture as the succubus in the 3.5 MM was some form of cruel practical joke on Lockwood's part. "You want nipples? I'll give you nipples!" and then evil laughter.)

Sam Wood did the pictures FYI.

They completely omitted any 2e picture of Orcus (there are at least two I can think of), any 2e picture of Graz'zt (at least two I can think of), and any 2e picture of Pazuzu.

Planes of Chaos has the best picture of Pazuzu *cough*Pazreal*cough* ever. It was even used in the BoVD web enhancement.

Too bad Graz'zt's picture kinda sucks.

What's interesting is how they focused on Dave Sutherland's 1e work while all but ignoring the pen-and-brush stylings of Dave Trampier - DAT's Jubliex is still the best of the bunch.

This smells like propaganda - it's easy to make the new artwork look better if you skip the best of the 1e artists. DAT's lich and intellect devourer (to name just two) kick the 3e version's asses and take their lunch money.

Blech, DAT... *shudder* never cared for his woodcut style, nor did I care for 90% of the other art in 1e. It all looks like something I'd doodle during math class, only dorkier.

 

[Shemeska]

DiTerlizzi's fiends were a mixed bag. I have a certain fondess for his babau, molydeus, cambion, and maralith, but my god, his hezrou and glabrezu pictures were horrid (I'll not speak of his hamatula and arcanaloth). The Nabassu didn't even really get much of a picture.

I suppose this is the point where I write some flustered in-character response about DiTerlizzi drawn arcanaloths. But it's late. *polite chuckle*

Like you say, any of DiTerlizzi's early drawings for TSR are a mixed bag of awesome and really really off base. I vaguely recall something that Tony wrote up on his website at one point in which he critiqued some of his not quite so successful pictures for TSR, making fun of himself, but also stressing that at the time he had some hellish schedules to stick to, and he was using pretty cheap media for it all.

I'm willing to forgive him for some of his less popular images, just like I'm willing to forgive WAR for his apparent inability to draw feet. The good stuff outweighs the bad.

 

[Hussar]

On a purely personal note, I wasn't a huge fan of DiTerlizzi's art. It always seem too "Fairytale" ish to me. Like the drawings were being pulled out of a children's bedtime storybook.

Not that that's a bad thing. I've seen some bloody fantastic pics come out of children's storybooks, it's just that it didn't appeal to me. Demons are not the stuff of faeries to me.

 

[Erik Mona]

[[INSERT HILARITY]]

That was the funniest thing I've seen all week.

And I love these pictures.

--Erik

 

[Pants]

I suppose this is the point where I write some flustered in-character response about DiTerlizzi drawn arcanaloths. But it's late. *polite chuckle*

It's the most unfiendishly looking fiend I've ever seen (which would be fine if it were a succubus or something similar in concept, but it's not).

 

[Shade]

And this 2e Succubus:

Victoria's got a dark, deadly Secret.

 

[Pants]

Victoria's got a dark, deadly Secret.

Abyssal Herpes...

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Wow! That 2e Armanite blows me away! Expecially compared to the 3e one!

 

[The Shaman]

Victoria's got a dark, deadly Secret.

Oh, that is so nasty...

 

[Quasqueton]

Well they have no reason to have an attractive human body either; what makes humans so darned special that demons have to be in that form? They always are things like "human with bat wings. Human with snake head. Human with horns." Never "Gnome with bat wings" or "Female hobgoblin with 6 arms and snake tail..."

Contrary to elven propaganda, humans were the first mortal race created.

And fiends and celestials don’t look like humans, humans look like fiends and celestials.

The immortal “races” were first, then humans were formed – based on many fiendish and celestial forms. This is why human morality (alignment) is wide open – they are part fiend and part celestial at their creation core. The other moral races were created offshoots of humans – that’s why they often look “humanoid”.

Humans are the most populous and wide spread and "generic" of the mortal races, because they were the original mold/template.

Quasqueton