Arcane Power Art Gallery: Welcome back, old friends

[Drkfathr1]

I find it humorous.

Criticism can be healthy, at least this thread isn't filled with vitriol.

It's also an excellent way for WoTC to get some honest feedback.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Anyway, a lot of this art is cool, but I'm always amazed that, if WotC is going to reuse art, why don't they reuse art from Magic, which at least is a different product line, so there's less chance of D&D players recognizing it? Plus, good God, have you seen some of the art Magic has these days? It's stunningly good.

My goodness, that artwork makes D&D look very much the poor relation!

 

[FloatingDisc]

There are some great new images here.

I think that picture of gnomish bard is still my favourite picture of that type (individual character isolated [on a white background]) to ever appear in a RPG book.

It's interesting to see what other people say are their favourites from this book, I'm amazed at what some people have chosen. Just goes to show how widely peoples' tastes can vary.

I don't know how to feel about recycled art. I can understand it from a cost-saving perspective, but it does somewhat disappoint me, as my dream is to illustrate this sort of product professionally, and this sort of suggests they can't afford to commission all new art for each book.

As a commercial graphic designer and illustrator I have to say that the $150 for a finished piece of that quality does seem extremely conservative. If I were to charge at the same rate I would for graphic design, that would be less than 1 hour's work. That said, I don't freelance design or illustration, and I don't charge for the illustration work I do at the moment. Hopefully that'll all change one day ;]

 

[Qualidar]

If done purely for cost-cutting, then it's really not the best idea. The cost for having 10 additional color pieces, therefore removing all old illustrations, would be at about US$1500. That cost is a drop in a bucket of water when compared to the true costs of a book (printing, shipping, percentage to the distribution chain, etc).

It seems more like a time-cutting measure.

WOW. As someone who has bought art for non-rpg books, I wouldn't expect to pay less than $1500 per piece, but perhaps the RPG scale is than far off from normal.

As a commercial graphic designer and illustrator I have to say that the $150 for a finished piece of that quality does seem extremely conservative. If I were to charge at the same rate I would for graphic design, that would be less than 1 hour's work. That said, I don't freelance design or illustration, and I don't charge for the illustration work I do at the moment. Hopefully that'll all change one day ;]

Holy the crap. As a fellow graphic designer, let me tell you that I am amazed at your rate! Where do you live and do you have any spare clients?!?

 

[Windjammer]

I certainly don't mind re-cycled art - if it is done well. If you look at 3.5 Rules Compendium, which ONLY contained re-cycled art, I never felt ripped off, because the art was re-used in a such a clever way (see the Enworld review for specifics).

What irks me about Arcane Power is that some of the art is re-used in a silly way. Take the Gatecrasher from 3.0 Manual of the Planes. Actually, he was already converted to 4E as a paragon path in 4E Manual of the Planes. Except the picture they used there showcased the rogue-as-striker meme, smashing a rakasha's head with a hammer. Not that I minded too much, though I wondered why that was, as an image, more exemplifying of the gatecrasher (prestige) class than a bunch of keys and lock picks - referring here to the image in 3.0 Manual of the Planes.

Imagine the surprise when I saw that very image used in Arcane Power - to illustrate the Arcane Wayfarer (aka Wayfarer Guide in 3.5 Complete Arcane). [Btw, this is from memory - I didn't buy the book.]

How silly! Keys and lock picks have nothing to do with magic transport. They don't even have something to do with transport per se. They have something to do with - gate crashing.

So there you go. Not only can't WotC pay artists for new art work, they also can't pay someone able to re-cycle art with a modicum of, er, intelligence.

And to top it all, that picture is printed in the book with a wrong colour scheme. At the very least, the colours look like faded as if exposed to too much sun light. I should know, as I both own the 3.0 MotP and know the digital picture from the Arcane Power art gallery.

Ordinarily, I would have recommended people to buy the PDF instead (because WotC PDFs remind you - painfully - of how the printed art is intended to look like) - but, given how things are now, I'd recommend them to do something else. ... why, borrow the book from a friend of course!

To sum up. They re-use art, do so in an amateurish way, and print it cheaply. If that isn't indicative of how best-selling 4E is, I don't know what could be. Either that or they don't care to rip off customers in times when they are doing exceedingly well, financially. You decide!

 

[Kaodi]

While I am slighty disappointed by the re-used art, for some reason the only thing that sticks in my mind is " Would whatever that drow chick is wearing n #13 translate well onto an Haute Couture runway, and what would the reaction be? "

( Edit: And now that I get around to looking at them, that M:tG Master Transmuter is awesome. )

 

[Plane Sailing]

What kind of person do you think the Gimble picture is supposed to represent, anyway?

Certainly not a 4e gnome, who look very different to this nowadays!

 

[FloatingDisc]

EDIT: Posted as a reply to Qualidar.

I'm currently working in London, but, as I said, I don't currently freelance. Even so, as a designer on a salary, even then my time is charged out by the company at at least £80/hour, depending on the work. Colleagues who freelance charge considerably more. I think I may have steered the discussion wrongly, comparing pay rates between design and illustration.

Something I meant to add in my original post is that I would gladly do fantasy illustration for a fraction of that so long as I could live off the earnings. Otherwise I would continue to do it for my own amusement, for free for my friends ;] (Evidence)

 

[FloatingDisc]

What kind of person do you think the Gimble picture is supposed to represent, anyway?

Certainly not a 4e gnome, who look very different to this nowadays!

Great question!

I based a whole characer concept off of this illustration, actually. It was a very short-lived Planescape PbP game, but it was one of the most fun-to-play characters I've ever played.

He was indeed a gnome, and a bard. Basically a womanising, thieving, scandelous, treacherous but ultimately good-natured ne'r-do-well ...if you know what I mean >

As an aside, I much prefer the look of 3/3.5 gnomes to the 4e "Communion"-style xenomorphs.

 

[arscott]

I thought Gimble didn't show up until 3.5, when they changed the gnomes' favored class. I could be wrong. Of course, even if I am right it doesn't change your point. The image is highly recognizable and has been around for many years.

In fact, as best I can tell, none of the recycled art we've seen has been in any of the 3.0 core books.

Almost all of the re-used pieces in the 4eMM, for example, appeared for the first time in the 3.5 Monster Manual. Which is nice for me, since I never upgraded my MM from the 3.0 version.