D&D 5E Art direction and 5th edition

[Herremann the Wise]

I'm definitely a fan of more realistic, less stylised art. My favourite artist for Dungeons and Dragons is easily Jeff Easley (I'm surprised he has not received more comments but heh). That MM2 cover is my absolute favourite.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Morrus]

I'm definitely a fan of more realistic, less stylised art. My favourite artist for Dungeons and Dragons is easily Jeff Easley (I'm surprised he has not received more comments but heh). That MM2 cover is my absolute favourite.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

It's the DMG cover that does it for me. Sometimes I feel the current cover artists are given the literary equivalent of an instruction to "include 16 'Action' words".

 

[Will Doyle]

How about artists like Ian McCaig in the Fighting Fantasy series? He had me ever since the original cover of Deathtrap Dungeon....
http://www.gamebooks.org/gallery/figfan06o.jpg

Iain McCaig is scarily good. He works in Hollywood now: interestingly enough, he designed the look of Darth Maul. Last I heard he was working as a concept artist on John Carter of Mars.

His FF illustrations were a big reason behind my early interest in RPGs.

 

[Kaodi]

Yes, that DMG and PHB were what I meant to refer to. I prefer the accompanying picture for the MM1 to that for the MM2 by far though. Different strokes, I guess, even among the similarly minded, .

Looking at some of the old artists work, the thing is a lot of their paintings have the right style. It is more a question of whether they could be persuaded to do less cheesecake and beefcake, and just generally be less lurid.

 

[rogueattorney]

Erol Otus' artwork IS D&D to me.

But I imagine the art direction will be - and should be - whatever is most likely to get a 13-15 year old boy to open the book.

 

[Lum The Mad]

Erol Otus' artwork IS D&D to me.

But I imagine the art direction will be - and should be - whatever is most likely to get a 13-15 year old boy to open the book.

Porn?

 

[Elf Witch]

I would like to see more realistic artwork. I am so sick of enormous weapons that would be impossible to use or even carry. They make the swords so long that you could not carry it at your waist because you would trip over it and your arms would never be long enough to get it off your back.

I would also like to see more variety in female adventurers not all woman have double D breast nipped in waists and big butts.

And how about some realistic armor and clothing. No one is going to go adventuring in silk robes slit everywhere.

 

[Stormonu]

Art styles shift over time, but I'm guessing that we're never going back to that which makes the average 35+ year old gamer nostalgiac--whether the Elmore/Easley/Parkinson/Caldwell days, or the period before with Dee/Otus/Sutherland/Roslof/etc. Ain't gonna happen, folks. I can't say that I mind, really, although I suppose I prefer both phases to some of the recent stuff.

I wouldn't be so sure. Wasn't it an Elmore cover that drew a lot of people to buy a certain 4E product recently?

Also, the Dungeon Crawl Classics successfully employed a lot of the old artists to do module artwork, so people will buy into that old art style. I think its just a matter of the designers buying into bringing those artists back.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I want an all Erol Otus edition. I don't know that I and there or four other weirdos would buy it, but it'd be the best ever.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I'm all for:

* realistic weapons; i.e. no spikes, hooks, and protrusions. Realistic size and *weight* (I'm looking at YOU, hammer group). Dark Sun gets a free pass on that.

* realistic armour; i.e. no spikes, hooks, and *ahem* protrusions. Less of the ragged piecemeal look designed to show off muscles & bare flesh. How about armour that looks like it might actually stop an attack?

The artists they used for AD&D were, by my way of thinking, head and shoulders above the new batch of artists. Not that the new ones are necessarily awful, just that their style is not terribly iconic to D&D. I get why they get used. WotC wants to attract new, young buyers, fine. They can't (or won't) afford to pay the old veterans, fine.

The articles that came out pre-4e talking about the world, the monsters, etc, gave me high hopes that we'd see some nice city/landscapes, scary monsters, etc. What a letdown. Not as bad as the 3.x books, but still not great.

But it's all subjective anyway, right? So whatever. I know what D&D looks like to me, I know what my campaign world looks like, and no amount of crappy artwork in new books can take that away.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

The artists they used for AD&D were, by my way of thinking, head and shoulders above the new batch of artists.

One thing that'd get me really excited about 5e would be rehiring Tony DiTerlizzi...or on a much more probable note, artists in his tradition. Now that's D&D to me.

Or a team of French impressionists. I do love those too.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

For me the height of D&D art was later first through mid second editions, maybe a ten year period, right in the middle.

The Auld Grump

 

[Klaus]

Yes. The pages are too filthy. And that isn't art, its draftsmanship. Give me just about anything else, please. I definitely agree with those who want more 'realism' and landscapes.

Draftsmanship *is* art.

On another note, Dragon has used Larry Elmore in the 4e era. And Fred Fields, another of the great artists of the TSR era, has been doing WoW work. Same with Todd Lockwood.

 

[Mercurius]

I wouldn't be so sure. Wasn't it an Elmore cover that drew a lot of people to buy a certain 4E product recently?

Also, the Dungeon Crawl Classics successfully employed a lot of the old artists to do module artwork, so people will buy into that old art style. I think its just a matter of the designers buying into bringing those artists back.

So you're investing in the nostalgia effect? That might work for a specialty piece, but probably not the core books. I mean, let's be honest: Elmore and Easley were ground-breaking at the time but there are better fantasy artists out there. If we're talking a new edition and direction for D&D, I don't think Easley and Elmore are the way to go; sure, maybe a few pieces here and there, but I think you want a new vision.

A cool Jeff Easley story. A friend of mine in junior high (we're talking 1987ish) sent Easley a drawing of a dragon, asking him for feedback. Easley took a piece of tracing paper and sketched over my friend's drawing, making suggestions and sent it back to him. That's one classy move.

 

[Glade Riven]

I always find it funny when people start talking "realism," "realistic," and "fantasy" all at once. As an artist, I have found what people feel/see is real is far different that what I, as a trained observer in form so I can draw it, see as real. I could write a whole disertation on it, but such would be boring and probably ignored.

Of course, I'm a fan of this guy, but he's back at Privateer Press. I wouldn't mind some Inkthinker, even though his style has kinda shifted in a direction that I'm not as much of a fan as. Or maybe the screen just doesn't do his inks justice and something is lost. I'd probably like his newer stuff a lot better in print.

I don't see WotC going WoW - mainly because Warcraft started out blatently ripping off Warhammer (although it's shifted a bit to more along the lines of Joe Mad), and WotC doesn't need to get into a fight with Games Workshop.

For my own campaign setting that-will-someday-be-published (hey, I'm making progress), I have been waffling between aiming for something more along the lines of speed rendered concept art or cartoonish, because both are relativly quick and I've got a lot to draw. Cartoonish is actually kinda easier, but..well, there are issues each way and I haven't had the time to devote to really developing a specific look and I need to.

 

[Pour]

A Michael Komarck 5e would be ideal for me.

 

[Kaodi]

A Michael Komarck 5e would be ideal for me.

Sign me up for that one. I have just been checking his website ( Michael Komarck Illustration ) and he would easily be a top tier candidate to create the look I would want to see in 5E.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Heh, then it turns out that the new art direction is inspired by Jackson Pollock....

The Auld Grump

 

[Zulithe]

For me the height of D&D art was later first through mid second editions, maybe a ten year period, right in the middle.

The Auld Grump

I remember walking into a fantasy game store at the mall when I was a kid in the very early 90s and seeing all of those books. The entire store thrilled me, just the idea of these adults who were interested in this sort of thing was a very foreign concept to me, but the covers of the books and adventures in particular really drew me in. Of course, i could never get my parents to let me by anything there, not that I would have known where to begin anyway.

Little did I know that just a few short years later, I would have my very own core set and be masterminding my own campaign for my friends.

The art was a big part of what sold me on the concept. A lot of the fantasy art from the 70s, 80s and even a good part of the 90s has a magesty to it that much of the art finding its way into today's books aren't creating.

I don't even think it has anything to do with the transition to digital, either. There are some really amazing artists working today that work ALL digitally. If anyone doesn't believe me, visit the magazine rack at your local bookstore and look at the Photoshop painting magazines. There's some amazing stuff in there. A lot of it is very different from what you would find in a 4th Edition manual, or on its cover.

 

[avin]

Is anyone really thinking a fantasy roleplaying game could have a better (more fitting) art design than THAT?

FRCS3E did a far better job.

Another art style I'd like to see in D&D is Icewind Dale's (CRPG) one...