Art Gallery for RoF

[JeffB]

Has anyone look at the Art gallery for the Races of Faerun book over on the WOTC site?

For some reason I thought I was looking at an art gallery for Exalted...which is not a dig on Exalted, I love that game..but ROF looks very "Anime" which.....well....historically is not the Forgotten Realms. And where it's not Anime looking, it's just..well.....not "Realmsy". Though it does not surprise me as the all the art in books other than the FRCS have definitely been going away from the "Traditional Realmsy" look.

I know it's only art... it's all opinion, yadda yadda yadda... but I'm just dissapointed. Methinks Wizards has dismissed their truly exceptional talents and...dropped the ball.

I certainly hope these people are not illustrating the 3.5 corebooks.

EDIT: LINK http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ag/20030309a

opinions? thoughts? rants? raves?

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Well, we've been having a discussion on the House Rules board about the withdrawal of certain monsters from the SRD (to be fair, the non-inclusion in the final version), including the Yuan-Ti. What the hell is this a picture of???

It is labeled as a Yuan-Ti in the gallery.

 

[Balsamic Dragon]

Personally, I was really disappointed by the quality of art for RoF. Other than a few pictures, the planetouched and genasi come to mind, the art ranged from just okay to cringe-worthy. The gnomes and dwarves especially looked awful. Not inspiring stuff.

I'll still pick it up, I just wonder whether there isn't a way to let WOTC know that good art really makes a difference in a product and it's worth it to pay the extra bucks for the better artists.

Balsamic Dragon

 

[Greatwyrm]

I'm not sure about the others, but the green thing looks like a Yuan-Ti tainted one. I don't remember them having tails, however.

 

[shilsen]

I'm not sure about the others, but the green thing looks like a Yuan-Ti tainted one. I don't remember them having tails, however.

I think the green one is a Yuan-Ti broodguard. It's detailed in Savage Species.

 

[Krail Stromquism]

Great Googley Moogley!

Yikes!

there are a few exceptions but over all this is the worst Ive seen to date in a WoTC product.

Theres a fundemental lack of understanding of Composition and Perspective in a lot of the pieces.

Robert Raper was the Art Director for the product. Who is this guy? and how can he be stopped?

I dont blame the artists they are doing what they wanna do but it just shouldnt be in a FR product. Its just not a good enough caliber. Mr. Raper is supposed to be looking out for us. He should have a good sense of the style of the product hes representing. It seems way off the mark here.

A lot of the artist Ive seen here and there with a few pieces in products, some more than others, but RoF seems composed entirely of these second tier artist (sorry guys).

So where are the big guns?

 

[Krail Stromquism]

oh yeah

Oh yeah the Yuan-Ti picture.

At first glance I thought it was a female Ghost and a Mugwamp from Naked Lunch (movie).

anyone else get that?

strong feeling of Mugwamp(sp) here.


I have to go make a report on this.

 

[WayneLigon]

The art looks pretty nice to me, with the exception of the Skyguard prestige class. Doesn't look even a little 'anime-like' to me, either, save perhaps for the tieflings (who are going to look pretty odd anyway). I especially like the Bladesinger pic, most of the elf and Gensai ones.

 

[EricNoah]

I'm not a big fan of the Yuan-ti picture but overall I think the art in this book looks very good.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

I don't think any of the art is "bad" though I do think a number of them definitely look anime, especially the Tiefling, Genasi, but others as well. In that sense, I think it is bad for this product. It seems to me to be a big departure from previous FR products. While the aforementioned art director has managed to keep a consistent style within this work, there is usually a line art director making sure the line of products meshes. This fits like a screwdriver in a bag of hammers.

Or something more erudite.