D&D General [ART THREAD]Your Personal Favorite D&D Art For a Monster

[DarkCrisis]

Yikes! Everyone is different! I had do go back and look to see if I was forgetting something. Nope, it was about what I remembered. I will have to agree to disagree with you there! I think the art in the 5e14 & 5e24 PHB, DMG, and MM is better than their 2e counterparts. I am talking in whole here. Some individual pieces in the 2e books stand out, but overall the 5e corebooks are much better IMO.

How can you even hope to top this fine piece or art?

 

[aco175]

How can you even hope to top this fine piece or art?

View attachment 400045

2e did really nail the shading and details. Almost as good as the banana taped to the wall art that sold for a 6.2 million bucks.

 

[Stormonu]

2e did really nail the shading and details.

Yeah, like this piece of 2E art:

 

[Quickleaf]

View attachment 400002
Also, I had noticed that this piece from the 2025 Monster Manual (one of my faves in that book!) was done by Adam Rex. I work in a library, and spend time shelving books in the children's section, so I recognized the name from books in our collection!
Not only is this indeed the same Adam Rex, he also did some art for the original 2e Planescape books!
That means that both Tony DiTerlizzi and Adam Rex were PS artists who went on to become children's book artists/authors, which is weird that it happened (at least) twice!

Amazing! I love Adam Rex, that art is phenomenal. Wish I was into 2024 D&D, because there’s so much good art.

 

[dave2008]

Amazing! I love Adam Rex, that art is phenomenal. Wish I was into 2024 D&D, because there’s so much good art.

Luckily you don't have to be into 5e24 to enjoy the art!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Yes, Russ Nicholson has some of my favorite stuff ever, and that Grell is one of my favorites of all time.

Speaking of old school black and white, while I started with Mentzer Basic and was absolutely enchanted with Elmore's clean and detailed illustrations, I also soon acquired Cook/Marsh Expert, and was oddly mesmerized by some of Erol Otus' art, despite it feeling more amatuerish.

View attachment 400017

While I'm looking at 1981 Expert, let me also share this wonderful gargoyle.

View attachment 400019
And since I mentioned Mentzer Basic, I think I really need to share Elmore's grotty ghouls from the first solo tutorial adventure, which certainly made an impression on 10 year old me!

View attachment 400021 View attachment 400022

That Gargoyle looks like Bill Willingham art. Or rather, the stunned knight has a Williingham-esquely drawn face. The signature seems to say "WH '80", so maybe that is WillingHam?

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'm such a fan of his work!
The gelugon/ice devil he did remains my favourite piece of art for that Fiend.

View attachment 400000

One mark of a great artist is they are polarizing. People seem to love or hate Deterlizzi's work. I fall in the love camp; but others I guess not so much.

 

[dave2008]

One mark of a great artist is they are polarizing. People seem to love or hate Deterlizzi's work. I fall in the love camp; but others I guess not so much.

I am in the dislike camp, at least for his 2e D&D work (I don't like Erol Otus works either). I liked his work on the 5e Planescape product and I think his style work for Spiderwick well.

 

[cbwjm]

One mark of a great artist is they are polarizing. People seem to love or hate Deterlizzi's work. I fall in the love camp; but others I guess not so much.

I absolutely love his art, it helped define planescape and, while I'll never know what I'd have thought of a different artist doing the art for the setting, I think TSR made the eight choice in choosing him.

 

[Azzy]

One mark of a great artist is they are polarizing. People seem to love or hate Deterlizzi's work. I fall in the love camp; but others I guess not so much.

I'm in neither extreme. I like some of his work, and dislike other works from him. He's quite distinctive and I think that works for some subjects, but not to others.