Artwork

I still have a soft spot for the mid-to-late-80s D&D art: Elmore, Easley, Parkinson, and Caldwell. Those artists still define the look of D&D in my mind.

Others have said it, and I'll echo it. I want to see evocative scenes and adventurers ... well, adventuring. I've seen enough artwork featuring heroes in a cool but staged pose, completely devoid of any context. A swordsman in a cool pose with an angsty look on his face doesn't inspire my imagination.
 

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I wonder if there is a way to tie it altogether with more traditional artwork akin to the great tales on which D&D and early fantasy and sword and sorcery stories were based. There's some great works by old masters who did paintings of the Ring Cycle and stuff from the Brandywine school of artists like Howard Pyle whose work could inspire countless new pieces. Plus, Frazetta-influenced artwork is always welcome, IMO. :D
 


I like Pathfinder's art a lot. I'm a big fan of Wayne Reynolds. I like a lot of the rendering art for MMO's (some of the stuff for Aion is pretty).

That's just me though.
 

Best D&D artwork for me:

BECMI Basic and Companion Cover
BECMI Some of the pencil artwork inside (Aleena)
1E DM and Player Cover
2E DM cover, Combat and tactics, skills and powers covers
At least half of the art found in Art Of Dragonlance


I quite like some of the Daarken stuff for Warhammer as well, but perhaps it is a bit too gritty and dinjy for D&D, at least for the core art anyway. I'm not a fan of DarkSun art.

As you can see I don't like the manga, cartoon, caricaturistic stuff you get with the later books and Pathfinder. They aren't D&D to me.

If I had a choice between badly painted colour art or very good pencil stuff, I'd go pencil every time. In fact, I love a good moody B/W pencil/charcoal drawing.

I think every scene that has a sneaking rogue in it should be pencil/charcoal.
 


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