D&D (2024) Comeliness and Representation in Recent DnD Art

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No victim card is being played. The statement was made.

I never called you a bigot. And a ton of the Conan-style art was racist or sexist. Like this art:

Over-sexualization and awful portrayals of other races is practically a core element of Conan and art inspired by it. Swords-and-Sorcery is one of the worst fantasy sub-genres in how it depicts women and people of other cultures.

You can like problematic art without being a bigot. But denying that it has any issues and complaining about new art not having enough chain mail bikinis isn’t a good look if you don’t want to look bigoted. It’s like those people on Twitter that complain about modern female video game characters not being attractive enough.

 

[Scribe]

Seems to me, like leaps are being made here, so folks can climb on up their high horses yet again.

Show me some savage barbarians in the art, which are hacking down scores of their enemies, with mighty blows and knotted muscles and flashing swords, show me some devious thieves, pulling a fast one on some evil Wizards.

And do it in an oil painting style.

That's it. I'm not asking for the world here.

 

[MNblockhead]

[deleted]. Got my threads crossed.

 

[Charlaquin]

RE: oil painting style, I don’t know if WotC has different practices for their D&D art than for their MtG art, but at least with MtG art that wouldn’t be practical. They require digital art from their artists, and they work under incredibly tight deadlines. This is part of why they’ve been having problems lately with artists using AI art tools and even stealing art the old fashioned way, because the artists are given so little time, they’re under tremendous pressure to take shortcuts. In that kind of environment, ain’t nobody taking the time to make an actual oil painting. Making an oil painting style image digitally is of course possible, but it’s a different skill, and one that there just isn’t much demand for these days.

 

[Hussar]

Seems to me, like leaps are being made here, so folks can climb on up their high horses yet again.

Show me some savage barbarians in the art, which are hacking down scores of their enemies, with mighty blows and knotted muscles and flashing swords, show me some devious thieves, pulling a fast one on some evil Wizards.

And do it in an oil painting style.

That's it. I'm not asking for the world here.

Not quite oil painting style but,

or

View attachment 1712472550672.webp

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are many different styles of oil painting, in many of them the brush stokes are invisible. And of, course, many medieval paintings are egg tempera, which tends not to leave visible brush stokes anyway. Oil painting was known, but did not become popular in Europe until later. A lot of painting was done onto plaster walls, your really need canvass for oils. Of course, you can find exceptions, one of the marks of an artist is experimenting with techniques.

Personally, I dislike painting with oils, and prefer acrylic. The big problem with oils is they take ages to dry, which is great if you want to spend months tinkering with your masterpiece, but not very practical if you are trying to earn a living as an illustrator (or in my case someone wants you to clear your toys away so they can use the room).

 

[MGibster]

Cool, glad your desires are being met.

Shame for those who want some variation, but oh well.

You simply cannot please everyone. It's just not possible. Not even some of the time.

 

[Clint_L]

I've been collecting and painting miniatures for decades, and I've got my share of scantily clad ones. And those are fine for my home games, where we are all older, we know each other well, and we can get a kick out of loincloth or bikini-clad warriors while appreciating the old school context. Those miniatures don't get used a ton, and nobody picks them for their character because, let's face it, they look kinda dumb, but when I bring them out as NPCs it always gets a few chuckles and woohoos.

I would not dream of taking them to school and using them in games with students, let alone suggesting a student use them for their character. Doing so would be wildly inappropriate and show serious lack of judgment. We can all agree on that, right? Like, I think we can safely assume that anyone here would think it pretty gross if a teacher suggested that your daughter use a chainmail bikini-clad miniature for her character.

WotC is marketing to teenagers and young adults, in particular. They are also marketing to old grognards like us, but we're not a priority. Nor should we be. They've got to pay attention to what is appropriate for all audiences and ages, and their art has to reflect that. Them selling teenagers books full of problematic art would be no better than me taking those miniatures in to school. If you have a problem with that, you're just being stubborn, and I think you know that if you were in WotC's shoes, you'd do the same as them. Times change. Standards change. Contexts change. Responsible companies change with them.

 

[Charlaquin]

There are many different styles of oil painting, in many of them the brush stokes are invisible. And of, course, many medieval paintings are egg tempera, which tends not to leave visible brush stokes anyway. Oil painting was known, but did not become popular in Europe until later. A lot of painting was done onto plaster walls, your really need canvass for oils. Of course, you can find exceptions, one of the marks of an artist is experimenting with techniques.

Personally, I dislike painting with oils, and prefer acrylic.

Which is why the Last Supper faded so much so fast. The refectory specifically wanted him to do it, but he hated working in egg tempera because it dries so quickly and he worked at his own (very slow) pace. So he tried to do it with a mix of tempera and oil paints, which… I feel like should have been an obviously terrible idea, but that man would apparently do anything to avoid being rushed to finish his work.

 

[Azzy]

Which is why the Last Supper faded so much so fast. The refectory specifically wanted him to do it, but he hated working in egg tempera because it dries so quickly and he worked at his own (very slow) pace. So he tried to do it with a mix of tempera and oil paints, which… I feel like should have been an obviously terrible idea, but that man would apparently do anything to avoid being rushed to finish his work.

TIL.

That's interesting.