D&D General D&D art, which artists best established each edition or setting?

[Kobold Avenger]

So this is a general thread about art in D&D sourcebooks. I'm familiar with the art starting from 2e when I actually started with D&D.

I feel that it was definitely Larry Elmore for Dragonlance, but I think there were a lot of Larry Elmore art across many other settings. There's many things about Larry Elmore that make we strongly think about the 80's too, after all outside of D&D, the iconic Shadowrun cover is in fact done by him and that's quite into influences of that decade.

With 2e it's without a doubt Gerald Brom and Thomas Baxa for Dark Sun, Brom I feel is probably also the most strongly influenced by Frank Frazetta. For Planescape it's Tony DiTerlizzi whimsical character art, and Dana Knutson's spiky architecture that established the look and feel of that setting.

I'd definitely say a lot of 3e especially Eberron was all from Wayne Reynolds, and his association with 3e was so prevalent he went on to do a lot of the art with Pathfinder as it established itself as the "continuation of 3e".

For 4e and 5e I'm less sure of who would be the main artistic direction of each.

 

[Wishbone]

For 4e I'd say it would be William O'Connor since he did all the concept art that established the look of tieflings and dragonborn.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

1e: Erol Otus, Jeff Easley
BECMI: Larry Elmore
2e: Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley, Keith Parkinson
Mystara: Clyde Caldwell
Dragonlance: Larry Elmore
Dark Sun: Gerald Brom, Tom Baxa
Planescape: DiTerlizzi
Ravenloft: Stephen Fabian
3e: Todd Lickwood, Wayne Reynolds
Eberron: Wayne Reynolds
5e: Tyler Jacobson

etc.

 

[HorusArisen]

Birthright: Tony Szczudlo.

 

[Dioltach]

BECMI was 50-50 Elmore and Easley, I seem to remember, but Elmore generally gets most of the credit. I agree that he also defined early Dragonlance (although I'm pretty sure my first copy of Autumn Twilight had a cover by Jeff Easley).

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I forgot about Jeff Easley, yes I do remember a lot of his art being used in 2e.

 

[Sacrosanct]

1e: Erol Otus, Jeff Easley
BECMI: Larry Elmore
2e: Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley, Keith Parkinson
Mystara: Clyde Caldwell
Dragonlance: Larry Elmore
Dark Sun: Gerald Brom, Tom Baxa
Planescape: DiTerlizzi
Ravenloft: Stephen Fabian
3e: Todd Lickwood, Wayne Reynolds
Eberron: Wayne Reynolds
5e: Tyler Jacobson

etc.

I agree with most of these, but I'd Trampier to 1e, and Clyde Caldwell for Dragonlance.

1e is probably the hardest because there was so much art, and by so many. In addition to the above, Jeff Dee, Jim Roslof, and Keith Parkinson all did some really iconic stuff.

 

[der_kluge]

I agree with Enrico's list. I'd also add that the art for 4th edition really sucked.

 

[MNblockhead]

I find Earl Otus to be the most iconic D&D artist. Many of the later, more polished works could have been found on any generic fantasy novel cover. But Otus's artwork exudes the spirit of early D&D. He also best captured the weird, genre-mixing nature of early D&D.

 

[ccs]

B/X: Erol Otus, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Dee, Jim Roslof
BECMI: Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Timothy Truman*
1e: Will McLean, David C. Sutherland III, David A. Trampier, Timothy Truman*, Bill Willingham, Erol Otus, Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Keith Parkinson, Jeff Dee, Jim Roslof, Jeff Dee,

But between BXCMI, 1e, some 2e, Dragon/Dungeon covers, art for D&D novels (including Endless Quest books), interior art for the magazines & re-used art pieces? Most of the above kinda meld into one giant 1980-1995 D&D gestalt for me.
* Truman didn't do much D&D stuff (compared to some of these guys), but what I saw of his is imprinted as firmly in my minds eye as anything by Elmore, Caldwell, etc. Love his stuff.

Dragonlance: Elmore (novels), Caldwell & Easley (modules)
Ravenloft: Caldwell
Dark Sun: Brom
Forgotten Realms: Elmore, Easley, Fields. I'm sure Caldwells in there somewhere
Mystara: Caldwell because of the Gazateers

My favorite of all these has always been Caldwell. Though Elmores a close 2nd.

The thing I liked most about the D&D art up into early 2e? The wide & wild variety of styles. I miss that. I'm tired of seeing only one stylistic format in "modern" (3x+) D&D.