D&D artwork which captures something for you

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I don't know anything about quality of art. I just know what I like.

I miss a lot of the 1E and boxed set art -- but mostly for nostalgia.

I like most of the art in the 3E core books.

What I really miss are decent covers on Dragon. The ones that had some landscape, and weren't cover up with a bunch of tabloid taglines. You could visualize a story to them. I miss the "realistic style" (LOL -- not that realistic is a word you want to use too much with D&D). The cover of #299 was so cartoonish I wanted to retch. #301 was a distinct improvement in my mind -- but not to the same quality as some of the covers from the Dragon #100 or so era.

My favorite cover was the ranger fighting a monster that had burst from the frozen tundra ... and she's down to her last arrow. Priceless. (Dragon 126, maybe?)

 

[Sir Trent]

One of my favorite pics was the cover of the Unearthed Arcana hardback. The wizard's wide eyes tell volumes.

 

[Maggan]

Art that grabs me

1. The Elmore pics for Basic, Expert, Companion and Master sets. Especially Basic and Companion. Those pictures really blew my mind.

2. Most Elmore covers for Dragonlance. The one that always stuck in my mind is DL5, with all the heroes in the same pic, sort of like a movie poster.

3. Ravenloft. Totallt cool, gothic, horror... cool

4. For 3e, most of the stuff Wayne Reynolds does. The Knight cover for Dragon is spectacular, and the PHB pic of a dwarf stuck in a dragon's jaws, hammering away with his axe!

5. DeTerlizzi stuff, for Planescape. Cool, different, special. A different kind of D&D.

As an aside, when you guys talk about "comic-ish" illustrations, what do you really mean?

Is it...

...Arkham Asylum comic-ish?
...Watchmen comic-ish?
...V for Vendetta comic-ish?
...Groo comic-ish?
...Dark Night Returns comic-ish?
...Tom Strong comic-ish?
...Dork Tower comic-ish?
...Hellboy comic-ish?
...Electra Assasin comic-ish?
...Marvel Conan comic-ish?
...Doom Patrol comic-ish?
...Sandman comic-ish?

Reason I'm asking is because for me, a comic can be anything, just anything, and I'm curios as to how you define "comic-ish"?

Cheers!

M.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Earthdawn - the box cover of Parlainth, loved the picture of those ruins!

 

[SableWyvern]

In one of the editions of the AD&D2 DMG there was a colour plate of a big, beefy guy in black, crouching on a rooftop, with a coil of rope over his shoulder.

That hit me straight away as a great character concept, one I hadn't previously considered. A brilliant thief, who can also hold his own easily in a brawl or stand-up fight. So, as soon as I got the chance I made him as a Rolemaster Thief. (I could have gone a rogue, which is intrinsically suited to that sort of thing in many ways (basically, a d&d fighter/thief), but I wanted his thiefly skills to be absolutely maxed, contrary to his appearance and not inconsiderable brawn.)

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Re: Art that grabs me

As an aside, when you guys talk about "comic-ish" illustrations, what do you really mean?

In the case of the 3e art, most of it falls somewhere in the mid 90's spectrum between Jim Lee and Rob Liefield. The "look at me pose in as cool a way as possible" style. The proportions of the characters usually make some sort of sense, so it's probably closer to Lee than Liefield (thank God).

This isn't a purely bad thing. The art is most definitely not bad, but it doesn't have that "look at me, I'm something new and different" look. It has a "we did market research, and this is what the kids will buy" look.

All of this is IMO and all that.

 

[Piratecat]

That sounds suspiciously like nostalgia speaking. I will bet you an Austrian dollar (about .00002 cents Americaian) that in twenty years time, people will be waxing lyrical about 3E's artwork, all the while bemoaning how 4E has lost the plot.

Easy to find out: find a bunch of people who started with 2e or 3e. Show them 1e art. Ask them what they think.

 

[Arnwyn]

I know what I like:

- anything by Valerie Valusek, notably in FR products (especially the Volo's Guides) - a few pictures in the Dalelands guide that were especially vivid were those that characters weren't the focus of the art (the picture of Feather Falls, the approach to the village of Blackfeather Bridge).

- cover to the original ToEE. My players still moan when they catch a glimpse of the cover. To be honest, I think it's the best adventure cover *ever*.

- cover to FR2 Moonshae. Truly ethereal beauty.

- cover to Forgotten Realms Adventures.

- the Planescape females (Tony DiTerlizzi, I believe).

- the picture of the flying castle from Dragonlance.

- the cover to I6 Ravenloft.

- the cover to I3-5 Desert of Desolation. Makes me want to play Egyptian-related adventures all the time. Also scares the bejeesus out of my players.

 

[jgbrowning]

Re: Art that grabs me

As an aside, when you guys talk about "comic-ish" illustrations, what do you really mean?

Is it...

...Arkham Asylum comic-ish?
...Watchmen comic-ish?
...V for Vendetta comic-ish?
...Groo comic-ish?
...Dark Night Returns comic-ish?
...Tom Strong comic-ish?
...Dork Tower comic-ish?
...Hellboy comic-ish?
...Electra Assasin comic-ish?
...Marvel Conan comic-ish?
...Doom Patrol comic-ish?
...Sandman comic-ish?

Reason I'm asking is because for me, a comic can be anything, just anything, and I'm curios as to how you define "comic-ish"?

Cheers!

M.

For me it means..

Body not in proportion. ie. muscles to big, unless your a champion body-builder; head to small; forearms to big or short; hands to large...

usually its on the fighter types, moreso than the mages. i call it comicbookish because the concept of showing power or strenght for a subject by depicting an amazingly huge musculature is similiar to comic books.

i dont mind comic books.. i particullarly liked the books of magic, but most comic books bore the crap outta me. just not interested in hulking heroes. like the spiderman-type bodies better.. strong, flexable...

I also prefer my women fully clothed and not sexy. I like seeing women who look like women, just like i like seeing men who look like men. this preference, concerning women, is a development (for me at least) from a juvinile mindset to an adult mindset. i dont want to look pretty anymore.

joe b.

 

[hong]

Re: Re: Art that grabs me

Body not in proportion. ie. muscles to big, unless your a champion body-builder; head to small; forearms to big or short; hands to large...

usually its on the fighter types, moreso than the mages. i call it comicbookish because the concept of showing power or strenght for a subject by depicting an amazingly huge musculature is similiar to comic books.

Um, I'm looking for examples of this in the 3E books, and I'm just not finding any. I mean, spiky armour, yes. Elves looking like greys, yes. Halflings turned into kender, yes. Ill-proportioned bodies... not really.

Did you have any specific examples in mind?