D&D 5E DDN Concept Art

[Shemeska]

I'm largely ok with most of the artwork. The halfling however is perfectly fine and dandy... and then I look below her waist and it just feels off (and the halfling being taller than the gnome is making my head tilt ever so slightly).

I'm largely waiting to see some concept work for tieflings, aasimar, and genasi. Sorta make or break stuff for me in that they need to go back to their classic appearances and their innate variety rather than their homogenous 4e incarnations (and seeing actual aasimar rather than the 4e deva which stole the celestial deva's name for a totally different concept). Please no more gigantic tail and cow horns as a default for tieflings when their entire concept from 2e and 3.x revolved around the randomness of fiendish heritage and appearance.

 

[Mercurius]

Awful. They look like video game still shots.

I have to say, though, I like the Aboleth re-design. Creepy.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have to say, though, I like the Aboleth re-design. Creepy.

Best Aboleth I've ever seen!

 

[steeldragons]

Best Aboleth I've ever seen!

I concur. So as long as all D&D art involves alien completely non-humanoid monsters the art's gonna be AWESOME!....wait

And on another note brought up, maybe my visceral dislike is stemming from the observation about the "video-gamey-ness" of the images. That 3D CGI'ed look. The artist is undoubtedly talented, and I don't mean to be saying otherwise. It is a "style" I simply don't enjoy nor want to see in my D&D books. In a D&D video game, great!

Hell, nowadays this could all be used for a D&D cartoon. I'd prefer it wasn't and wouldn't really consider it an "animated series" when computers do all of the animating, but that/this style seems the trend in cartoons nowadays and I'm sure there's tons of factors with overhead, time to produce a complete episode, etc... that make it desirable. If I'm not being clear, think "Young Justice" or the Avengers "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" as 2d-ish/good [to steel dragons] vs. "Iron Man: Armored Adventures" or anything Pixar-cgi'd/bad [to steel dragons].

When I'm looking through books, I want to see stuff that is [or at least looks] hand-drawn...2D...add in some shading and background, give it depth, that's all fine. I'm not looking for "DSL"-type stuff! But Easley, Elmore, Otus, Dee...drawings, illustrations...more black n' white (as also mentioned above) is desirable, but I'm not averse to colored images. But it shouldn't look like (hate to keep coming back to this, but it does!) computer game characters. This stuff, as mentioned, is/looks developed for some reason other than to be in print.

Anyway, rambling since I'm on first coffee. Sure we'll be seeing each other here again later today.
--SD

 

[Klaus]

Just a reminder to everyone: these are *concept* pieces. They're not meant to be final illustrations. If fact, Jon showed us Steve Prescott's goblinoid concepts a while back, and it was very different from the bugbear and goblin depicted here.

 

[Hand of Evil]

No issue, it is concept art for The Forgotten Realms. The images promote the nature of the realms, which has never been a grim and gritty world. The art work is solid and does what it is meant.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A little cartoony for my tastes, but FR always has been that.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think all this just goes to show why it's important to draw from a diversity of artists for D&D books. Fantasy comes in a lot of varieties and book-art is just to spur the imagination.

 

[ShogunAssassin]

Way to cartoon like, kinda funny but i would prefer a much darker tougher look

 

[El Mahdi]

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