Do you like Wayne "WAR" Reynolds?

[Ant]

I love his dynamic style but I found the covers of the new editions somewhat uninspired, which is a bit of a shame.

 

[EricNoah]

I generally do. And he is definitely synonymous with D&D in my mind, so it was probably a good call.

 

[Erik Mona]

I like the Pathfinder covers and iconics a lot!

--Erik

 

[JVisgaitis]

I like his stuff a lot. As a cover artist? Not so much. I mentioned this in another thread, but I'll repeat it here.

WAR really knows how to render a good looking picture and he has his particular style down pat. Problem is, all of his stuff looks the same to me. It's all lit the same way, there is no dynamic lighting, and the color palette is pretty much the same regardless of what he is illustrating.

None of these are absolute negatives in my book, and you know what your getting when someone says WAR is doing the art. The way I look at WAR's art is in the same vein as Jason Engle. Well rendered, distinct style, you have a good idea of what the picture looks like before you even see it.

WAR is a great guy and is very talented. I'd would just rather they picked someone with more of a dynamic lighting style for the covers. For internal artwork and concepts he's my man. For covers I'd go with someone else.

 

[GnomeWorks]

He has made some obvious progress since the 3.0 MM and its infamous "strange foot syndrome" (look the wight, the zombi, the mummy...). But I still would have favored Todd Lockwood or Sam Wood. Reynold's design is somewhat too "sharp", too "tense". Sure, it's evocative of frenzied action, but I'd rather have something less "hysterical". Sam Wood maybe has the opposite default : his design is often very "soft" and "smoth" (I guess it's about the way they use the computer). Lockwood reach the right balance between the two.

Same thing on the other axis : "comics" VS "classical". Reynolds style is too much "cartoon" or "comics" for my taste, while artist like Elmore (or Swekel in Deity and Demi Gods) often draw like they were trying to make a 19th century academic study of an heroic fantazy subject. Lockwood is still "right in the middle" for my taste in this aspect.

That pretty much sums up my opinion, as well.

 

[Psion]

Wayne Reynolds' work if freaking awesome, IMO. I stopped by his booth at the artist show today and saw his original painting for Secrets of Sarlona. I don't follow Eberron much, but that art was pure awesome.

 

[jeffh]

I don't mind him but I would rather see him doing interiors than covers. Except maybe on adventures. It's something about the sense of frenetic activity his stuff evokes - it just sits a lot better with me in some contexts than others.

 

[A'koss]

WAR's stuff is 19 kinds of awesome, I love the fresh, dynamic style he brought to the game. I'd really like to see him illustrate a D&D graphic novel one day...

 

[jeffh]

WAR's stuff is 19 kinds of awesome, I love the fresh, dynamic style he brought to the game. I'd really like to see him illustrate a D&D graphic novel one day...

See, to me that would be awesome in an interior illustration or as a Magic card, say, but a turn-off as a book cover.

 

[Gothmog]

With a very few exceptions (like the ettercap), I don't like WAR. His characters are always in awkward poses, have oversized weapons, bulky armor, horrible faces (many of his faces look like rodents), no dynamic lighting, same color palette, overly crisp style, he almost completely ignores the environment around the characters, and his style is very cartoonish and (dare I say it?) anime-looking to me.

So blah- I don't care for WAR, never have.