D&D 5E I hope this isn't 5E...(art that screams "not this, not this!")

[Stormonu]

I think this is a much needed topic. Knowing what the "bad art"/style to avoid of D&D is as important as knowing what the iconic/good images of the game were.

Oh we have endured much, much worse than Pathfinder and 4E. You want to see true horror? Do you want to see the artwork that should NOT be in 5E? or any book, ever?

Just pick this up, turn to any page, and be prepared to rinse your eyes afterward:

A half-dragon purple worm?

Yeah, when Easley's doing Far Realms-like stuff, he's good. His dragons ... not so much.

The inside art is okay. It's not of the quality of the BECMI books (and it's why I prefer the boxed sets to the Cyclopedia), but it could be much, much worse (look at the Player Option's books, for example). <EDIT> What I think is so unsettling about the art in the Cyclopedia is that it isn't unified. You can go from one page depicting a 14th century French knight in full plate to a Moorish wizard on the next page. All these far-flung cultures and time periods are mushed together, often in the same picture. It just looks wrong, even though Mystra is a kitchen-sink setting with this sort of cultural/time mix. </END EDIT>

I think the art I dislike the most is Jean E. Martin's line drawings in the 2E PHB (the ones initialed "JEM" in the book). I'd post some samples, but apparently they are so disliked, no one's bothered to put them on the web.

Also, I'm in agreeance that I don't much like Wayne's adventurers. He's decent with his monsters, but I'm tired of seeing so much of his artwork. Give the guy a break and let some new artists in for a bit. (In a way, reaction to his artwork reminds me how people tended to dislike Erol Otus's art back in the 80's. Perhaps after a few years of settling, people will think of his art more fondly).

 

[Mengu]

I don't see what's wrong any of these...

The first picture in the first post is totally awesome. She defies tradition. She's not a pretty girl with big boobs. She has scars riddling her face and torso, her accessorization (is that a word?) is well balanced, and speaks to the nature of the post apocalyptic wilderness she comes from. Her oversize sword, simply adds to her characterization. She looks pretty bad ass to me.

The picture with the "brown ugly dudes" might hail strait from the dungeons of Labyrinth.

The backdrop on Chronomancer is what one would expect in an Alice in Wonderland-like world, quite fitting of such a genre.

The Eladrin portrayals perhaps make you wonder about the accuracy of a few details like the eyes, but why do I care? It's a pretty picture on a page. To me, it invokes images of a peaceful folk who are ready to defend their land, and I can start building a story around that. So the picture at that point has done its job.

The tiefling is basically hellboy for me. As a matter of fact, I built a character after the concept (and yes, I file my horns during short rests, but they seem to grow back after every encounter). The general tiefling image is that of a creature that can bring hell to his enemies. The tiefling was made for those who want to play the bad ass race, and I certainly get the bad ass vibe, particularly from that fiery tiefling. Their anatomy does not bother me. It's a fantasy creature.

I like most of the 4e art. I think the black dragon from MM1 is absolutely amazing, one of the best D&D dragons. I found some of the 4e Eberron art to be quite beautiful and descriptive of the setting, like the city scapes, the gnoll fight on the flying ship, and the picture with the Warforged knight/paladin and the artificer chick (which coincidentally is Wayne's work).

This is not to say I don't like Lockwood/Elmore/Parkinson style art. I have many favorites among Lockwood's work, and Elmore's style is very fitting for a setting like Dragonlance. But I also love what I'll call the more modern style like Wayne Reynolds, and Jason Engle, and things in between that can go either way, like Eva Widermann.

I don't want D&D to be a setting. I want it to have eclectic art. The art for the jabberwocky, the vampire, and the iron golem don't have to look like they are drawn in the same style, or are from the same universe. Jabberwocky might be more cartoon-like, the vampire could be quite dark, grim, and gothic looking, and the iron golem could have a zillion doodads and steampunk elements on it. 4e definitely had some of this going. Looking at MM3, there are certainly different styles used for different monsters (some look like it might be due to a lack of budget, but I'll overlook that for a brief moment, and come back to it). The Cloaker Lord is old school, the Corruption Devil jumped out of Monsters Inc, the Nerra is from the cover of a superhero book, Weavers are from Area 51, the Derro are from the Labyrinth, and the Nymph is from a faerie tale story book. Of course bad art is bad art... Oblivion Moss and Frost Giant say hello, we want new art.

If 5e is going to cater to EVERYONE, 5e art, is going to have to cater to EVERYONE. It should not be your 1e/2e remake. I have a player, who started playing D&D with 4e, and when he saw the PHB cover, he pointed at the dragonborn, and said I want to play that! He is still playing that Dragonborn Fighter.

Art selection is a difficult topic. When I go through fantasy artist booths at conventions like Origins/GenCon, I find that I have no interest in 75% of what's out there. Only the 25% pique my interest enough to browse through, and less than 10% make me ponder if I would want to own a copy. That means, if I were to select artwork for a product, I would be alienating at least 75% of the people out there, about 15% would be neutral, and about 10% would like what I picked. That makes for a pretty unfortunate product. I'm glad it's not my job.

Side note (in case this post wasn't long enough) - I find nothing wrong with the occasional hot half naked chick in my D&D books. I also find nothing wrong with impractical weapons, impossibly heavy armors, unjustifiable anatomy, and anything that might anger the average realist, as long as it is drawn well. I expect I will be the minority on this forum.

 

[Oni]

This is a real pet peeve of mine, pretty much all the art that is bandied about as being "anime" isn't. It just is not. Full stop.

Here is some Japanese fantasy art that ranges from the more subtle to the full on stereotype of anime art.

Digik Gallery - Gallery: Takuhito Kusanagi - INNOCENCE Illustrations
Digik Gallery - Gallery: Capcom - Breath of Fire
Digik Gallery - Gallery: Record of Lodoss War Illustration
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Art / Pics / Pictures / Images - Creative Uncut
Digik Gallery - Gallery: Final Fantasy IX Character Book
Digik Gallery - Gallery: Nausicaa Artbook
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon Art / Pics / Pictures / Images - Creative Uncut
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Art / Pics / Pictures / Images - Creative Uncut
Digik Gallery - Gallery: Yoshitaka Amano - Final Fantasy Japan Artbook
Digik Gallery - Gallery: Yoshitaka Amano - Sonolama Artbook
Dragon Quest VIII / DQ8 Art / Pics / Pictures / Images - Creative Uncut

That is, of course, just the tip of the iceberg, there is a huge range of styles in what is considered anime, the important point is that pretty much none of what has been produced for D&D looks remotely like any of it.

 

[Rogue Agent]

What is it about the first picture that you don't like?

I'll let the sword that weighs more than she does pass for a moment. The stuff I find annoying in that shot:

- The "spiked gauntlet" that's completely impractical and will do nothing.
- The axe that's hanging in a position where it will make it awkward to walk anywhere.
- The fact that she's sporting the "low-riding jeans with thong look".

 

[TwinBahamut]

This is a real pet peeve of mine, pretty much all the art that is bandied about as being "anime" isn't. It just is not. Full stop.

Here are some Japanese fantasy art that ranges from the more subtle to the full on stereotype of anime art.

...

That is, of course, just the tip of the iceberg, there are a huge ranges of styles in what is considered anime, the important point is that pretty much none of what has been produced for D&D looks remotely like any of it.

Thanks for this. It can be hard being a fan of anime art and seeing people condemn D&D art for being too "anime," even though said art doesn't look like anime at all...

Some nice choices of art, too. Breath of Fire, Fire Emblem, Yoshitaka Amano (though he is closer to traditional Japanese art than anime), Nausicaa... Good stuff in there. If D&D art looked more like some of those than it does now, I'd be quite happy.

You missed some good ones, though.

Suikoden 3's art is good and very, very anime in style:
Suikoden III Art / Suikoden 3 Pics / Pictures / Images - Creative Uncut

I'd link to Growlanser art if I could find a good gallery. Nothing in D&D looks like that.

Also, you can't talk about fantasy anime art without mentioning Berserk, but any given link to that would be inappropriate for this forum, so I'll refrain from doing so.

I'm not sure if I'm being on topic by talking about art I like, though...

 

[Banshee16]

What is it about the first picture that you don't like?

Sword the size of a surfboard?

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

A half-dragon purple worm?

Yeah, when Easley's doing Far Realms-like stuff, he's good. His dragons ... not so much.

I loved the line art drawings of dragons in the Dragonlance Chronicles novels...the chapter opener pictures etc. The pic of Onyx standing on the tomb, of the blue dragons over Tarsis, of the dragon by the hot springs.....I know they were just line art, but they were classic.

I don't know who did them.

Too bad we can't have more Di'Terlizzi either.

2E had some really great art. There's an artist who did some of the later products, like Return to the Tomb of Horrors, who was really quite good.

I think in general I liked the more "realist" art of 2E than the more cartoony stuff we got from WAR.

Banshee

 

[Oni]

Too bad we can't have more Di'Terlizzi either.

True that. I'm fond of his work, especially after it matured, from about '98 onwards.

 

[Banshee16]

True that. I'm fond of his work, especially after it matured, from about '98 onwards.

I actually kind of like looking at some of his Spiderwick art. I mean, I know it's kid's stuff and all, but he does Fey very well.

Banshee

 

[Incenjucar]

Unfortunately, because D&D is a secondary product line, it doesn't warrant WotC's highest dollar considerations. I brought up Brom's interest in doing a little D&D art again someday, and the matter of TIME came up. WotC's aggressive product scheduling apparently doesn't warrant waiting for the best artists, so we're going to be stuck with the best FAST artists. This is probably also why WotC products are plagued with errors.