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

[Nebulous]

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

The expression. The stance. The sword too big to carry. The glove too big to hold the sword too big to carry. I really, really despise that picture. Sorry. i don't think WR is going to be the go to artist in 5e and for that i am immensely grateful.

 

[Ratskinner]

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 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.

Well, I don't really know that much about Anime or Japanese art, but I clicked through those galleries you listed...I think Yoshitako Amano is the only one I'd broadly like to see in a D&D book. Some of the others had good monstery things, especially Takuhito Kusanagi. The rest, though...there's some bizarre almost "uncanny valley" feeling that some of that art generates. Like "He's trying to look all badass, and he's got all the gear, even a good color scheme and proportions, but somehow he ends up looking like he just left a gay nightclub halloween party." There's also that sort of strange admixture preubescent look and sexual overtones in so many of the characters, which I know is a cultural thing, but still kinda creeps me out. I don't mind if the art portrays or illustrates something creepy, but it shouldn't be creepy. (If that makes any sense.)

All that being said, it wouldn't keep me from buying the books if a few of those showed up in it. Some of the monsters, in particular, are very nice and flavorful.

 

[Scribble]

The expression. The stance. The sword too big to carry. The glove too big to hold the sword too big to carry. I really, really despise that picture. Sorry. i don't think WR is going to be the go to artist in 5e and for that i am immensely grateful.

For me it's not that the sword is "too big." I get it- she's supposed to have a sword from a giant. But it's not even proportioned properly for a giant.

The handle still happens to be wide enough around that it's only slightly bigger then a normal sword. It's longer, but not by a lot.

It ends up looking like either a normal two handed sword with an obnoxiously wide blade, or it ends up looking like a slightly too short sword with an awkwardly thin handle for a giant.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

We should feel lucky - just image if she'd taken a POLEARM from a giant! It would start on page 4 of the PF Corebook and end somewhere in the middle of the index.

Also, i love the idea that this is somehow a "bastard sword" or a "anderthalbhänder". I mean, changing from 1 to 2 hands and back as desired? Who's doing that? The giant? She? I mean, i love over-the-top art in D&D, i can even live with belt trousers but that one is just "my forearms are too short so i thought i should get this lump of metal to compensate for it".

 

[dkyle]

Also, i love the idea that this is somehow a "bastard sword" or a "anderthalbhänder". I mean, changing from 1 to 2 hands and back as desired? Who's doing that? The giant? She?

It's a giant's Bastard Sword. She uses it as a large two-hander.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

It your and my definition of "giant" are not totally different, that doesn't work. The sword is not long enough to be more than a short sword for any kind of giant, and even if the giant was that small, he wouldn't be able to get two hands on that grip.

Or let me rephrase that: Nobody ever intended the giant story to be more than a figleaf for "small lady, big sword". And if you use the bastard sword thingy as an even somewhat serious explanation... well, it doesn't work.

Small lady, big sword. That's as far as you can get with realism here. Stumpy forearm syndrome perhaps, too, if you want to.

 

[Wulfram]

Call it a Frost Giant's short sword and assume that she had a new handle made for it?

 

[jbear]

Forgive me rudeness, but since everyone is feeling free to express their opinions about other people's art work, I'll express my opinion as well. This thread strikes me as a whole bunch of people who know little or next to nothing about art expressing their uninformed nostalgic opinions about what makes good fantasy art.

Any time you start a post with 'forgive my rudeness' it is probably a good idea to start your post again but without the rudeness. Thanks. Plane Sailing, Enworld admin

Wayne Reynolds is an incredibly skilled artist. He does all of that work in acrylic paint with brush. His ability to capture movement and the weight of a figure is brilliant. He has a unique style that you recognise instantly. People keep using the word cartoony as if that somehow his style not being realism made it of less value. BTW, pet peeve, I really despise people who say cartoon as though it was a dirty word.

If you want a crack at 4e art, sheesh seriously ... you're going to pick out Wayne Reynolds ...?

Also, for those who keep harping on about the size of the sword in the original image ... did you ALL skip over the post where someone posted the character description and the fact that it is a Frost Giant's sword? You do realise that the artist usually gets a brief of the image to be drawn? So if you don't like the fact that it's a static pose or in this case a really huge sword or whatever, rather than an action scene or a normal sized sword, don't blame the artist, blame the person who wrote the description of the image they wanted illustrated.

There also seems to be a certain amount of contradictions about what people want ...
I love 2e art .... but no bikini chainmail chicks! We want chaste, well dressed women who remind us of our mothers! Well ... many many of Larry Elmore's illustrations were extremely erotic. Exactly what some people are clamouring against. Reynold's 'low cut bikini line' is very tame in comparison.
https://www.reedcomics.com/images/photos/art_elmore/oldcrows_L.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XB7t89tRUGU/Tgq-8M78RdI/AAAAAAAAFtc/H49l-bRT6jg/s400/elmorebw056.jpg

In any case I didn't realise how many prudes play D&D. Or are you just making an attempt at standing up for women's rights? My wife would have an interesting discussion with you about that. Here is the image she chose for her elf ranger character:
http://www.advancedanime.com/pictures/normal_night_elf_babe.jpg

And now, so you can criticise my taste, here is an image I think is cool:
http://www.hdgamewallpapers.com/var/resizes/Game Woman (20).jpg?m=1313692489

 

[Mokona]

To be fair for the 1st picture shown, that is her actual weapon. She weilds are large bastard sword. Here's her bio from adventure paths as a pre-gen PC:

Amiri never quite fit into the expected gender roles of her tribe, and when the tribe attempted to send her on a suicide mission, she returned with an enormous trophy—a frost giant’s sword. She has since abandoned her people, and has come to value her oversized sword (even though she can only truly wield it properly when her blood rage takes her). She never speaks of the circumstances that forced her to flee her homeland. Some things are better left unsaid.

I don't know how tall Amiri is but a frost giant is listed as 15 feet tall. 39" would be a conservative estimate for the total length of a human (medium) size bastard sword. A frost giant's bastard sword is going to be 7' 5" long, at least. Amiri is clearly lying about who had that sword before her.

 

[Loonook]

And not this: There is so much wrong in this picture i'm not even going to start.

In the back left... Why is Elton John masquerading as some sort of Fantasy Pope?

Oh wait, this was the 80s...

I honestly think that there is some horrid art from the old schools. I think the chintzy, tawdry, and poorly drawn was a bit of a mainstay. But there were some artists who I loved seeing their work (DiTerlizzi who signed my 2e MM when I was young, or the occasional weirdness of Brom. But we must accept tha, well... Some art from all editions is horrible .

Slainte,

-Loonook.