Lack of Backgrounds in Art?

[Nebulous]

Switchback, I prefer the second of your samples (and am curious as to the artist's name) -- but find the first evocative as well. The evocation for me is more of a super-hero comic book than of any classic fantasy literature, but again that seems appropriate to the latest version of D&D.

Personally, i love the second, subdued picture, and dislike WAR's first picture. Art is so subjective though.

 

[Nebulous]

I agree, the game has changed and the art reflects that. I'm probably nostalgic for a bit of the art I grew up with in D&D I suppose. The artist of the second picture is the late, great Keith Parkinson, there is a nice collection of his works here.

Ah, yes, Parkinson. He might very well be my favorite D&D artist ever. The style sure has changed since those days. I probably don't think younger gamers would even like it as much.

 

[Scribble]

One possible reason (I'm not part of any RPG publishing company, so I'm just guessing) is that art without backgrounds is more useful to the publisher, and they may be soliciting it in that format for that reason.

Well I can understand that when dealing with illustrations with no background, but what gets me is even in the large like full page pieces with backgrounds, the backgrounds are largely just "abstract" nods in the direction of what they are.

More likely the issue is cost. Artists for hire charge more for a fully rendered piece, because it takes more time and freelance work is still essentially an hourly wage.

Yeah... I'm guessing this is the case.

I'm not sure if you are saying the previous editions lacked backgrounds, or viewing them made you realize the new edition lacks them?

I'm saying that it seems like in the past the art tended to have both well done characters AND well done backgrounds to put them in.

To me, it does seem like 4th edition art favors focusing on characters and action more than locations.

I wouldn't say this is really a cange. There were always action pieces.

 

[Klaus]

A few things, actually:

1 - It's faster, therefore cheaper, to do a portrait with minimum or no background.

2 - It's easier to integrate such a picture into the text layout, and leave "breathing room" for the text and art.

 

[LostSoul]

I like it when a picture tells a story.

I wouldn't mind if all the art in 4E was simple line art, as long as it told a story.

MM art is different, though - I think you want just a picture of the monster so you can show the players what the thing looks like.

 

[Scribble]

A few things, actually:

1 - It's faster, therefore cheaper, to do a portrait with minimum or no background.

2 - It's easier to integrate such a picture into the text layout, and leave "breathing room" for the text and art.

Yeah... gues it comes down to that... Just wish they would throw in some of the ful pagers that really have a good background. It really does get my creative juices (eww) flowing.

 

[Siran Dunmorgan]

Offered respectfully for your consideration is the work of Michael Komarck, who has been—and continues to be—instrumental in producing art associated with Dungeons & Dragons, including some of the loveliest backgrounds in the business.

—Siran Dunmorgan

 

[webrunner]

4th edition does have more backgrounds then 3rd.. it was a conscious choice.

One of the preview books mentioned that it was a problem with a lot of the art, "dungeon" is right there in the title, but you dont get a feel for that looking in the older books. That's why a lot of the 4th edition pictures are big squares with backgrounds, or the ones on white usually have pieces of floor.

But I've noticed it's been getting worse since the the launch of 4e..

 

[Siran Dunmorgan]

4th edition does have more backgrounds then 3rd.. it was a conscious choice.

One of the preview books mentioned that it was a problem with a lot of the art, "dungeon" is right there in the title, but you dont get a feel for that looking in the older books. That's why a lot of the 4th edition pictures are big squares with backgrounds, or the ones on white usually have pieces of floor.

But I've noticed it's been getting worse since the the launch of 4e..

Indeed, a great deal of the concept art for 4th Edition consisted of nothing but background landscapes; it's hard to forget that the 'spirit' of the 4th Edition Points of Light setting was captured perfectly by this image:

World and Monsters itself presented a principal design concept concerning 4th Edition, to be kept foremost in the minds of authors and designers for the edition. Stacy Longstreet, writing under the heading "Art Direction for the New World" said:

"Another observation… was the overall lack of world imagery—what the world actually looked like. So many pieces of art showed items or adventurers, but with little to no visible surroundings. One of our goals this time around is to add more flavor and to include art that shows off the world, with its vast range of environments and locations. [1]"​

Clearly, then, background imagery was an explicit design goal of 4th Edition.

The open question is one of whether or not this goal is being met with current releases.

My own—subjective and unscientific—observation is that books containing relatively more 'fluff' also contain more art with backgrounds, and books containing relatively more 'crunch' contain less art with backgrounds. For example, there is much background and location art in Manual of the Planes, noticeably less in, say, Martial Power, and virtually none in Adventurer's Vault.

I would assert, based on these observations, that Longstreet's goal is not being met: the art of 4th edition is showcasing the "vast range of environments and locations" only when such things are the focus of the book, e.g. Manual of the Planes.

I am somewhat disappointed by this, and hope that it changes as more material is released, but it has not seemed to be the case so far.

—Siran Dunmorgan

[1] Worlds and Monsters, p. 15

 

[Switchback]

The type of book being released definitely affects the art chosen. As 4th edition is still relatively young, and kicking out a lot of splatbooks, naturally these focus on characters, and characters performing the various new feats and powers being introduced in the books perhaps.

As 4th edition is expected to take place often in more generic or user created worlds, there are not necessarily specific things or places to draw that are representing an actual place in a given game world.

By contrast, if you look at something like an Eberron or Forgotten Realms handbook, you are far more likely to see environments or places that have been detailed in text descriptions (i.e. Waterdeep, Candlekeep, The Trollmoors). Though I think, still less than in some past editions.

Now if you were to get to something like a new "Book of Lairs" and all you saw were close ups of heroes straddling across every image, something would definitely be wrong with that.

As evidenced by this thread's existence, I think they could do with expanding the art subjects. I haven't seen any calls for clarification of what certain classes or races look like, so probably all good on that front!