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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Switchback" data-source="post: 4764345" data-attributes="member: 69793">I'm not sure if you are saying the previous editions lacked backgrounds, or viewing them made you realize the new edition lacks them? To me, it does seem like 4th edition art favors focusing on characters and action more than locations. In past editions, I think you were more likely to find art depicting a traditional group, standing around, exploring, moving through a dungeon, etc. This style of art was more about the "who" and the "where", like take a look at these creatures/heroes, and take a look at where they are at, the world they are living in. Going back as far as 2ed, characters often seemed to be posing in their environments even. This might be boring to some, but what that kind of "setting the scene" art did was let your imagination wander on the things that were happening *outside* of the picture, or leading up to it, or after it. It let the setting breath a little bit and conveyed a sense of atmosphere.Nowadays, the focus is definitely more on the "what" is happening style art, characters flying through the air, action poses, attacking, firing off spells and the like. I think of some of the art from someone like Wayne Reynolds for example, there is so much going on and so many bodies that it almost seems like some kind of <a href="http://www.waynereynolds.com/WOTCGallery2A/2.jpg" target="_blank">fantasy football match.</a> I still see some interesting environments here and there, but they are usually the smaller images buried in the corner of a page, and less used for full page layouts or covers.I appreciate all different kinds of fantasy art, but definitely would not mind seeing more balance with environments and settings in 4e. Characters don't have to be the focus all the time, they can just as easily be minor elements, through which the viewer is <a href="http://www.aumania.it/fa/parkinson/016.jpg" target="_blank">exploring</a> the scene vicariously through.</blockquote>

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