New cover art for the Revised PHB and DMG?

[Nail]

Speaking of which, Lidda didn't really look very...halflingish to me.

I've always wondered why Lidda has ....such a red nose. Looks like she has a bad cold and needs a tissue.....

And jus' fer th' record, the 1e art sucked. Plenty of babes in bikinis, tho, ...if that's an upside.

 

[Starman]

IMHO, Mark Sasso's Epic Blackguard is one of the finest pieces of art in a WotC book, so I would like to see more of his stuff.

Starman

 

[Left-handed Hummingbird]

I think, it's a good thing D&D has tried a new look, and I suspect a lot of the "bring-back-the-1E-look"-is merely nostalgic. While I appreciate the humor that was lacking in most 2E artwork, the quality of the artwork was terrible, IMHO.

I welcomed the change from what has seems to have become the traditional look of D&D — Elmore, Valejo — the popularity of which had made D&D-artwork a cliche, or in the worst cases a pastiche. It was becoming anachronistic and the glamorous style was often too close to cheesecake which, I think, hampered the products in the marketplace.

That said, I wasn't completely swayed by the style of the new look either. I think the rougher edges is good, and dungeon punk isn't bad in itself... the characters just don't look cool enough! I don't care one iota about realism or historical accuracy; what I want is illustrations that want to make me play, want to make me play the persons depicted. 3E art doesn't really do that to me. It's too static often; if there were more artwork of the characters in action (which both 1E- and 2E-art did very well) it might have been better, but they are not cool enough to "wanna be", when they just stand as mannequins for the latest in dungeon apparel.

I like the style of Illuminae's attached file, but in general there are myriads of gifted fantasy artists. I think WotC shouldn't be afraid to pick and choose between a lot of different artists and different styles.

 

[Sixchan]

I've always wondered why Lidda has ....such a red nose. Looks like she has a bad cold and needs a tissue.....

And jus' fer th' record, the 1e art sucked. Plenty of babes in bikinis, tho, ...if that's an upside.

I thought the cartoons were very well drawn..."Well, it either throws the ariious Bigby's Hand spells, or its a +2 backscratcher."

And the Elf and Dwarf on the picture of all the races near the start were very nicely done, IMO. That is my everlasting Image of how elves look.

 

[Corinth]

The covers are fine. It's interior art that rubs me the wrong way; shields are as they are because that's what works, and the same is true for armor and weapons. The shields and armor in the PHB wouldn't save you even if you were God, and the characters as presented wouldn't survive a skirmish with some goblins dressed as they are. Form follows function, folks; even the WETA crew in NZ (working on PJ's LOTR films) knew this to be true and made all of their stuff accordingly. You can look cool and still have armor & weapons that are obviously functional.

 

[Spatula]

The covers are fine. It's interior art that rubs me the wrong way; shields are as they are because that's what works, and the same is true for armor and weapons. The shields and armor in the PHB wouldn't save you even if you were God, and the characters as presented wouldn't survive a skirmish with some goblins dressed as they are. Form follows function, folks; even the WETA crew in NZ (working on PJ's LOTR films) knew this to be true and made all of their stuff accordingly. You can look cool and still have armor & weapons that are obviously functional.

And yet the armor on the goblins in Moria is covered in spikey bits, and their shield are very strangely shaped. Then there's Sauron's get-up in the prologue...

 

[pogre]

I like a lot of the old stuff, but I think it would be fun to throw in a couple of old Tom Wham toons.

What annoys me about the interior art of the current core books is not so much the art, but the captions. Who thought that was necessary?

 

[Xarlen]

I like a lot of the old stuff, but I think it would be fun to throw in a couple of old Tom Wham toons.

What annoys me about the interior art of the current core books is not so much the art, but the captions. Who though that was necessary?

I *like* the captions. Sometimes, I can't figure out what's going on. Sometimes, I'd *like* captions (ESPECIALLY spell pictures) to say what they are.

Whenever they do artwork for spells, in some cases it's like 'WOW! What's that?'.

 

[pogre]

I *like* the captions. Sometimes, I can't figure out what's going on. Sometimes, I'd *like* captions (ESPECIALLY spell pictures) to say what they are.

Whenever they do artwork for spells, in some cases it's like 'WOW! What's that?'.

Fair enough.
It just gets in the way of the art for me, and I just did not feel like an explanation was needed for at least 90% of the art. I will concede your point about some of the spell illustrations.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm reminded of the first picture I saw of Cloud from Final Fantasy 7.

He was kinda thin. His hair was more clumps than strands, and it was all anime-spikey-wierd. He wore a blue-black jumpsuit. And he had a BIG ARSE SWORD.

I mean, realistic nuthin'. That thing made me want to go cut up some baddies with it!