D&D General One Piece of Art II (Monsters)- What D&D Art Inspired You to Love a Monster?

[Maxperson]

Edited so Snarf doesn't cry. . .

You've just robbed him of an opportunity to write a song parody of Boys Don't Cry.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I loved this pic, probably my most viewed pic in the book.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

You've just robbed him of an opportunity to write a song parody of Boys Don't Cry.

Bards never say they're sorry
Because nothing ever changes their mind
But they know that each time
They say way too much
Cutting words are unkind

They always laugh about it
Cover it all up with lies
Tear you down with their wit
Mocking the tears in your eyes
'Cause bards don't cry
Bards don't cry

 

[Ruin Explorer]

1. ONE piece of art. You shall count to one. If you do two, you've gone two ... um, too far.

This seems unfair given how inspirational a lot of D&D monster art is, but I'll start with one.

The Thessalhydra. Imagine my surprise when Stranger Things used the name, because honestly I thought it was one of the most obscure D&D monsters. But this image, from original 2E MC (or one of the looseleaf additions thereof), absolutely burned into my brain and made me love D&D monsters and this particular monster. The bizarre combination of attributes and fact that it's related to mythology but not really properly drawn from it is absolutely what D&D monster-monsters are all about to me.

 

[J.Quondam]

There's a ton of great monster pictures across all the editions that I absolutely adore and/or loathe (the infamous "OMG, I've got rot grubs in my arm!!" one springs to mind). But the one that is probably most significant to me is this one:

Artist: Larry Elmore
Source: Endless Quest #1: Dungeon of Dread, by Rose Estes.
Monster: water weird
Rationale: This particular image of a water weird isn't the "best" imagining, imo, but it's the first one I encountered and the one that has inspired me to use some variant of the critter in pretty much every campaign I've run since. Perhaps more significantly, though, this pic is the one that sucked me into D&D as a little kid, before I really even grokked "D&D" as a game thing.

 

[Maxperson]

I loved this pic, probably my most viewed pic in the book.

That picture and Snarf's OP are my top three for pics that made me love monsters.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Monster: Astral Dreadnought
Artist: Jeff Easley
Source: Manual of the Planes, 1987

 

[Charlaquin]

Some of the first visual representations of orcs I was exposed to were from the original Warcraft RTS games. So to me, orcs were hulking green-skinned dudes with tusks. Never cared for the pig-faced style of orcs seen in early D&D. Until I read Delicious in Dungeon.



This is my absolute favorite depiction of orcs in any media I’ve seen (my current forum avatar is also an orc character from the series). Now I love pig-orcs (porcs?) and this is what they look like in my setting.

 

[James Gasik]

Invisible Stalker from the 2e Monstrous Compendium. Tell me that isn't the most amazing art you've never seen!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Some of the first visual representations....

For some reason, the graphic doesn't display for me?