Planescape artwork what if...

[RenoOfTheTurks]

Hmm, in this case I take the tone to be mostly created by the writer, Dave "Zeb" Cook in the Planescape Campaign Setting, but then shaded and finalized by the artist. Different art could easily have made the setting turn a different way, sure. Later products seem to get away from some of Cook's core statements anyway.

I don't know if more darkness in the artistically-driven tone would have been more desirable. Sigil is grey and rainy, the lower planes are dark, but the entire scope of belief is central to the setting and there are plenty of bright beautiful vistas, buildings, and creatures to be drawn. (Here I was going to make a joke about Brom-angels in black leather but come to think of it I've heard others call DiTerlizzi's style too edgy and punkish too, so go figure). Because all beliefs and alignments needed to be represented, not just the bleak ones, a too-dark artistic philosophy wouldn't have been right, IMO.

 

[tetsujin28]

I personally don't feel that Brom's style meshed with Planescape nearly as well as it did with Dark Sun. I could easily have seen him as the lead conceptual artist for 3e, as well.

 

[Wraith Form]

Robh Rhuppel

Actually, it was Robh Ruppel that did a majority of the early box and module cover art for Planescape. Remember the cool astrolabe for Planes of Law? (He was the same guy that did the terrific cover of Strahd on the Ravenloft red box.)

I think Robh only does paints, but he would've been good for the interior art as well (IMHO). TD was just too "cartoony" and trite/"cutesy" for my tastes, but his line drawings were probably completed faster than Robh's paints could've been.

Brom probably would have helped Planescape. He made me a Dark Sunner for life....!

 

[tetsujin28]

Tony D is the man. His style was completely unique when he started doing gaming material. Anyone who worships Arthur Rakham is ok by me.

 

[hellbender]

Tony D is the man. His style was completely unique when he started doing gaming material. Anyone who worships Arthur Rakham is ok by me.

Not to hijack too badly, but I lucked into a Rackham bonanza at a semi-local bookstore, scoring seven old Rackham illustrated books in super condition for $70 (including the Poe works illustrated). There are still some there (two or three copies of some of the books), I can always keep an eye out.

h

 

[Desdichado]

Tony D is the man. His style was completely unique when he started doing gaming material. Anyone who worships Arthur Rakham is ok by me.

He's not at all unique, actually. Well, I mean, he is in this industry, but I've seen tons of illustrations in a similar style in other industries. Lots of children's books, actually, have a similar style (if you don't count the occasional sexy woman.)

 

[Voadam]

I don't care much for 95% of diterlizzi, particularly for doing fiends, he is ok for goofy fairies and goblins but just not my idea of cool fiend images.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't care much for 95% of diterlizzi, particularly for doing fiends, he is ok for goofy fairies and goblins but just not my idea of cool fiend images.

Yep, and goofy fairies isn't what Planescape is about to me.

 

[hellbender]

I don't care much for 95% of diterlizzi, particularly for doing fiends, he is ok for goofy fairies and goblins but just not my idea of cool fiend images.

Which is why I mentioned Bisley. He has done demons and made them scary. He has done rpg work, for Target Games, it is not like Planescape is out of his realm of genre.

h

 

[PowerWordDumb]

Dammit, now I want to go home early and dig through my Planescape collection looking for artist's signatures so that I can contribute meaningfully to the discussion.

In advance of that though, I'll merely interject that I *loved* the artwork in the PS boxed sets (Core, Planes of Law, Planes of Chaos particularly, and Planes of Opposition). I don't know which artists to credit or blame for that, but I felt that over the entire collection the artwork was clearly a positive modifier for my own experience.

I never bought any of the modules, and sadly I missed out on some of the cool addons like the Inner Planes, and the Astral/Ethereal addons, so I can't comment on those.