D&D 5E Post some pictures that say D&D to you

[Lord Mhoram]

So, you just want me to post images by Larry Elmore?

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This is, to me, the essence of D&D.

I'd add some Kieth Parkinson (notable Dragon covers) but I am with you.

 

[Jacob Marley]

Why? Just because he (Larry Elmore) did a bunch of the art, or is there something in his images that evokes the essence of D&D to you?

Two reasons: First, Elmore's works were fairly ubiquitous in TSR publications around the time I started playing D&D. It was hard to play D&D without encountering a Larry Elmore work. The same could be said for Keith Parkinson and Jeff Easley. (For similar reasons, when I think of M:tG art, I think of Melissa Benson, Doug Shuler, and Jesper Myrfors amongst others.)

Second (and I think this is the bigger point), what he is depicting in the works I posted above is the essence of D&D - a group of adventurers telling tales around a campfire in the wilderness; a healer trying to revive her companion while their enemy looks on; a group of adventurers posing with their (ill-gotten?) treasure. These are depictions of scenes that are (or fairly close to) being universal experiences that D&D players have shared. Quite frankly, when I look at some of the images above, as well as some posted in your article (namely the Caravaggio piece), I don't see an experience that I have had. What the Caravaggio piece evokes in me is a desire to go play The Princes of Florence.

 

[Libramarian]

Out of curiosity, what about this one says D&D to you? To me the style of the artwork looks like early D&D art but I'm interested to hear what is says to you.

Haha I just like it because it's funny. Actually you know, when humor shows up in my D&D games it's usually in this same sort of absurdist vein...so that's the D&D connection for me. This feels like D&D humor to me (in a way that say, a neat 3 panel cartoon with a punchline doesn't).

I've seen a few people say that DDN art should have more humor, and I want to agree with that, but what they usually seem to have in mind are the little cartoons in 1e, which I sort of have a fondness for...but at the same time, they feel really dated and most of them aren't actually funny. So I'm wary about it, because as they say: dying is easy, comedy is hard.

Regarding Larry Elmore: my first exposure to D&D was my Dad's Mentzer Basic set, which is replete with Elmore art, so I should like his stuff a lot...but I don't, really.

Some of it I like: the outdoor scenes, with snowy mountains and horses. That kind of thing he's certainly good at. But I find his characters to have a sort of weirdly blank look, and something rubs me the wrong way about that famous image where the adventurers have a little dragon strung up like a dead deer. But I know a lot of people really dig it, so I just don't get it I guess.

 

[Manbearcat]

Honestly, the D&DNext iconic image is extremely provocative. Lone Slayer, standing on the ramparts against the full fury of a Colossal Red Dragon.

 

[MortalPlague]

I can never find it (I've looked on google), but in the 2nd Edition Revised PHB, there's a piece of art I particularly loved. It's a full page piece in the middle of the spells section, with a bunch of red-robed magi carrying a fallen brother in a funeral procession with a giant temple-fortress in the background, and a ghostly image of the fallen mage looking on from above. That's probably my favorite iconic D&D piece.

 

[Quickleaf]

A recent illustration by William O'Connor really captures the feel of an epic D&D campaign to me...

I don't like some of WOC's D&D work, but this particular project - which I believe was a personal, not professional one - he just hit it out of the park.

 

[Hussar]

Just to echo Libramarian for a second - I would like to see a bit more... whimsy?... in D&D art. All we get now is so serious. I want some of the goofier stuff too. I mean, the Jeff Dee superhero art in the Mentzer Basic set is the stuff I cut my teeth on. That and Erol Otis. Both had some pretty surrealistic stuff.

One of my favourite 3e books was the Tome of Magic. There are some FANTASTIC images in that book.