Rate the PGtF Art

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

Please tell your opinion of the artwork in PGtF. I think that the art in FR books has generally been of very high quality, instilling the sense of wonder that we're all in this for. However, I think the bar was lowered with PGtF (I won't even mention the proofreading). I don't mind paying $32.95 for the book (after all, FR did need to be updated to 3.5), but I'd like to get something that adds to that sense of wonder. Instead, some of the art was so bad, that it actually *detracted* from my enjoyment of FR (for example, the drawings of the classes...shiver). I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but as a consumer I want to let WOTC what I want more and less of in what I buy, so I've rated the artists below.

Generally Very Good
Joel Thomas (occasional stinker)
Rafa Garres
Marko Djurdjevic
Raven Mimura
Wayne England (occasional stinker)

Generally Fair
Carl Frank
Richard Sardinha
Jim Pavelec (sometimes good)
Beet (sometimes good)

Generally Poor
Steve Prescott
Jeremy Jarvis (sometimes fair, I’d even call p. 105 good)
Thom Baxa

Generally Bad
Ben Thompson (sometimes just poor)
Randy Gallegos (sometimes poor or even fair)

I would like to buy books with Very Good or Fair art. Anything less, I think, is a breach of trust with the consumer. What do you think?

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

Wayne England....

I'm too tired to comment on the others at the moment, but Wayne England should be restricted to drawing inanimate objects. His dwarf pictures are a crime against the eyes.

 

[lord_banus]

I just checked out Wayne Englands pics from the book and they seem pretty good to me, I know that beholders are beautiful and all but that seems like a rather extreme statement. Care to expand on that....

 

[sellars]

I din't think the art of this book was THAT bad!

It's nice to see that these kinds of art really depend on personal preferences.

For instance, the Harper Agent by Jeremy Jarvis is one of my favorite drawings in the book.

Maybe it is a nice idea to set up a poll for this? (I have no idea how these things work)

 

[Shemeska]

I rather liked Prescott's work in the book. His style is such that it seems people either really like it or really dislike it. I only recently started to notice him drawing more art for WotC, most of his stuff I'm familiar with was from Shadowrun.

 

[Derulbaskul]

I find the work of Jeremy Jarvis absolutely appalling. His sense of perspective is almost always wrong (yes, wrong) and his use of colour and shading is just... wrong. That's it: I'm limited to simply saying it's wrong.

The best thing about the art for PGtF is that Dennis Crabapple or whatever he calls himself didn't get a guernsey for a single picture. That said, there are some nice works in there by Joel Thomas, Wayne England and Raven Mimura as well as some of the others.

PS: I hate criticising someone in an area where they earn their money but I just think the "art" by Jeremy Jarvis and Dennis Crabapple is so bad that, really, it's time WotC made some changes.

 

[Shemeska]

As much as it strikes me as odd to be saying this, and as much as I usually don't care for his style at all Crabapple actually has a few decent images in the FR Serpent Kingdoms book. The online art gallery for the book doesn't look the same as the actual in the book art, and Crabapple's pics show up better in the real book than online.

It's not that he's untalented, I just don't think his style fits what most people expect for a DnD book. He'd fit much better doing comic book illustration, his linework would be better appreciated there IMHO.

 

[Li Shenron]

After reading this thread I took a look at the art gallery on wizards.com because I didn't connect the names to the pictures...

It's not very nice from me to say this (also because I wouldn't be able myself to come barely close to paint at this level...) but you are right, both Jarvis and Crabapple are on the low edge of WotC's graphic standards...

I never liked Crabapple pictures since the first ones, I just don't dig his style. His character all seems heroin addicted to me, and sometimes even his objects do

Actually I quite like Jarvis' use of colours, but his characters' faces are too much deformed! I cannot stand at all the picture for Craft Points in Unearthed Arcana, what the hell is happening to Mialee?

 

[Derulbaskul]

As much as it strikes me as odd to be saying this, and as much as I usually don't care for his style at all Crabapple actually has a few decent images in the FR Serpent Kingdoms book. The online art gallery for the book doesn't look the same as the actual in the book art, and Crabapple's pics show up better in the real book than online. (snip)

Interesting. I thoroughly disliked his work in SK as well.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) Actually I quite like Jarvis' use of colours, but his characters' faces are too much deformed! I cannot stand at all the picture for Craft Points in Unearthed Arcana, what the hell is happening to Mialee?

It's not just the faces that are deformed. Too many of his pictures leave the subjects looking like they have elephantitis. Anyway, his work is appallingly bad, IMO.