Every professional artist has strengths and weaknesses, which should be catered to. For a clear example, I will say once again that, oh
my God, Jeff Easley cannot paint people. He does not seem to know what a skin tone is, let alone the fact that flesh does not grow in lumps. But he does nice monsters, and his forms are pretty good, even if I find his color palette is too red for my tastes. He could do water elementals and they'd be brown.
Rebecca Guay is the most talented artist I know for evoking beautiful, magical scenes. I'm curious what her take would be on a scene of violence and combat, but I don't worry about it, because I'm content to look at her illustrations of fey and other mystical and mythical creatures, and just sigh at their beauty. I loved her back when she did the Homelands comic for Magic: the Gathering, and she has come a long way in the past six years.
Wayne Reynolds can capture action and intensity incredily well, and he can even do some rather pretty static images (see: Mialee studying spells, Tome & Blood). But he does like to stylize everything, which may get on some people's nerves; he uses linework and shading more than heavily texturing his pieces. My personal pet peeve with his work is what I call The Wayne Reynolds Shuffle. Take a look at the feet on pretty much every illustration he's done in which people are walking. They're invariably hunched over one way, feet and legs angled as if they're scuttling sideways. I find it endearing.
Elmore has beautiful images, sometimes, but I think he relies far too much on static models. I've seen some of his pieces that are full of intensity (one in particular has a man getting ready to fend off the attack by a cat-warrior that is perched on an overturned wagon), but a lot of times he just has characters standing in a background. It's all very posed, and very pretty, but rather rigid. The 3.0 versions of the Nymph and Titan are key examples of this.
Who's the best fantasy artist now? Todd Lockwood. Look at his work on the cover of Malhavoc's warfare book? That's a classic knight in classic armor, in a dramatic pose, dramatically lit, yet in a style of realism like something from a Baroque painter. Then take a look at (I drool as I think of it) the cover to The Forge of Fury. That's the defining image of D&D adventures to me. I think the only things I dislike about Lockwood are those things he did at the behest of WotC's designers, like having horse-faced Mialee. Look at his pic of Elven Chainmail in the 3.5 DMG, and you can see he knows how to draw beautiful women as well as beautiful armor (and beautifully rugged men, though I've never seen him do any bishounen men). He's a very talented artist, capable of handling numerous different styles of fantasy, from classic medievalism to the UnderGoth covers of the dark Elf and mind flayer books.
Finally, let's consider some art by up and comings in the d20 field. First, we have Claudio Pozas (
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/Pozas/). No offense to Claudio, he's a great guy, but his characters are too flat. Even though he clearly derives his style from classic comic books, something, particularly about the faces, never seems quite fully realized. Also, because he works heavily in computer art, and doesn't seem interested in drawing and inking backgrounds first, I'm never really satisfied with any of the backgrounds in his pieces. But he does 'cool' fairly well, and he's certainly prolific.
Next, we have a friend of mine, J.L. Jones (
http://www.jljonesfantasyart.com). Jessie's art is more cartoonish than is the norm for modern RPG supplements, and she seems loathe to adopt the dungeonpunk style many people here are opposed to. Her greatest strength, I think, is that she can capture a variety of expression very well, something you really don't see that often in fantasy art. Often you just have characters looking intense or confused, but rarely happy, sad, or otherwise emotional. Though she doesn't heavily detail her characters, she's confident in her linework. Her inspirations are most heavily from ElfQuest and Strangers in Paradise.
I'd post more, but I'm out of time and have to head off this computer. Hopefully we can discuss different artists, and what we particularly like or dislike about their styles, and what they're good at,
not whether they suck. I know artists who suck. A lot of them are inexperienced. Once you're experienced, though, the only thing I think is worth criticizing is one's originality.
