As Tony DiTerlizzi was inexplicably eliminated in the survivor:artists thread, I thought I'd make an appreciation post. He's really my favorite, bringing the aesthetic of Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Leon Carre, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Brian Froud into the world of dnd.
D&D General Tony Diterlizzi appreciation thread
ersatzphil
Hero
Hear, hear!
My personal favorite D&D artist as well, even if I sort-of understand him being knocked out of the surivor:artists thread. As fantastic as his art is, it's evocative of a specific kind of D&D, and not very "generic D&D".
My personal favorite D&D artist as well, even if I sort-of understand him being knocked out of the surivor:artists thread. As fantastic as his art is, it's evocative of a specific kind of D&D, and not very "generic D&D".
Sacrosanct
Legend
Politics? I haven't read that thread, so I don't know what happened, but I have a hard time thinking politics had an impact on his elimination.I wanted him in my final 2. Unfortunately politics got in the way.
Love his stuff though.
Tony is a great artist. That's not in doubt. But he's an artist specializing in children's books. That's his background, and that's the style he wanted to bring to D&D. So it's easy to see how some people just don't prefer that style in D&D (Just like some people like the alien-esque style of Otis while others do not). Whimsy is great, and has it's place, but we can't expect everyone to like it. Different strokes for different folks.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Tony DiTerlizzi is in significant part why I got an A in A-Level Fine Art (which was then as good as you could score), because his art was so inspirational to me personally, it kept me excited about Fine Art-style art (together with Velasquez and a few others), and attempting to replicate the style and create my own stuff in it taught me a ton, and it also expanded my ideas about what good art could look like.
On top of that, his art in Planescape was unquestionably what got me, and thus my group, back into AD&D after Planescape came out. If it wasn't for that we'd certainly have abandoned AD&D/D&D entirely for the rest of the 1990s, because nothing post-Planescape was particularly inspiring to us, but Planescape was enough, and then we got a lot of the other later-'90s stuff because we were still playing AD&D. Otherwise it'd have been WoD and Cyberpunk 2020 all the way I think, together with a few other games, and I doubt we'd have been keen on 3E. It's even possible we'd have drifted out of RPGs entirely, though I somewhat doubt it.
I really hope we see more from him in the next few years of D&D. I'll be honest - I would literally buy any D&D product he worked on significantly - in actual physical format too, so no doubt WotC would get a double-sale from me as I'd want to buy it in digital as well.
On top of that, his art in Planescape was unquestionably what got me, and thus my group, back into AD&D after Planescape came out. If it wasn't for that we'd certainly have abandoned AD&D/D&D entirely for the rest of the 1990s, because nothing post-Planescape was particularly inspiring to us, but Planescape was enough, and then we got a lot of the other later-'90s stuff because we were still playing AD&D. Otherwise it'd have been WoD and Cyberpunk 2020 all the way I think, together with a few other games, and I doubt we'd have been keen on 3E. It's even possible we'd have drifted out of RPGs entirely, though I somewhat doubt it.
I really hope we see more from him in the next few years of D&D. I'll be honest - I would literally buy any D&D product he worked on significantly - in actual physical format too, so no doubt WotC would get a double-sale from me as I'd want to buy it in digital as well.
Scribe
Legend
People voting for him, targeted another person who was low on points, and so they weakened and killed each other off.
His work for planescape in particular is a perfect mix of dark, urban, victorian danger and whimsical faerie fantasy, and I think fits well with dnd because it recalls the aesthetic of late nineteenth century fantasy. But his work for the monster manuals is also great--his monsters are both scary and strange.
In general, I respect all the artists whose style is distinctive. I was never into dark sun, but Brom is the same way, as are some of the early dnd artists (Otus, Elmore). Whereas wotc editions are more about the cohesiveness of the art direction rather than the vision of particular artists. I don't think the art is bad by any means, but the cumulative effect for me is to make the aesthetic of the books a little generic.
ersatzphil
Hero
Maybe a bit of a random question, but how do you feel about Goya?
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