Urban Arcana Art Gallery

[Oni]

Hopeful of being an illustrator someday myself I am always excited to see when WotC post a new art gallery for one of their books. Today being no exception I was delighted to see a link to the new Urban Arcana gallery on the news page today.

I have to say that, for me, this gallery was a bit disappointing. I know there has been a lot of talk going around about the declining quality of artwork in WotC books, but this is the first time I've been really disappointed by such a large portion of what I've seen. I'm curious what other people think though since I've found that in the past I've liked many of the pieces that others have complained about. You can check out the gallery here.


Some of the more disappointing pieces for me were Alexandra Gordon, Glamourist, this isn't even finished, it looks like a rough done in photoshop, the legs especially make me cringe. It has a lot of potential, and the unfinished look can work sometimes, but I don't think this one of them. The most disappointing piece for me was the Eldritch Harley, it really seems out of kilter with the mood of the vast majority of the other work for the book, and I really dont believe it is up the same artistic standard I expect from WotC. Of course personal taste plays a huge role in all of this, I'm not particularly fond of the work of that artist in general. There are other pieces, though they don't stick out as much to me as them. In general I don't really dig the stuff by Kagan McLeod, and Puddnhead's stuff is either great to me or not at all. The Leonard and Kailey iconics are awesome, but I can't really get into the others.

As I just indicated, I felt there are a few gems hidden in there. I absolutely love the various Homunculus and the other pieces by Dean Ormston are very well done for the most part (I wasn't as pleased with Summon Swarm and the Defeated Minotaur). I also really liked all of Lee Ballard's work, all very moody and cool. I especially liked the Weapons Master and the Urban Wendigo.

[edit: Yep, I know there is a d20 Modern forum, but I thought this was more appropriate here as I'm not really concerned with the game, but the general state of whats happening with the art in WotC books and peoples' opinions on the artwork in this book in particular]

 

[Oni]

No opinions?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Honestly, I thought it was all fantastic. Even the weakest pics were very good.

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, I didn't like a lot of it either, generally the same ones you didn't like. Some of my particular favorites were Kailey as a Mystic, the Demonic Car and Adam Swift grappling a trog.

 

[Scarbonac]

I don't actively dislike any that I've looked at, per se, but some don't thrill me, either, particularly the Kobolds pic and Moondog & Roberta; the first gets a -WTF?- from me; them's some mighty big Kobolds ya got there, Good Buddy, and the latter is just eh.

 

[Paka]

Leonard is splendid. I really dig the little pony tail in the front of his beard and how meticulously groomed he is.

Nice.

 

[Oni]

Leonard is splendid. I really dig the little pony tail in the front of his beard and how meticulously groomed he is.

Nice.

Yeah, Either Leonard or the Homunculus is the best piece in the gallery in my opinion.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

I'm with you about the Harley, Oni. I simply don't like the stuff by Hampton. Aside from just not being my cup of tea, they don't fit the overall mood of the other illos. You can't jump from those gritty, dark pictures to those virtually unshaded cartoons.
I like the sparse, "graphic" style of the Kalman pics from the core book, they almost remind me of the GTA3 artwork. They're on the right side of that fine line between cool and too cartoony.
The only picture that truly makes me ill is the one of the drow rock band. I don't like the style of the drawing and the proportions of the one with the guitar are borked. I'm not an anatomy snob or an art critic, but she just looks screwed up.
I'm not too fond of purple drow either... I like my dark elves black, but that's just me. It's not too bad in some of the pictures, but in the band illo they're lavender!

Jake Parker's stuff is top notch, I'm digging the Hazard Suit drawing and the Speed Demon. A drow on a crotch rocket, you don't get much cooler than that. And I've never even played one.
The Homunculi are cool.
The Vrock does not look like any vrock I've ever seen, and in this case that's bad.
The Kailey, Mystic picture is cool.
The Kailey and Leonard iconics are good, the Madeline Webber one isn't bad. I didn't care much for the others, the fact that my brother's name is Christopher Lewis didn't help either (the schmuck).

One of my favorites, for some reason, is the picture of the "mannequin" staring at a man through the window. The one online is too small (and flipped left to right), but in the book it has a really creepy, strange, vaguely amused look on its face that I like quite a bit.

All in all though the whole package is pretty good. I wonder why they went with the matte finish cover instead of the slick cover like with the core book? Just to further distinguish it from the default setting books that will be coming?

EDIT: Ugh, I've been awake far too much as of late.