D&D 4E What period of D&D art would you most like to see 4E emulate?

[Arashi Ravenblade]

I like how the earlier editions had those full page fantasy pictures. They looked great. 3e started doing it, but it looked more like D&D Super-Heroes and less like fantasy.
I'd like a return to fantasy and get rid of the Anime-Esque and Comic book style that seems to be the current direction.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I like how the earlier editions had those full page fantasy pictures. They looked great. 3e started doing it, but it looked more like D&D Super-Heroes and less like fantasy.

I always thought the 3.5 ones look like full page advertisements, and upon closer inspection they aren't selling anyting.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There's been some great monster art in every edition - Erol Otus module covers, Jeff Easley's dragons, Ron Spencer's bizarre horrors. But on the whole I prefer 3e, especially WAR.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I'd like a return to fantasy and get rid of the Anime-Esque and Comic book style that seems to be the current direction.

1. There's no anime-esque art in 3e.
2. A lot of the old illos were very comic booky. As you'd expect with work by Jeff Dee and Bill Willingham.

For example:

 

[olshanski]

I am totally sick of the body piercing and tatoos.

In pop culture they are fine and they have a place. Please keep them out of my fantasy...

 

[Lurks-no-More]

I voted "other"; I'd like the 4th edition to find and present its own look and tone, rather than try to look like the past editions.

Of those past editions, though, I really prefer the 3.* artwork. There were inspiring and impressive pieces of art in the earlier editions as well, but the 3.* edition had a consistent, mostly high-quality style that was at the same time quite distinctive, yet not tied to any particular place or time in the real world.

 

[Stalker0]

My vote is MMIII style in 3rd edition. I love the artwork in that book so much. I use most of the monsters in that book just because the artwork sparks my interest so much. Scrap the rest of the 3rd edition art, and use the artist from that book...and everything will be fine

 

[Masquerade]

So, if you had to pick one period in D&Ds history to emulate more closely which would it be. would you want monsters and settings to be depicted more like OD&D/early 1E, late 1E/2E, 3E/3.5 or other?

Of existing D&D products, my favorite art definitely comes from 3.0 Magic of Faerun. Sam Wood's "gnome artificer," Carlo Arellano's "incantatrix," Carlo Arellano's "spellfire channeler," Sam Wood's "haunting tune," Carlo Arellano's "undead bane weapon," Carlo Arellano's "mage-killer"... all easily among my favorite pieces of D&D art. d20 Past had some fantastic pieces in it as well.

To answer the actual question, I think the core art from 3.X would be the best starting point.

Generally, though, I'm not sure I enjoy the notion that 4e art should resemble anything that came before it. I would like to see WotC pick a few talented, young artists from deviantArt and let them take things in a new direction. (And I'm not necessarily talking about this "anime" bugbear that many members here find so threatening.)

 

[Geoffrey]

My favorite era is 1977-1981:

Erol Otus (the best of the best)
David A. Trampier
Dave C. Sutherland III
Russ Nicholson

Unfortunately, Sutherland is dead and Trampier is no longer illustrating. Erol Otus is currently active, though. And Nicholson has illustrated Warhammer stuff as recently as 2000. Call those two up and let them illustrate everything! I wouldn't mind if David Day (who has illustrated a lot of stuff for Necromancer) had his hand in it, too.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I love the old art from the Moldvay/Cook D&D and the 1st edition of AD&D, but I don't really care to see black and white line art in 4e D&D. Leave that to 3rd party publishers who need to cut costs, and let them excel in emulating the good old days (I love the interior art in Dungeon Crawl Classic modules, for example).

But as for 4e D&D, since WotC has the budget, I want to see full color art by incredible artists. I voted "other" because I much prefer the art in the 3.5 books to the art in the 3.0 books, though some of the core art that didn't change (PHB, DMG) is also great.