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

vectner · Oct 1, 2007

Erol Otus is my favorite, followed by Jeff Easely. Erol's stuff is so iconic and Jeff's is just beautiful fantasy art.

Desdichado · Oct 1, 2007

Other. Give me guys like Adrian Smith and some of the others who've led the charge on the "new" Games Workshop look for the last few years. Or have a look at the Privateer Press miniatures rulebooks from the Warmachine and Hordes gamelines.

Better---much better---fantasy art than anything any version of D&D has ever had.

Of the versions of D&D itself, I think both the late 2e era and the 3e era have about 25% art that I think is really good, 50% that is mediocre, servicable enough but not exciting, and 25% that really sucks.

Older D&D than that only very sporadically has decent art at all, and is otherwise chock-full of substandard, incredibly poor artwork.

Glyfair · Oct 1, 2007

I agree with emulating 4E. Seriously, if I am looking at the art in 4E and it immediately says to me "this is previous edition X art" then I think they failed with 4E.

That doesn't mean that individual pieces shouldn't draw from styles from previous editions. Just that it shouldn't, as a whole, try to emulate any previous style.

Also, IMO, there really wasn't a single style of art in any edition. I'm particularly fond of the early to mid-80's Dragon cover style, which is nothing like the DMG style.

The Little Raven · Oct 1, 2007

http://www.mattstawicki.com/gallery.htm

I really like Matt Stawicki's realistic, but iconic style.

Nebulous · Oct 1, 2007

Arashi Ravenblade said:
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.

I completely agree. Grittier, darker artwork, but judging from the covers of the new core books, i doubt it will happen

. The comic book style might be here to stay.

GreatLemur · Oct 1, 2007

olshanski said:
I am totally sick of the body piercing and tatoos.

I can only think of a few pieces of D&D 3e art (from WotC, anyway) with tattoos, and pretty much none with any body piercings. And since when are tattoos inappropriate for fantasy, anyway? They've got huge precedent as primitive and mystical trappings.

Greg K · Oct 1, 2007

overall, my ideal would be Caldwell, Easley, Elmore, and the late Keith Parkinson.

A'koss · Oct 1, 2007

I would also like the direction to turn to a more gritty & realistic style.

[sblock]

Crazy Jerome · Oct 1, 2007

I'd happily settle for any style that could in no way be described with any adjective ending in "punk". Yes, my standards and expectations are low.

Wormwood · Oct 1, 2007

Crazy Jerome said:
I'd happily settle for any style that could in no way be described with any adjective ending in "punk". Yes, my standards and expectations are low.

My standardsare quite smilar, although I would replace "punk" with "old" or "school".

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

Which style of depiction of monsters and setting would you prefer for 4E?

OD&D/Early AD&D

Late AD&D/2E

3E/3.5

Other

vectner

Explorer

Desdichado

Hero

Glyfair

Explorer

The Little Raven

First Post

Nebulous

Legend

GreatLemur

Explorer

Greg K

Legend

A'koss

Explorer

Crazy Jerome

First Post

Wormwood

Adventurer

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