D&D General What's some of your favorite pieces of official D&D art from any edition?

[deganawida]

This is probably my favorite red dragon of all time:
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I had never seen this one before, but I love how serpentine the dragon's head is.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I didn't even notice it was on the back cover! Awesome! Also, did you do the art for Bugbears and Borderlands?!

I did not, no. The front cover was an homage to Holmes Basic and was done by John Latta. The back cover was done by Billy Blue.

 

[Weiley31]

Lot of the Elmore stuff.

Lot of the Dragonlance art.

Lot of the DND art that current modern players aren't exactly too fond of. So yes, that includes the Cheesecake/Bikini Armors and Jet-black obsidian colored Drow

Pretty much a majority/lot of the DND art from 3.0/3.5 since that was the edition I was starting to seriously get into the hobby when looking up the many details of DND.

Really liked the Dwarven/Gnome art for Dwarven/Gnome characters in 4E.

^As I'll third mention this particular piece too as others have mentioned before. There's a sort of weird "darkness" and desolate feel that encompasses the piece that fits hella well with the whole Fantasy adventure aspect of DND. The foreboding nature present within the dark, grey clouds as you can almost "hear" the sorrowful wails of a cursed undead rising up from the ice in order to make an attempt to claim another victim. Really great touch/feeling all around.

When it comes to the actual art of the dragons themselves, I vastly prefer the 3.0/3.5 art, but as mentioned before, I'm a bit more biased/leaning towards that due to the edition when growing up.

And then when it comes to the 5E generation: the VAST majority of the Alternate art covers of the books. ESPECIALLY the ones done by Hydro 47. Tyranny of Dragons 2019, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, and the Spelljammers: Adventures in Space Alt set being my top faves.

 

[Parmandur]

Michael Kormack's "Caves of Chaos."

This is what I thought of when I saw the thread title, easily the best D&D art piece from 3.x in my estimation (and 3.x Greyhawkery is my nostalgia).

 

[Kannik]

Others that I really like:
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If I had to pick just one, this is the first one that came to mind when I read the title question. Used to have a poster of it on my door. There are lots of sweet and evocative paintings of that era, and I'm not quite sure why this one sticks the most in my mind, but when it comes to one heck of a dragon (and the feeling you might be in a bit of trouble now...), this fits the bill.

 

[Parmandur]

Some "newer" pieces (all pushed before my kids were born) for some chronological balance:

 

[Mad_Jack]

I thought that was one of the best drawings of the OG red dragon design that actually followed the design in the 1e MM.

Y'know, the one thing that always struck me about that pic? Unless that dwarf is supposed to be one of the bad guys, he's got some major stones using it as cover from its own breath weapon, lol...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Maybe not specifically D&D, but it was a cover Dragon:
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Brutal. Dragon magazine had some astonishingly good covers back in the day. Heck, this was the cover right before that issue:

Some "newer" pieces (all pushed before my kids were born) for some chronological balance:

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That cabinet of alchemical ingredients is a great piece, filled with all sorts of tiny details that draw the viewer in.

 

[Stormonu]

I've always thought it interesting the difference between these two pics of mages in their study:

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Brutal. Dragon magazine had some astonishingly good covers back in the day.

I just sold my copy of The Art of Dragon Magazine to Noble Knight, for those wanting a nice hardcover gallery of Dragon art up through the Paizo era. It should probably up on their website by the end of March.