Who is the quintessential D&D artist?

[BronzeDragon]

This is a remake of one of my earliest posts on ENWorld AM (Anno Morrus).

In that original post I made a lot of mistakes, including lesser known artists (mostly due to them being more prominent at the time of 3E) and forgetting giants of the past.

This one should be better, and let's see what almost 20 years have done to the landscape.

I'm also altering the format a bit. Now you can pick up to 3 choices. Choose the King, and then two Princes. This should allow people to vote for most of their favorites.

You should find most relevant artists from D&D history in the list, but in case your King is not listed, there is always the "Other" category at the bottom.

P.S.: I've added samples for each artist to a post on the second page.

 

[BronzeDragon]

BTW, not sure if this should be here or in D&D General, feel free to move the topic if there's a more appropriate location for it.

 

[Von Corellon]

Jeff Dee for gold!

 

[aco175]

First and always I think of is Larry Elmore from the earliest days. Others are fine and they they have a flavor of varying editions, but Elmore captured D&D for me back in the early days.

 

[pogre]

Other - Tom Wham! I just loved his whimsical take and cartoon style.

 

[Ath-kethin]

My favorite D&D artist? Karl Waller, who is not on the list.

But the definitive artists? Otis, Elmore, and Easley, no contest. If we could pick 4 the other would be Keith Parkinson.

 

[Blue Orange]

What era? All these folks are iconic for different eras of D&D. Brom and DiTerlizzi are basically responsible for the Dark Sun and Planescape looks, but didn't have that much influence on the larger D&D 2e gestalt. Todd Lockwood is just as important for 3e as Larry Elmore was for late 1e/2e (especially Dragonlance) or Dave Sutherland or Dave Trampier were for 1e or Jeff Dee for BECMI D&D. Otus has a particularly fever-dreamish colored-ice style that was pinched by OSR artists (as well as dragging Otus himself out of retirement) trying to specifically evoke the hallucinatory, gonzo aspects of early D&D.

We've got almost 50 years of D&D, I don't think there's one person at this point. The Art & Arcana book has nice spreads of how monsters like the beholder changed over the decades.

 

[bedir than]

This is almost "How to tell a D&D fan your age without saying your age"

 

[BronzeDragon]

What era? All these folks are iconic for different eras of D&D. Brom and DiTerlizzi are basically responsible for the Dark Sun and Planescape looks, but didn't have that much influence on the larger D&D 2e gestalt. Todd Lockwood is just as important for 3e as Larry Elmore was for late 1e/2e (especially Dragonlance) or Dave Sutherland or Dave Trampier were for 1e or Jeff Dee for BECMI D&D. Otus has a particularly fever-dreamish colored-ice style that was pinched by OSR artists (as well as dragging Otus himself out of retirement) trying to specifically evoke the hallucinatory, gonzo aspects of early D&D.

We've got almost 50 years of D&D, I don't think there's one person at this point. The Art & Arcana book has nice spreads of how monsters like the beholder changed over the decades.

Hence allowing three picks. If you want you can do one for, call it "Early D&D", then one for "AD&D" and one for "Late D&D".

The question is almost an impossible one, I know, but it's still an interesting thing to see what kind of artists come to mind instantly when someone says "D&D art".

 

[Mark Hope]

Trampier, Easley, and Otus for their iconic covers on the core books of the game's defining eras. Everyone else is too connected to one area or another (which includes my favourite, the mighty Brom).