There's concept art for 5e Forgotten Realms up. Some people don't like it. I think it's way better than the stuff from 4e. They tried too hard to make the art in the 4e books all the same style, the same world, everything had to adhere dogmatically to the new D&D canon. comments here mention that the hobbits especially look like they're from Pixar. I'm fine with that. What I like about art in the older editions of D&D books is that they let individual artists express different styles: Easley does not look like Elmore does not look like Trampier, but it's all D&D. This 5e stuff is a tiny baby step back in that direction. Yeah, the hobbits are Pixar-ish, the humans could easily be from Game of Thrones and some of the monsters could have come from Peter Jackson (that Aboleth is bad ass) and I think that's great. I wish they would take this farther and let people really play with what D&D can look like.
so here's my beginning of a list of people who I wish WotC would hire to do D&D art
(but they probably won't):
Shawn Cheng, Zak S and some other folks
Barnaby Ward
Theo Ellsworth
Skinner
John Paul Leon
frickin Scrap Princess
This list can and should be added to. Feel free to make suggestions!
Very nice list. I had two german artists in mind for the 5e:
ReplyDeleteMichael Hutter: http://www.octopusartis.com/home.php
Walter Moers: http://www.zamonien.de/index.php
This is the homepage of his strange, bizarre and weird fantasy-world "Zamonien", but all the pictures are made by him. It's real good weird-fantasy stuff.
I think that Wizards should get a bunch of different people to do art for Basic 5e. It's not the most market-savvy move, but it allows for a lot of different 'styles' of D&D to be seen. You could have Heavy Metal DnD, Anime DnD, High Fantasy Art DnD, and Weird Indie Comics DnD.
ReplyDeleteYeah I like some of these selections but to use Anathemata's words, I think this is a bit too "Weird Indie Comics" for the mainstream audience WotC is gunning for.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind consistent of varied, as long as the art is good. Most of the concept art they have shown so far is just bland. Nothing on par with Trampier or Otus in 1E or B/X, or Parkinson in 2E, or Wayne Reynolds more recently.
Thanks for the comments fellows.
ReplyDeleteLogan: Those Germans are nuts! I like em.
Anathemata: Yeah! Brendan's right though, I don't think they'll get too weird. They are the standard bearer for the hobby and all.
Brendan: I have mixed feelings on Wayne Reynolds. He can really do an action scene well though.