I'll be pretty quiet on here this weekend, as we're getting ready to spend a weekend full of Indy 500 activity (thanks to all of you!). But that doesn't mean that we aren't going to have some of our usual Friday Discussion!
This week's topic: Which artist or artists best represents your vision of Dungeons & Dragons? No, they don't need to be TSR/WotC artists, and they don't need to be RPG artists. Otis, Lockwood, Parkinson, Bosch--all are welcome!
I'll come out swinging first: Darlene. Her Greyhawk maps conveyed a sense of wonder and yearning for adventure that remains unmatched. Love Trampier, love Otis, but if I were to go with one, it'd be her. Her work remains iconic in my perception of D&D.
24 comments:
Wow, I was actually just looking into this during the week. For me, I started playing D&D with 2nd Edition, so Tony Diterlizzi's artwork in the Monster Manual still shapes how I view D&D to this day.
I have to say that reclusive D.A. Trampier still influences my vision of DnD even after all these years.
I agree...Tony Diterlizzi's artwork (especially his conceptual work from 2nd Edition Planescape)is my all time favorite.
I also enjoy newer artists like Wayne Reynolds, Raven Mimura and William O'connor.
If you're going to make me pick just one, it's Keith Parkinson. He and Larry Elmore were the masters of the "you are there" style that dominated in the early '80s, and that strong sense of place, with the fantastical grounded in the realistic, really feeds my need for verisimilitude.
Some day, however, I want to run a campaign based on Den Beauvais' awesome chess pieces.
Definitely Russ Nicholson who illustrated the early Fighting Fantasy books as well as some of the monsters in the Fiend Folio.
Hmm....a pretty hard choice to make but it would have to be the more 'modern' artists like Lockwood (can't beat his dragons) and Reynolds (yeah, blame Pathfinder for that).
Hmmm, is the question "which artist nails my perspective in D&D?"
Then Matt Wilson (Iron Kingdoms).
If it's "which artist do I think of when I think of D&D?"
Then it would have to be Clyde Caldwell, simply because it's his art that I can remember on the covers of so many things.
Well, I was going to say Jeff Easley, but after reading the other comments I have to admit that Tony Diterlizzi's work on Planescape was pretty friggin' cool. It's so difficult to choose just one.
Erol Otus, Jeff Dee, and Big John Buscema!
Timothy Truman for me. The images of Isle of Dread, from the Expert Box Set (the first game I bought, go figure) still stick to my mind. Besides that, I was already a Grim Jack fan.
Isle o d Dread: http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/dd/dd-x1-a.jpg
Grim Jack : http://www.universohq.com/quadrinhos/2004/imagens/grimjack_img.jpg
Larry Elmore, without a doubt - his cover and interior work in the red box Basic D&D set was my very first visual cue for the game and left quite an impression. He did the covers for some of the Dragonlance books, too.
Tramp is my favorite D&D artist, but I pick the late David Sutherland, particularly for 'A Paladin in Hell' and those little Sergio-Aragones-style strips he did in the back of the DMG. Those images are etched into my brain, and they show almost exactly how I picture my adventurers.
Seconding a "first vision" vote for Larry Elmore and his box set B&W art. I also had a very impressive calendar of Michael Whelan paintings back in the day (Elric, Pern dragons, etc)
There are too many artists for me to talk about, and it really tends to depend on what I'm reading/obsessed with nowadays. Right now, I'm getting into a lot of Korean comics (manwha) and Sung Woo Park's art is rolling through my mind.
This thread is going to keep me busy on Google for a while!
My vote would have to go for Elmore, Parkinson, AND Caldwell. I wasn't familiar with Caldwell's work before reading this thread. Turns out I have been attributing a lot of his stuff to Elmore, but after Google-ing him, I find that a lot of my favorite "Elmore" pieces are actually from Caldwell!
Go figure. You learn something new every day.
For me it would have to be Jim Holloway, followed by Erol Otus and
Jim Roslof. Very iconic early D&D
Artists.
Jim especially for his brilliant interior pieces in modules like,
Palace of the Silver Princess,
His Lost City cover and interior work,and much, much more.
Erol Otus for his excellent Palace of the Silver Princess & Dwellers of the Forbidden City covers, his
great interior b/w artwork in many early mods.
And Jim Roslof for his brilliant Keep on the Borderlands cover and interior artwork, in many modules of the time.
Iconic D&D Artists.
For me its the works of Gustave Dore. Always sets the tone for my games.
Jim Holloway. His B&W BECMI and Dragon stuff was formative for me.
Two different ends of the spectrum for me.
Jeff Dee for heroic awesomeness - from the lizard man in Rogue's Gallery to the halflings in the Expert Rules set.
And BROM for weird and evil. I love the feel he gave the Dark Sun setting.
Den Beauvais! Dragon #83 with his awesome checkmate cover was the first I ever owned. His cover of issue #93 still resounds in my imagination as the quintessential D&D image.
Mark Smylie. (http://www.daradja.com/artesia.php) I like the fact that he can imbue his illustrations with a fantastic feel, while knowing enough about the real world to keep them grounded and accessible.
Tony Diterlizzi... his art is quite incredible for the topic, and it gives me a good line into various creatures and their expressions, poses, etc.
Slainte,
-Loonook.
Larry Elmore. Definitely.
Another vote for Tony Diterlizzi. Mind you, spending too much time on Dragonsfoot has infected me with a bit of Erol Otus love.
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