Quote from: two_fishes;438559The MtG Minotaur:

Good one - I was not a Magic player but that image did stand out to me as part of the RPGs-and-friends big picture. It gave me the idea of minotaurs with strange mystical powers, an idea I like to revisit from time to time. I've talked to a number of other players who've said much the same.

Quote from: Darran;438725I have always associated Dragonewts with Glorantha, especially as they were on the front cover of RuneQuest, but Lisa Free's Dragonewts really sell it for me.

That is awesome. I still have the issue of Tatou this comes from, if I'm not mistaken.

The same way, Guillaume Sorel's art depicting Broos sold them to me.

Quote from: Benoist;438736The same way, Guillaume Sorel's art depicting Broos sold them to me.

Do you have any examples?

Quote from: Benoist;438736That is awesome. I still have the issue of Tatou this comes from, if I'm not mistaken.

The same way, Guillaume Sorel's art depicting Broos sold them to me.

Okay. Warning, this is really graphic. Link to a Sorel Broo piece.

Quote from: Benoist;438742Okay. Warning, this is really graphic. Link to a Sorel Broo piece.

That is graphic, alright. His illustration style's really good though.

What sold me on broos were the Slime Broos and Lord Ralzakark from Dorastor.

That minotaur piece is great, there was one that made me view them differently for some games.


Was this one:




Interestingly enough, I hate modern Kobolds, the little lizard chihuaha, and see more the 1E Monster Manual ones, I've not seen something that SHAPED my opinion of a monster so much. (As opposed to the old knocker like Kobolds.)

Quote from: Silverlion;438774That minotaur piece is great, there was one that made me view them differently for some games.

That one reminds me of the Dragonlance minotaurs, which was certainly a way of using them I had never seen before, and liked. But with the DL minotaurs, it wasn't so much any image that took me, but the idea of them itself, although I do think I first saw them in some old DL comic books.

Quote from: Silverlion;438774That minotaur piece is great, there was one that made me view them differently for some games.

Where'd it come from?

Seanchai

Quote from: Silverlion;438774That minotaur piece is great, there was one that made me view them differently for some games.

I also found the 3e monster manual Minotaur by Sam Wood very striking, with its blending of human and bull features rather than assembly of them. It struck me as a creature that might have been found in Theseus' labyrinth and been a real figure of horror when he had expected something like the above picture instead.

Tangentially, the "evolved" designs of the 3e monsters sometimes didn't work, and sometimes did, but this is one I thought hit right to the jugular:


It has a voracious, hateful, and deformed quality that I think conveys the fears that inspired the creature of myth.

Compare this more typical manticore :

While it definitely looks powerful and threatening, it's not really that different from the native menace of a lion or a tiger. It's a beast where the Sam Wood version is a monster.

Quote from: Seanchai;438780Where'd it come from?

Seanchai

Minotaurs of Taladas for Dragonlance 2e, I think.

Quote from: Seanchai;438780Where'd it come from?

Seanchai

Cover of the Minotaurs of Taladas or just Taladas if I recall correctly, yes, definately Dragonlance.


And yes the different monster art can make things beautiful or fascinating, I didn't care much for the art of diTerlizzi art for a lot of things--it worked for Planescape, but I didn't care for regular monsters displayed in the MC/MM (although it also worked for the Fey things, which I was alright with.)

Quote from: Cole;437928do you ever find that there's a single illustration that originally formed or radically changed how you viewed a classic monster or used it in a game? If so, which monster, which illustration, and why?

The attached image is how I always imagine kobalds to look.

These changed how I viewed certain D&D monsters:





Here is the 3.5 Monster Manual minotaur, which I also liked:

Quote from: John Morrow;438900The attached image is how I always imagine kobalds to look.

These changed how I viewed certain D&D monsters:

That gargoyle, definitely! Something about that jack-o-lantern grin/grimace. I always imagine gargoyles chuckling now. One of the earliest things I ran for 3e was an adaptation of an old 1e homebrew dungeon a friend of mine wrote that included a "playful" gargoyle who had written a message in blood on a wall, and that particular illustration really made that dungeon room "click" in a way it hadn't before.

I also like that minotaur, for reasons I commented on upthread.

The DCSIII kobolds always look a little weird to me; it's a striking image but I saw the the Otus one first and it gave me a certain sense of their personality. Maybe the DCS ones have too much pathos? But you've got to credit the guy as the originator!

What does the kobold image say to you about what Kobolds are like?

Here's another one - a Mind Flayer, by the great George Barr, from an issue of Dungeon Magazine. His elongated, sort of mannerist rendering, and the huge white eyes give the Flayer an ethereal quality that depicts it as an eerie being of great psychic strength, more enigmatic and frightening than a standard-issue tentacle monster might be:



My other favorite is this guy:



 very much the opposite of the misty mystic above, but still an paradigm-busting "advanced being."

Quote from: John Morrow;438900The attached image is how I always imagine kobalds to look.
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I wish I could get a better copy of that picture to show a friend.

I've my own sketch of Kobolds derived from that for SMITE!
(Where they are lazy sewer, and other similar "dirty" jobs for the most part.)