What were they thinking? The RPG art cringe thread :D

[Blankman]

Yes that pickpocket Halfling piece is pretty good really and one of the few exceptions to the rule in 5e.

They've toned down the "big head, spindly legs" thing in releases after the PHB as well. This one from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes still shows the design element of a bigger head than normal, but otherwise isn't bad I think.

I'm left wondering what's actually happening here. Is he pleasantly surprised by the fish? 😀

He's killing a troll by skipping a fish at it. It illustrates a Halfling poem about how the Fishskipper family got its name. Just a bit of color in the section on Halfling culture.

[Trond]

So this thread prompted me to make a post because something has been seriously bothering me about Old School Essentials, specifically a style of art prevalent throughout the book. The Peter Mullen stuff exudes the exact sort of atmosphere I would expect from a B/X-derived game (derived..? Exact replica?). Case in point, the DM's screen is pretty cool and gives me that melted weirdness of Erol Otus, exploring underground caverns and killing goblins for treasure. Contrast that with the image I attached...that is just NOT what I want to see. It is far too whimsical and reminds me of some kiddie bullshit. When I first started playing D&D way back when, I was indeed a kid, but fuck if I wanted to be treated like one. Who does this sort of art appeal to? I certainly do not like it whatsoever. Nope.

Something tells me that skulls are a special thing of the character on the left.

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Geesus. So, what was wrong with the artwork for Halflings back in...3.5E or 3E? I'm thinking of the voluptuous redhead Halfling Rogue on a cover of Dragon Magazine, and as I recall, highlighted throughout various game books. She was smoking hot, and definitely put a different spin on how Halflings could look. Whenever I used that picture to show how a Halfling female could look like, it definitely opened up my player's imaginations and perspectives. There were also some dapper-looking male Halflings as well, and it got Halflings out of the "Fat Farmer" look that had generally prevailed as their appearance, at least in the minds of many players. I thought that whole period of artwork was meaningful, while maintaining older traditions, it still stretched margins and provided some scope for interesting differences.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Heh, I thought you meant this one, actually. http://www.larryelmore.com/store/TSHT/tsr--halfling-thief

The only way you could tell she was a halfling was by looking at the furnishings nearby.

Greetings!

Yeah, my friend! That was the main picture I was thinking of! She is smoking hot! Loved her as a Halfling!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

[Ghostmaker]

Greetings!

Geesus. So, what was wrong with the artwork for Halflings back in...3.5E or 3E? I'm thinking of the voluptuous redhead Halfling Rogue on a cover of Dragon Magazine, and as I recall, highlighted throughout various game books. She was smoking hot, and definitely put a different spin on how Halflings could look. Whenever I used that picture to show how a Halfling female could look like, it definitely opened up my player's imaginations and perspectives. There were also some dapper-looking male Halflings as well, and it got Halflings out of the "Fat Farmer" look that had generally prevailed as their appearance, at least in the minds of many players. I thought that whole period of artwork was meaningful, while maintaining older traditions, it still stretched margins and provided some scope for interesting differences.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Heh, I thought you meant this one, actually. http://www.larryelmore.com/store/TSHT/tsr--halfling-thief

The only way you could tell she was a halfling was by looking at the furnishings nearby.

Greetings!

Yeah, my friend! That was the main picture I was thinking of! She is smoking hot! Loved her as a Halfling!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Elmore's art often drew on actual models for faces and posing. It always amuses me when someone insists that the proportions or poses are unrealistic.

This one I remember quite fondly as it nicely mixes 'pretty' and 'bad ass'.

[Trond]

Elmore's art often drew on actual models for faces and posing. It always amuses me when someone insists that the proportions or poses are unrealistic.

I have seen people drawing nudes very competently from life and being criticized for "unrealistic breasts". In some circles pretty="unrealistic".

[Omega]

I think he's throwing the heaviest fish back, making it skip 3 times.
Animal cruelty! 

Pretty much!

The only other explanation is he hit the fish with a skipped rock. But since no rock is shown and it makes little sense. The whole thing makes little sense. And its still another deformed halfling.

[Blankman]

I think he's throwing the heaviest fish back, making it skip 3 times.
Animal cruelty! 

Pretty much!

The only other explanation is he hit the fish with a skipped rock. But since no rock is shown and it makes little sense. The whole thing makes little sense. And its still another deformed halfling.

No, he's killing a troll with a fish.

[Omega]

So this thread prompted me to make a post because something has been seriously bothering me about Old School Essentials, specifically a style of art prevalent throughout the book. The Peter Mullen stuff exudes the exact sort of atmosphere I would expect from a B/X-derived game (derived..? Exact replica?). Case in point, the DM's screen is pretty cool and gives me that melted weirdness of Erol Otus, exploring underground caverns and killing goblins for treasure. Contrast that with the image I attached...that is just NOT what I want to see. It is far too whimsical and reminds me of some kiddie bullshit. When I first started playing D&D way back when, I was indeed a kid, but fuck if I wanted to be treated like one. Who does this sort of art appeal to? I certainly do not like it whatsoever. Nope.

Id say its both emulating Erol's style. But also harkens to a particular style Otus shared with a few other illustrators like Barbra Remington who did the covers for one Lord of the Rings set and Peter Cross who did covers for other books
The second piece is emulating Fighting Fantasy and old Games Workshop art feels. Or at least has a similar style.

[Omega]

I think he's throwing the heaviest fish back, making it skip 3 times.
Animal cruelty! 

Pretty much!

The only other explanation is he hit the fish with a skipped rock. But since no rock is shown and it makes little sense. The whole thing makes little sense. And its still another deformed halfling.

No, he's killing a troll with a fish.

Wait! That if this is a halfling sorcerer who is turning people into fish and then using them as ammunition to kill trolls? Note the fishing pole and fish in the background. This maniac emptied a whole village for his troll killing!
Horror!

[Trond]

I'm left wondering what's actually happening here. Is he pleasantly surprised by the fish? 😀

He's killing a troll by skipping a fish at it. It illustrates a Halfling poem about how the Fishskipper family got its name. Just a bit of color in the section on Halfling culture.

That explains the way he's positioned and all, but it leaves so many new questions

How do you kill a troll with a fish? Why did the fish have to skip on the water to kill the troll? Why is the dude laughing?

EDIT: and why are we seeing it from the troll's perspective? I don't like the implication here 

[Brad]

Something tells me that skulls are a special thing of the character on the left.

Yes, very edgy. And stupid.

Id say its both emulating Erol's style. But also harkens to a particular style Otus shared with a few other illustrators like Barbra Remington who did the covers for one Lord of the Rings set and Peter Cross who did covers for other books

No disagreement; it's both like Otus and also somewhat distinct. I think it captures B/X fairly well.

The second piece is emulating Fighting Fantasy and old Games Workshop art feels. Or at least has a similar style.

I dunno, whenever I think of WFRP it's usually bigass beaded dwarves cleaving orc skulls with giant axes, it's not THAT.

[Blankman]

I'm left wondering what's actually happening here. Is he pleasantly surprised by the fish? 😀

He's killing a troll by skipping a fish at it. It illustrates a Halfling poem about how the Fishskipper family got its name. Just a bit of color in the section on Halfling culture.

That explains the way he's positioned and all, but it leaves so many new questions

How do you kill a troll with a fish? Why did the fish have to skip on the water to kill the troll? Why is the dude laughing?

EDIT: and why are we seeing it from the troll's perspective? I don't like the implication here 

I don't know man, I just work here. But here's the poem in full, from page 101 of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

From the gentle waters
Amid the swaying reeds,
There rose a hairy villain,
A troll called Snobble Sweed.

He came to gobble children,
To line his lair with bones,
And pick his teeth with talons,
And grind their flesh with stones.

But on that day a-fishing
Was a halfling brave and true,
The first of the Fishskippers,
Grand-kin to me and you.

When he saw old Snobble Sweed
A-sharpening his knives,
He knew that all his family's folk
Were in danger of their lives.

In that moment of great peril,
Fishskipper caught a bream
And hurled it by its silvery tail
Across the glassy stream.

Ten times the bream did swiftly skip,
And like a clap of thunder
It smote old Sweed upon his head,
And tore the beast asunder
- "Tale of the Fishskippers," by Harkin Fishskipper

[Mishihari]

When Monte Cook reprinted Arcana Unearthed as Arcana Evolved, he included an artist with just horrible art.  So I submit this example:



This in a core rulebook, full-color, $50 (at the time that was pricey).

I actually kind of like those.  They set a certain tone for the game, kind of retro, looks a bit like something out of a medieval bestiary.

[Reckall]

Elmore's art often drew on actual models for faces and posing. It always amuses me when someone insists that the proportions or poses are unrealistic.

This one I remember quite fondly as it nicely mixes 'pretty' and 'bad ass'.

Elmore's art in the Basic Set (Red Box) gave me the inspiration for all the first wave of NPCs I ever created. He had a knack for giving personality to the characters he draw (including this one): you just felt that there was a story behind them.

[Reckall]

BTW (and totally OT), remember the possibly most famous "Dragonlance Illustration" of them all?



It was done in ten days with an "all hands on deck!" approach. The DL staff of artists themselves worked as improvised models. The story includes actual pictures of the guys in the mid-80s "posing" as the various characters. You can see how the production level of the whole affair was below an high-school play - but they pulled it off. That was true commitment 

https://www.enworld.org/threads/larry-elmore-on-composing-the-companions-of-the-lance-art.666119/