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

[kosmos1214]

As someone who had to try and gather information on armor and clothing there's no doubt in my mind bedrock is on point. My library system has neat nothing on arms and armor and only slightly more in medieval and Renaissance clothing with out the internet I would have a neat zero set of referance material. There is a very good bet that the artist was in a similar position.

[Ghostmaker]

There were extended arguments about legitimacy or even existence of banded mail, forty years ago. I think you're onto something here, kosmos

[kosmos1214]

Good point ring mail is another artistic licence can also be a big part of decifering old texts and art.
Makes me wonder what mistakes will be made by historians a few thousand years from now. "The ak was slow and inaccurate especially so compared to modern directed energy weaponry". "Only the true an 47 was any good all the others where steps back".
I can see ww1 and ww2 tech getting blended together easly enough given the wars where so close.

[Ghostmaker]

Good point ring mail is another artistic licence can also be a big part of decifering old texts and art.
Makes me wonder what mistakes will be made by historians a few thousand years from now. "The ak was slow and inaccurate especially so compared to modern directed energy weaponry". "Only the true an 47 was any good all the others where steps back".
I can see ww1 and ww2 tech getting blended together easly enough given the wars where so close.

You don't have to go that far into the future. Look at some of the sillier memes revolving around modern firearms nowadays. I'm sure Shark knows a few of 'em.

[horsesoldier]

Good point ring mail is another artistic licence can also be a big part of decifering old texts and art.
Makes me wonder what mistakes will be made by historians a few thousand years from now. "The ak was slow and inaccurate especially so compared to modern directed energy weaponry". "Only the true an 47 was any good all the others where steps back".
I can see ww1 and ww2 tech getting blended together easly enough given the wars where so close.

You don't have to go that far into the future. Look at some of the sillier memes revolving around modern firearms nowadays. I'm sure Shark knows a few of 'em.

I'm not an aquatic eating machine, but there's the persistent myth that the ar-15 jams constantly. Amongst some Marines there was also the myth that the M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon jams a lot. Theirs did indeed jam a lot, but that's because it needed to be replaced or refurbished, and the USMC uses things until the wheels fall off. Conversely US Army soldiers tend to love the SAW.

[Omega]

It might have been the artist, but when this sort of thing has occurred for me it almost always the art direction (i.e. I give the artist a not so great example of the item of clothing in question and that causes the sketch or final version to look off---most artists I have worked with are happy to adjust this kind of mistake at the sketching phase if you catch it).

From looking at Dee's other art with these pulldown boots I get the impression he just liked the idea and worked out his own variations and that Elric piece is a logical extension. If you can pull down long boots, why not short? Kids at that time were likely doing it with those boot bootie things that were a brief fad.

[Lurkndog]

Good point ring mail is another artistic licence can also be a big part of decifering old texts and art.
Makes me wonder what mistakes will be made by historians a few thousand years from now. "The ak was slow and inaccurate especially so compared to modern directed energy weaponry". "Only the true an 47 was any good all the others where steps back".
I can see ww1 and ww2 tech getting blended together easly enough given the wars where so close.

You don't have to go that far into the future. Look at some of the sillier memes revolving around modern firearms nowadays. I'm sure Shark knows a few of 'em.

I'm not an aquatic eating machine, but there's the persistent myth that the ar-15 jams constantly. Amongst some Marines there was also the myth that the M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon jams a lot. Theirs did indeed jam a lot, but that's because it needed to be replaced or refurbished, and the USMC uses things until the wheels fall off. Conversely US Army soldiers tend to love the SAW.

Also AKs aren't fundamentally inaccurate, that perception is largely based on the original caliber, which is kind of a big heavy slow round, very similar to 30-30, and was designed for knockdown at under 300 yards. More modern AKs chambered in 5.54x39 are on par with ARs for shooting out to 500 yards, though the AR generally has better iron sights, and better mounting setups for scopes.

[ZetaRidley]

I'm surprised no one has posted one of based boy kevin's many visual abominations.

[Ghostmaker]

I'm surprised no one has posted one of based boy kevin's many visual abominations.

Probably because posting Palladium art is the equivalent of hunting over bait; waaaaay too easy

[Bren]

It might have been the artist, but when this sort of thing has occurred for me it almost always the art direction (i.e. I give the artist a not so great example of the item of clothing in question and that causes the sketch or final version to look off---most artists I have worked with are happy to adjust this kind of mistake at the sketching phase if you catch it). Also possible, like you suggest, they were trying to give the character a bell bottom vibe or something (but maybe just go all the way and give them bell bottoms or bell bottom like clothing if that is the case). But this is really easy to mess up. If an artist isn't familiar with the clothing in question and you provide one example to them, and that example is taken at an odd angle, is quirky in any way, or just not well done, that cause something like this easily. I try to give a bunch of examples when I can to avoid this. I would imagine cavalier boots now are pretty easy to find tons of images for. At that time though they would have to have manually searched through books for examples or found actual boots to use as models. Might have been harder to find something stellar, or to find multiple examples.

Not too hard to find.

Almost any Jack Kirby depiction of Captain America would have done a better job of giving the artist a clue.

[zircher]

Heh, it was a product of the times and arguable a style.  Not everyone can be a Neal Adams.   

[Omega]

I'm surprised no one has posted one of based boy kevin's many visual abominations.

No one has because it is not a bad piece really. At worst some of the positioning of weapons is a fraction off. But otherwise that is a fairly good piece. Alot of Kevs work is pretty good really and leaps and bounds ahead of many other RPG artists. He has a better grasp of line and structure than Holloway for example. But they both sometimes flub it on perspecta.

[Wntrlnd]

Almost any Jack Kirby depiction of Captain America would have done a better job of giving the artist a clue.

Or a John Byrne Cyclops

[SHARK]

Good point ring mail is another artistic licence can also be a big part of decifering old texts and art.
Makes me wonder what mistakes will be made by historians a few thousand years from now. "The ak was slow and inaccurate especially so compared to modern directed energy weaponry". "Only the true an 47 was any good all the others where steps back".
I can see ww1 and ww2 tech getting blended together easly enough given the wars where so close.

You don't have to go that far into the future. Look at some of the sillier memes revolving around modern firearms nowadays. I'm sure Shark knows a few of 'em.

Greetings!

God yes, my friend! You know that's right! Some of the stupidest ideas that people have about guns. Geesus.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

[Bedrockbrendan]

It might have been the artist, but when this sort of thing has occurred for me it almost always the art direction (i.e. I give the artist a not so great example of the item of clothing in question and that causes the sketch or final version to look off---most artists I have worked with are happy to adjust this kind of mistake at the sketching phase if you catch it). Also possible, like you suggest, they were trying to give the character a bell bottom vibe or something (but maybe just go all the way and give them bell bottoms or bell bottom like clothing if that is the case). But this is really easy to mess up. If an artist isn't familiar with the clothing in question and you provide one example to them, and that example is taken at an odd angle, is quirky in any way, or just not well done, that cause something like this easily. I try to give a bunch of examples when I can to avoid this. I would imagine cavalier boots now are pretty easy to find tons of images for. At that time though they would have to have manually searched through books for examples or found actual boots to use as models. Might have been harder to find something stellar, or to find multiple examples.

Not too hard to find.

Almost any Jack Kirby depiction of Captain America would have done a better job of giving the artist a clue.

Yes, due to the internet. My point was at the time, whoever gave that artist the direction would have been limited to what materials they themselves had or could have directed the artist do view (because there was also the issue of you couldn't have just emailed an image back in the day). Perhaps cavalier boots are something easy to find even pre-internet. But to use your example, if it were me, I wouldn't have had any jack kirby images because I don't collect or read comics. I would have had whatever history books are on my shelf. This isn't an item I've ever given art directions on, so I am not sure the difficulty. The idea is just it isn't necessarily just the artist (and in this particular case, I don't know what direction it falls in). I do know even with the internet finding good model images is always one of the most difficult parts of art direction.