Worst art in an RPG book thread.

[jibbajibba]

Maybe he just copied this

[TAFMSV]

Maybe he just copied this

Fair enough, but it's still horrifying, unnatural, and unappealing.

[Kaz]

Maybe he just copied this

Then he fucked up!

[boulet]

Maybe he just copied this

Good catch sir!

[Bedrockbrendan]

Maybe he just copied this

Yeah, people sometimes forget just how big Arnold was before he really got into movies (though he was pretty huge in Conan).

[Koltar]

The Arnold pic still looks more natural than the Cap America artwork.

That just ain't right.


- Ed C.

[jibbajibba]

The Arnold pic still looks more natural than the Cap America artwork.

That just ain't right.


- Ed C.

But if you were an egotistical Comic book artist who beleived they could push the boundaries of the medium and you had seen that Arnie picture you might argue that Captain America ought to be bigger than Arnie since at the time Arnie was a 25 year old austian bodybuilder but Capatin America was super soldier who had imbibed a potion to make him into the ultimate physical specimin.... maybe

[Bedrockbrendan]

But if you were an egotistical Comic book artist who beleived they could push the boundaries of the medium and you had seen that Arnie picture you might argue that Captain America ought to be bigger than Arnie since at the time Arnie was a 25 year old austian bodybuilder but Capatin America was super soldier who had imbibed a potion to make him into the ultimate physical specimin.... maybe

I am no artist, and I certainly don't know the first thing about art appreciation, but the problem with the captain america picture isn't the size (I get he could just be really big, or the artist may be doing a stylized exageration) of the muscles. It just looks off somehow. Like there is something inconsistent within the image (whether its proportions or lighting I don't know). Almost feels like he did model after something like the Arnold image, and just didn't render it accurately.

[D-503]

I am no artist, and I certainly don't know the first thing about art appreciation, but the problem with the captain america picture isn't the size (I get he could just be really big, or the artist may be doing a stylized exageration) of the muscles. It just looks off somehow. Like there is something inconsistent within the image (whether its proportions or lighting I don't know). Almost feels like he did model after something like the Arnold image, and just didn't render it accurately.

The teeny-tiny head and hand doesn't fit at all with the bizarrely pronounced chest.

[jibbajibba]

I am no artist, and I certainly don't know the first thing about art appreciation, but the problem with the captain america picture isn't the size (I get he could just be really big, or the artist may be doing a stylized exageration) of the muscles. It just looks off somehow. Like there is something inconsistent within the image (whether its proportions or lighting I don't know). Almost feels like he did model after something like the Arnold image, and just didn't render it accurately.

Yeah entirely likely. It's a poor picture.
Remember though a comic artist draws a page with 12 - 16 frames in 8 hours. This stuff is disposible.
I only object to the Liefield comments because its obvious the guy can draw but just opts to draw superheroes in a hyperstylised way. Now you can easily not like it (I don't) but that is different from saying he doesn't understand anatomy or he is incompetant.

[TristramEvans]

But if you were an egotistical Comic book artist who beleived they could push the boundaries of the medium and you had seen that Arnie picture you might argue that Captain America ought to be bigger than Arnie since at the time Arnie was a 25 year old austian bodybuilder but Capatin America was super soldier who had imbibed a potion to make him into the ultimate physical specimin.... maybe

It looks to me like it's mainly a perspective mistake..Liefeld was obviously going for a dramatic diagonal side view, but he ended up extending the back straight back instead of tapering it to match with the chest. So basically now it looks like Cap's skeleton is framed like a fleshy Optimus Prime (a truck cab extending out from the chest).

[jgants]

Yeah entirely likely. It's a poor picture.
Remember though a comic artist draws a page with 12 - 16 frames in 8 hours. This stuff is disposible.
I only object to the Liefield comments because its obvious the guy can draw but just opts to draw superheroes in a hyperstylised way. Now you can easily not like it (I don't) but that is different from saying he doesn't understand anatomy or he is incompetant.

Well, unless it's feet.  Because Liefeld simply cannot draw feet.

[warp9]

Yeah entirely likely. It's a poor picture.
Remember though a comic artist draws a page with 12 - 16 frames in 8 hours. This stuff is disposible.
I only object to the Liefield comments because its obvious the guy can draw but just opts to draw superheroes in a hyperstylised way. Now you can easily not like it (I don't) but that is different from saying he doesn't understand anatomy or he is incompetant.

That is a fair point, and a lot of stuff happens when you are trying to go fast.

That being said, Liefeld's cap picture still bothers me. I don't see how somebody with basic understanding of anatomy would create something that bad. I could see how a good artist could produce art that looks sketchy and unfinished by going too fast.  But Liefeld's work is simply anatomically incorrect. It looks to me more like the result of somebody trying to trace elements from two or more pictures and not really understanding how they should go together.

To my understanding, most artists follow a process something like this example, where you start by laying out some basic guide lines, so you can get the underlying shapes set up correctly, and then flesh out the drawing from there. Liefeld either doesn't know how to do that, or doesn't bother to do that, either way, the result is bad artwork.

[Opaopajr]

Or it's sheer genius of reinterpreting West African aesthetics focusing on elements projecting power.

However, I have little faith that was Liefeld's process. I just see untrained amateur hurriedly producing "cool looking" panels under a time constraint. You all are talking about proper anatomy drawing -- are any of you sure he even took such drawing classes? Or paid attention while in them? He comes off as an amateur that stumbled into (huge) professional success. Expecting classically trained Western European aesthetics from him seems a bit of a stretch, IMHO.

[Spike]

Around the Spike-Lair (TM, in case Seimbedia tries to steal the name...), we've been discussing that picture and the consensus is that he started drawing the dude facing us but changed his mind and drew him in profile, and that the far 'boob' was originally a shoulder.

I have proof, but I'm forbidden from sharing it under pain of catching 'lefield leaping sickness'... I rather like having normal sized feet and only one knee, so...