Visions of WAR: The Art of Wayne Reynolds Hardcover—Limited Edition

I have several issues with it above and beyond the pixelization / low-resolution images that other reviewers have covered:

1. The overuse of white space. As has been mentioned, none of the pictures have commentary or anything of those lines. So if you only have one picture on the page, there's no need for it to be shrunk down to only taking up about a quarter of the page. Yet this book consistently does just this...not just with the sketches, but with the fully finished pieces as well. This probably links back to the resolution problem, as the smaller they print the images on the page, the less likely that people are to notice the pixelization / blurring.

2. That Paizo may not have been able to get full-resolution images for some of the works he did for other companies (notably WotC) is understandable, if disappointing. But some of the problem images are for his work on Paizo products. How is it that, for example, the core rulebook cover printed full size on the Core Rulebook looks so much better than it does printed at a much smaller size in this artbook?

3. All in all, I would consider these to be minor issues if this was an RPG book. For example, the 3.5 Campaign Setting book has some pixelization on the cover, and that never really bothered me. But this is an art book. The point is the art. If you can't do the art justice in an art book, then there's no point to it.

4. And we come to the biggest issue: From some of the comments on the product discussion forum by (IIRC) Erik Mona, Paizo was aware of the fact that the low-resolution images existed. Yet they still published a cash-grab / limited edition of the artbook, and charged people an additional $20. That is, in my opinion, unconscionable. It's pretty much the thing that made me lose faith in Paizo as a company.

Honestly, I can see why someone would be disappointed by this one. Some of the pictures are not given justice in the space provided by the book. I own an awesome rare large lithograph of Reynolds, and it's amazing in comparison.

STILL, when a guest or someone comes over, it's more than enough to get them interested, and the work to present is still awesome. Some of my fav pictures are featured.

If you're a fan at all, I'd still say it's worth picking up.

I am surprised and disappointed by this book, it isn't the content, which is what I expected, it was how the content was laid out. Wayne's art as always, is spectacular, that is why I ponied up the extra for the LE. In the end the book does not deliver on its promise, which should have been a showcase for Wayne's art.

So whats wrong with this book?

The images are poor reproductions, they are grainy or blurry, considering most if not all of these images have had high quality reproductions in other physical media this seems not an issue with the martial but how it was captured for use in this book.

Whitespace, holy cow is there white space, and it doesn't serve to frame the art, art which historically is printed edge to edge in mind blowing detail, all it does is consume space that the art could have occupied.

Layout: Too much of the art has been condensed to share with other art, perhaps a bigger book was required, or perhaps strong editorial control on what went in, but when the amazing wide format art is compressed and stacked, it loses detail and focus. The art would have been better served rotated 90˚ and given a dedicated page.

The overall impression is that this is a well manufactured art catalog, not an art book, I have a convenient place to skim the art and then find a product reference to go look at it properly in.

Do you love art? Do you love fantasy? Do you love Wayne Reynolds? If you answered yes to two of these questions just buy this book already. The special edition comes packaged in a handsome matte black cover with Wayne's signature inside (yes, the WAR is his signature) and a lovely little xxx/500 denoting how wonderful you are for buying the limited edition. There is also a black ribbon to keep your place and impress your poorer sillier friends who just bought the normal copy. And whose fingerprints you will not see on your matte cover.

As an art-book standing on the merits of its contents there is much to love here. Full-color prints, sketches, intermediate works, all the goodies and in profusion. No gobs of text to get in the way or take up the space where pretty pictures belong. Sure the colors seem a little off sometimes, and so much of Wayne's work is extra-wide that you will wished the book was a non-standard size, but do you have any idea how much the book would have cost otherwise?

No, wise heads made wise decisions and you could own this beautiful piece for a pittance. A pittance! Order now, operators are standing by.