Do any of you out in the ether like any of the artists in the D&D sourcebooks? My personal favorits are Todd Lockwood, he did most of the class pictures in the PH, another one is Wayne Reynolds, he did the bard picture in the class section of the PH.
If you have any other fav's, let me know!
No contest...Larry Elmore. He's the king, in my book.
I have great respect for many others, but he's the one who draws it the way my mind sees it.
I have a hard time narrowing my favorite down, but I have to say, Valerie Valusek was my favorite B&W interior artist.
I've always been a fan of Brom
El Skootro
I think Tony Diterlizzi is my all-time favorite. He creates mood really beautifully.
Michael Kaluta is another great one and I was super excited that Sean Glenn and Drew Pozca had managed to get him for Masque of Dreams.
Brom did a great job when he was still doing gaming stuff and Lockwood is really amazing. You can't even tell that he does everything on the computer. Adam Rex is another great painter. I've also been fortunate enough to meet the three of them and they're super cool.
Wayne Reynolds is pretty darn good, I agree. I'm looking at him a lot to try and figure out what he does.
Joachim Barrum, Eva Widdermann and Steve Prescott did excellent work on age of worms and I really like Warren Mahy's stuff in Savage Tide. Julie Dillon is another great recent Dungeon artist. I'm hoping to throw my hat in there soon, myself, but we'll see how that pans out.
Dan Dos Santos is an awesome fantasy artist, though he hasn't done any D&D stuff yet. Doesn't hurt that he took me under his wing during my troubled youth. Jon Foster is another great artist and a super sweet guy.
Two non-D&D illustrators that are awesome are Yuko Shimizu and Jonathon Rosen. I know Yuko has won a Spectrum award recently and Jonathon did a great spread in L.A. Magazine (?) about the anniversary of Blade Runner.
I'm a name-dropping machine.
Your Dan Dos Santos link is broken. What a way to treat a mentor!
El Skootro
Your Dan Dos Santos link is broken. What a way to treat a mentor!
El Skootro
He knows what he did.
(Fixed it. Forgot the url had a second s.)
For pen and ink it's Erol Otus. Call it nostalgia if you must. I don't. It's all about the style. He isn't the finest artist of the bunch, but his stuff grabs me.
Elmore is a legend, of course.
Lockwood, however, is my personal favorite. It was one of Lockwood's covers that brought me back to Dragon magazine after a long absence.
Not to mention what he's done for the re-imagining of dragon-kind.
Since we are talking about just D&D artists:
Wayne Reynolds is great. I also like Richard Sardhina, Raven Mimura, and Daarken. The recent DUNGEON artists have been pretty good to.
Erol Otus! His art was just magical to me.
I'm tossing in my two gold for Lockwood too.
Elmore, but you made me pick a favorite among favorites.
Elmore is my favorite, followed closely by Easley, Reynolds and Lockwood.
Erol Otus! His art was just magical to me.
Mah brother.
What's more, his first name backwards is Lore. Now that's RPG, baby. As I write this an anagram of his name jumps off the page at me. Sure tool. Why does my brain do this to me? Soul tore. Ack. Stool rue? Make it stop!!! Oh please!!!
Elmore.
I was also a fan of Clyde Caldwell back in the day, but I haven't seen anything of his around lately. I also enjoyed the artwork of Brom and Tony DiTerlizzi as their art just screamed the campaign settings they were known for (Dark Sun and Planescape respectively). I haven't paid as much attention to which artist is which since getting back into D&D 5 years ago, but I have to say I'm starting to like Wayne Reynolds a lot, and before long I'll probably associate him with a single campaign setting (Golarion, still not quite sure of that name) like I did with Brom and DiTerlizzi.
Brom.
DiTerlizzi. Planescape in general was cool, he made it even better.
Richard Sardinha. And I like Erol Otus a lot, too (if anyone hadn't guessed by the thread about him). Ooh... and I really like the backdrop paintings of Sasserine (e.g., Dungeon #139, pp 48-49)--Ben Wooten? Kudos.
Bill Willingham.
Then Otus, Brom, Elmore.
I think us Otus voters need to form a band. We've got Killah, Kirth, Nomad, and Jade. That's a powerhouse right there is what it is.
Full up. Anyone who votes for Erol now will have to accept the humble honor of roadie. Well, I guess we could take one more. Maybe a second guitarist who can switch to keyboards when, or if, necessary.
Might I suggest for our first band name consideration the anagram from my post above, Sure Tool? It's cocky, it's rockin', it's cockrockin'.
In no particular order...
Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Clyde Caldwell, Tony DiTerlizzi, Brom, Wayne Reynolds, Todd Lockwood (I have this print in my dining room), Eva Wildermann, Andrew Hou.
I don't know if he's ever done anything "official D&D", but Frazetta is the king. John Zeleznik is a fav as well, though he does more sci-fi stuff.
Larry Elmore is way out in front for my favorite. That being said, I like just about everyone that you guys and gals have listed. I haven't seen too many of you list Jeff Easley though. His work is akin to Elmore's.
Ah forgot about Keith Parkinson and Jeff Easley. Add those to my list above. :) And Valerie Valusek for black and white art.
I need to take a run through all my old Dragons and check out the covers to see if there are any other favorites I'm forgetting.
Erol Otus, David Trampier, Jeff Dee, and Bill Willingham -- in that order.
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so many to choose from but old school it's gotta be Larry Elmore, his covers for the "Basic" rulebooks of D&D will always be favorites of mine, epically the red box set red dragon & the green box set picture (something about that castle in the background...)
new stuff I gotta hand that one off to Wayne Reynolds, love his style of artwork, something about his pictures just say-- D&D adventure.
really the only artists I don't like is Thomas Baxa, thou his work has gotten allot better since his Dark Sun days & Crabtree (can't recall his first name), something about his artwork I never cared for.
RM
really the only artists I don't like is Thomas Baxa, thou his work has gotten allot better since his Dark Sun days
RM
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I appreciate that he has been around a long time, but his artwork doesn't "do it" for me at all. Also, no matter what setting he produces art for, he seems to have the savage "Dark Sun" astectic going on.
Possibly the worst D&D artist is Crabapple, he has no sence of color and all the monsters look like a troll with elven ears. Yuck!
Possibly the worst D&D artist is Crabapple, he has no sence of color and all the monsters look like a troll with elven ears. Yuck!
If I'm thinking of the same fellah, I think some of his pen and ink stuff is prett decent. But, yeah, all of his monsters tend to look the same. He's also done some racey softcore (from what I've seen) fantasy comic stuff with (I believe) "Mara of the Celts" or something similar.
larry elmore, erol otus, dave trampier, and joachim barrum.
there's something about wayne reynolds' style that's always bugged me...
messy
who ever did the artwork in the eberron book
Clyde Caldwell, where are you?
In no particular order...
Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Clyde Caldwell, Tony DiTerlizzi, Brom, Wayne Reynolds, Todd Lockwood (I have this print in my dining room), Eva Wildermann, Andrew Hou.
I don't know if he's ever done anything "official D&D", but Frazetta is the king. John Zeleznik is a fav as well, though he does more sci-fi stuff.
Damn forgot to mention Lockwood. He is the best D&D artist of dragons I have seen.
I look at that print and my smile turns into a frown when I realize that paizo can't use mindflayers anymore. Damn, damn, damn!
Sorry for the swearing.
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My current favorite is Wayne Reynolds; before he came on the scene, it was Todd Lockwood; but my all-time favorite is
Larry Elmore.
I really never liked Otis' work, and was ecstatic when 2nd Edition upgraded the art in the rules books.
Easley did all the covers for the Orange Spines and many of the modules, and countless hours of my youth were spent just studying the covers instead of chemistry or trig, but Elmore really captured D&D for me back in the 80s, when I was at my most impressionable and spongiest.
I don't know if I can say that Elmore painted D&D the way I saw it in my mind, but I can say that after I saw Elmore's paintings, that's how I saw it in my mind!
who ever did the artwork in the eberron book
I belive Wayne Reynolds did a lot of the Eberron art.
(Turning and looking at Mr. Keegan) I know that Lockwood did a lot of digital art, but I think his best are painted in oils.
These are my altime fav's, This one, This one, and this one!
Enjoy!
Clyde Caldwell , followed closely by Keith Parkinson, and Elmore.
Top Five (in no order)
1) Erol Otus
2) Tony DiTerlizzi
3) Brom
4) Dave Trampier
5) Kyle Hunter
Each one of these artists has a very unique style which is instantly recognizable.
Here's a question for anyone that wants to answer it: what is your single favorite piece of D&D art? For me, it would probably be the cover to the 1980 Moldvay Basic Set, but that might just be because it was the first piece of D&D art I ever saw. That painting really made me want to open up that box!
You guys mentioned them, I love 'em all:
Parkinson, Elmore, Lockwood, Brom, DiTerlizzi, Reynolds, Easley
Grew up readin' comics and gotta mention that I also love:
Buscema (Conan), Frazetta (...CONAN), Bolland, Seinkiewicz (first time I tried to spell it), Romita Jr., Byrne, Wrightson, Moebius, Bakshi (Wizards rules)
And come on guys, haven't you checked this out?:
Sergio Aragones (Groo the Wanderer)
Erol Otus? ... Style was unique, and he was the signature artist of all my favorite modules when I started playin' this game... plus he's the only guy on this list that I named a character after (a wizard).
Hmmmm... maybe I oughta roll up a bard named Seinkiewicz next time I'm on the other side of the screen.
Marcus asked if we have a single favorite piece...
That Lockwood "Dragonfire" may be my favorite; I love a good TPK.
Plus I'm a pyro.
Mine is Todd Lockwood, he is the best. Wayne Reynolds is pretty good too.
BTW, it should be 'Who is your favorite D&D artist'.
And come on guys, haven't you checked this out?:
Sergio Aragones (Groo the Wanderer)
Are you kidding? I don't know how many paperback collections I have of this guy's art just from his Mad magazine work alone. His art used to appear at the very tops and very bottoms of random pages. Tiny comic tableaus. Great stuff.
I have early Groo, too.
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Marcus asked if we have a single favorite piece...
That Lockwood "Dragonfire" may be my favorite; I love a good TPK.
I love that too - got it on the cover of Dragons of Faerun. The dragon is on the front doing his thing, and the horrified survivor is on the back. It works quite well like that, though the full picture is obviously better.
(Turning and looking at Mr. Keegan) I know that Lockwood did a lot of digital art, but I think his best are painted in oils.
These are my altime fav's, This one, This one, and this one!
Enjoy!
Your all time favorites are all digital, though. I actually can't tell the difference most of the time between his oil paintings and digital work. He uses the Painter program on a mac with lots of ram and a tablet. Of course, he could never do any of this if he didn't have that traditional background. It really comes down to convenience for a lot of artists that work digitally. You mess up a digital file, you can go to an early save or to the way it was right before you messed up. Two seconds, if that. You mess up an oil painting, it may take you all afternoon or more to fix it. At the same time, though, a print will never sell to collectors for as much as an original painting, so he may start doing his paintings in traditional media again.