I hope more varied art styles will emerge in both lines over time. (Personally, I want to see Lilith and James Keegan illustrate a dark-but-humorous GameMastery module – written, of course, by Tim & Eileen Connors and the ubiquitous Mr. Logue. But I’m prejudiced.)
Your bribe is in the mail and thank you very much.
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I find the Pathfinder art samples on the blog compelling, although I’d personally welcome a step towards greater realism.
This is in fact the only, and minor, gripe I have so far with Pathfinder 1. I like to show pictures of the NPC in an adventure to my players but I'm a bit hesitant to do this with those in "Burnt Offerings". I'm no expert but I assume that the human(oid) NPCs in the adventure have been created by Kyle Hunter and those in the Sandpoint article by Jeff Laubenstein. In both cases the style doesn't seem to fit my player's taste (and mine - with the possible exception of Lyrie).
This said I like the monster illustrations both in the adventure and in the monster article.This is less about my stylistic preferences than about the immersion into the game. If I can show my players an illustration such as Shevala or Eando Kline (Warren Mahy?), it doesn't interrupt the flow of the game 'cause they can immediately imagine with whom they interact. This is much more difficult with comic-style illustrations (especially with respect to NPCs as Shalelu, Tsuto ot Orik). So I'd prefer a more realistic approach as well, but given the awesomeness of the rest of the artwork (WAR, Andrew Hou and whoever made those wonderful maps) and more generally, given the awesomeness of PF 1, I don't care too much about it.
Personally, I want to see Lilith and James Keegan illustrate a dark-but-humorous GameMastery module – written, of course, by Tim & Eileen Connors and the ubiquitous Mr. Logue. But I’m prejudiced.
*quickly thinks of a bribe*
Thanks for the vote o' confidence! :D
The solution is obvious: Dan Scott should do all cover AND interior illustrations. This has nothing to do with the fact that Dan is a friend of mine... in fact, I don't even know him OR his wife Laura. And if Dan does do all the artwork from now on and makes a ton of extra money, I will definitely NOT show him this post in order to get a sweet Christmas present.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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The solution is obvious: Dan Scott should do all cover AND interior illustrations. This has nothing to do with the fact that Dan is a friend of mine... in fact, I don't even know him OR his wife Laura. And if Dan does do all the artwork from now on and makes a ton of extra money, I will definitely NOT show him this post in order to get a sweet Christmas present.
You know what, screw it; just have it done by Shirt Guy Dom.
Thought I should pop back in and give my thoughts now that I've seen the whole "Burnt Offerings" art selection. The large pieces (like the goblins running rampant while burning the town) are great. I also like the "scenery" shots as with the view looking down on Sandpoint, or seeing the goblins' perspective of the garbage dump. It would have been nice, however, if the shot of the goblins torching the cathedral actually matched the architecture of the cathedral as shown on the city map (the map shows a building with lots of rounded edges/domes, while the goblin pic is a blockish tower).
Unfortunately, the one set of art I'd use the most--character portraits--are not good at all. Their cartoonish features make them jarringly silly. Of course, I've never been a fan of Downer and as most of these look very much like that series it's no surprise I don't like the new stuff either. There are a few portraits that are good (e.g. Foxglove is okay, and those in the Pathfinder Journal I really like). Pretty much all of the individual monster pics in the Burnt Offer section, along with the portraits in the Sandpoint section, will be scrapped and I'll find other art to use.
Fortunately, the Bestiary pics are good and I can use them with no concern. The attic whisperer in particular is nice. I'll probably use individual goblins from the larger pieces to replace the goblin portraits.
I definitely hope to see a different style in future offerings, though I know some folks probably like the pieces I don't and so expect some to recur. I'd be more inclined to B&W sketches, for instance, versus the weird cartoony drawings if it's an issue of cost per drawing.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I'll have to agree; the scenery shots are the best of the pictures.
Actually, that's a lie; the cartography is. Whew!
The portraits, I'm also not a big fan of; they work for giving a description, but they don't quite do it for me. Nothing against the artist, of course. The only portraits that I was particularly excited about, really, was Shalelu's and (I'm going to get a lot of surprised looks here) Erylium's.
I do admit, though, the artist of most of the villians in this has an interesting style, especially with the blockier shapes.
But, anyways, the scenery shots are delicious, especially the Thistletop landscape. That thing is AWESOME! Oh, and the final picture in the adventure is pretty sweet, too.
Oh yes, I forgot about the cartography! I really like all the maps, with my only regret being that the PDF didn't include the maps in a separate layer from the text for easier online/player use. Of course, that's being discussed in another thread, so hopefully we'll have some more player-friendly maps in the future.
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I've never been a fan of Downer and as most of these look very much like that series it's no surprise I don't like the new stuff either.
Actually I liked Downer very much, so I was kinda surprised when I didn't like all character illustrations in "Burnt Offerings". Don't know exactly why it is that i like Lyrie's but I don't like Nualia's (I'm note quite even sure if she is Kyle Hunter's work). The same thing with Aldern Foxglove (which I liked) and Shalelu (which I find horrible).
It's another thing with the monsters: Erylium and Koruvus are just creepy (which is as they should be); i like Bruthamus and I absolutely love the illustration of Ripnugget and Stickfoot.
By the way I would greatly appreciate if there was a way to mention which artist made what picture or at least which artist contributed to what article. First thing is, I don't want to guess who made what, because I don't want to adress the wrong artist especially if I have to critizise anything.
And apart from that I think they deserve it. Looking at the table of contents I can immediately see which author to pay homage to. So I'd like to see the other artists treated the same way if that could be achieved somehow.
Contributor
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Actually I liked Downer very much, so I was kinda surprised when I didn't like all character illustrations in "Burnt Offerings". Don't know exactly why it is that i like Lyrie's but I don't like Nualia's (I'm note quite even sure if she is Kyle Hunter's work). The same thing with Aldern Foxglove (which I liked) and Shalelu (which I find horrible).
Those character portraits were done by Jeff Laubentstein. Not Kyle Hunter.
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Those character portraits were done by Jeff Laubentstein. Not Kyle Hunter.
All four of them? Wow, so much for my guessing. I remembered the "Swords of Dragonslake" (Dungeon #141) and "The Aundarian Job" (#147) so I didn't even came close to the idea that he could have done those illustrations (apart from maybe Nualia).
Creative Director
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Adding artist name captions to each piece of art is an interesting idea. I'll consider it, but it won't "go live" until, at the earliest, Pathfinder 4.
Laubenstein did the character illos for the Sandpoint article, along with the goblin warchanter, Koruvus, and Ripnugget/Stickfoot. All of the other NPC illos in "Burnt Offerings" were done by Aronld Tsang. The only piece Kyle did for Pathfinder 1 was the goblin in the Foreword.
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I repeat: So much for my guessings *sigh*. I must confess that I'm some artistic illiterate (at least as far as visual art is concerned), but a thread like this makes me eager to improve.
So thank you for your comments and explanations and I hope I will recognize Arnold Tsang's artwork next time I see it :)
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Creative Director
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Is there full pictures (beyond just headshots) of Aldern or Shalelu? I'm sure probably in future Pathfinders, but was wondering if there was anything for the blog. I'd definitely love to see Shalelu
There'll be a body shot of Shalelu in Pathfinder 3.
Pathfinder 2 SORT of has a body shot of Aldern... but it's not the kind of illo you'll want to show your players until the right moment half-way through "The Skinsaw Murders."
Adding artist name captions to each piece of art is an interesting idea. I'll consider it, but it won't "go live" until, at the earliest, Pathfinder 4.
I'd just like to second that I'd like to see this as well. How some publishers add a little line off on the margin seems to work nicely.
Also, author bylines with the articles. When I was reading th PDFs I was really surprised to see no author bylines. They are all listed in Credits, and I suppose it might give more of a cohesive feel to the book (and maybe I'm too much in the magazine mindset than book), but especially with the separate PDF files, it might be nice to sneak author bylines in there - again, even just a note in the margins.
But they are nitpicky points, and overall Pathfinder is looking great!
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Artwork influences play style.
If I see very realistic art, say Robin Woods, I'll expect the action to be fairly "realistic". Humans and dwarves may be fighting a manticore, but they'll be using normal-sized weapons, sneaking up using real-world sneaky tactics, and so on.
If I see animation-style art, like Marc Hempel's work on the MARS comics of the 1980's, I expect more over-the-top action. For example, I might decide to have my character charge the manticore, leap over it at the last second, land in a crouch and blast it with my wand of lightning bolts. Because those kinds of actions make sense in the genre I associate with the art style.
I presume publishers know this and take the effect into account.
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Contributor
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Also, author bylines with the articles. When I was reading th PDFs I was really surprised to see no author bylines. They are all listed in Credits, and I suppose it might give more of a cohesive feel to the book (and maybe I'm too much in the magazine mindset than book)
Yeah, that's getting a little too magaziney. We're trying very hard to get away from that mindset ourselves, and since it's a very slippery slope...
But hey, James is the EIC, not me. So maybe he'll start doing that. ;)
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Creative Director
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Also, author bylines with the articles. When I was reading th PDFs I was really surprised to see no author bylines. They are all listed in Credits, and I suppose it might give more of a cohesive feel to the book (and maybe I'm too much in the magazine mindset than book)Yeah, that's getting a little too magaziney. We're trying very hard to get away from that mindset ourselves, and since it's a very slippery slope...
But hey, James is the EIC, not me. So maybe he'll start doing that. ;)
WotC puts credits for their artists in the margins of the page in their books... that was kind of the idea I was thinking of using. But I'll certainly be keeping author bylines only in the table of contents and on the cover (front and back), to preserve the feel of Pathfinder being a book and not a magazine. It's the little differences, ya know?
But I'll certainly be keeping author bylines only in the table of contents and on the cover (front and back), to preserve the feel of Pathfinder being a book and not a magazine. It's the little differences, ya know?
That's fine. I didn't realize how magaziney it was until I wrote the post and thought about it. I think it just jumped out at me because I was reading the individual PDF files and had no idea who wrote them (until I opened up the credits file, of course). In a physical book it would flow more naturally. So that makes more sense and is fine by me.
Artwork influences play style.
If I see very realistic art, say Robin Woods, I'll expect the action to be fairly "realistic". Humans and dwarves may be fighting a manticore, but they'll be using normal-sized weapons, sneaking up using real-world sneaky tactics, and so on.
If I see animation-style art, like Marc Hempel's work on the MARS comics of the 1980's, I expect more over-the-top action. For example, I might decide to have my character charge the manticore, leap over it at the last second, land in a crouch and blast it with my wand of lightning bolts. Because those kinds of actions make sense in the genre I associate with the art style.
I presume publishers know this and take the effect into account.
That's a great point. And since both the artwork and what I've read of 4e (jump over ranks of enemies, run up walls, etc.) lean strongly towards the "comics" end of the spectrum (or at least video-game-like action), I'd expect "realistic" gaming to be increasingly marginalized unless we make a conscious effort to reverse that trend.
I appreciate that the Paizo crew is trying to avoid having a "magaziny" feel to the pathfinder series, however I really miss the editors column in Dungeon by Eric Mona and then by that James Jacobs guy. I felt connected to the magazine through a shared experience and really enjoyed knowing that the folks on the other side are rolling dice as well as a brief glimpse into the human(s) on the production side of things. So if possible please keep the forward. It makes Pathfinder seem more like home.
I really liked most of the art in Pathfinder. I didn't care for the hobgoblin (p.45 Bruthazmus)illustration but I have a thing for goblinoids and do not like to see them misrepresented. It is still light years ahead of what was available in AD&D and is just different from what I have come to expect a hobgoblin to look like.
What I did REALLY like were the illustrations of "Petal vs. Gresgurt" on p.17 and "Seoni vs Vargouille" p.28 I also really liked Nualia p.53, Ameiko p.68 and Erylium p.25. I hope that some of these might become available as prints or something.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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James is still writing a Foreword to each volume, so you'll get some of that "we're friendly gamers too!" vibe there. This is the first month I haven't written an editorial since 1999, and it feels a little weird. I guess there is always my blog if you want to read more personal-seeming stuff of mine.
This week I made fun of the lame new Sci-Fi "Flash Gordon" show!
--Erik
Well I finished looking through the PDFs and I'm too not that happy with the character artwork in Burnt Offerings. Somehow I prefered Jeff Laubensteins style as seen in adventures like Box of Flumph, as it has a more realistic feel to it.
And concerning Shalelu Andosana on page 19: Judging by this ears your elves can fly by flapping with them fast enough. Will the longeared elves be a part of the look of Pathfinder? Personally I don't like them ;).
The remaining artwork is, at least in my opinion, quite good and up to the standards I'm used from Dungeon adventures. On the other hand the artwork in Seven Swords of Sin is fantastic. Any chance to see more character illustrations in the same line as the goblin and his raptor on page 12?
And I want to second artist credits. Thats a feature I always liked in WotC's publications.
Greetings
Celeblas :)
Edit: Another question. Is the artwork in the Pathfinder Journal entry hold in black and white on purpose?
So, the following NPC portraits are by Arnold Tsang?
Aldern Foxglove
Shalelu
Tsuto Kaijitsu (urgh!)
Erylium
Bruthazmus (double urgh!)
Orik Vancaskerkin
Lyrie Akenja
Nualia
That's definitely a different style to other things he's done before.
And it's, IMO, a "rear end" ugly style. Please tell him not to continue with that style if he's illustrating more Pathfinder books and/or GameMastery modules. I'd prefer not to think of the NPCs as carved seemingly from stone...
Not particularly fond of Laubenstein's illos either, they're just too jarring (and, IMO again, ugly) compared to the more realistic ones.
I also agree with whoever said that the illustrations in D2 are of much, much higher standard than the NPC portraits in Pathfinder 1 (I still like the "scene illustrations," e.g. the goblins at the cathedral, the goblin ranger on... erm, dogback and Petal vs. Gresgurt).
I'm not saying that these illustrators are bad at what they do, just that I find the styles disconnecting and mood breaking in comparison to the adventure itself.
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That's definitely a different style to other things he's done before.
And it's, IMO, a "rear end" ugly style. Please tell him not to continue with that style if he's illustrating more Pathfinder books and/or GameMastery modules. I'd prefer not to think of the NPCs as carved seemingly from stone...
I'm not familiar with his other work off hand, but I gotta agree I don't care much for those char portraits you listed. I think the problem is solely in the inking/color choices rather than the penciling and body shapes though. I like the iconics art the best.
As for the look of Pathfinder, while we've made no deliberate artistic changes from what folks saw in Dragon and Dungeon, four artists/studios we're using heavily are Wayne Reynolds, Andrew Hou, Arnold Tsang, and Udon. Why? Because they're awesome and don't give us work that looks just like the WotC staples. And why is that good? Because our stuff CAN'T look like the WotC staples. In the same way Wizards owns mind flayers, beholders, and salad, they also own the distinctive look of every single creature in the Monster Manual. That's why the goblins on the cover of Pathfinder #1 don't look like the dopey hobos from the Monster Manual. And, in my opinion, the art's all the more awesome for it.
Exactly!!!
I for one love the new look of elves; heck, for that matter, I am looking forward to a re-imaging of any monster Pazio can get its hands on. I don't WANT to play in WOTC's tired old campaign worlds anymore - my group and I are looking forward to exploring a new universe. I want my elves, goblins, ogres and whatnot to be be different, fresh and new. If that means a lil manga influence creeps in, oh well.
I'm with Pazio - no more dopey hobo goblins. Its a new day for D&D.
I'm not familiar with his other work off hand, but I gotta agree I don't care much for those char portraits you listed. I think the problem is solely in the inking/color choices rather than the penciling and body shapes though. I like the iconics art the best.
That's definitely a different style to other things he's done before.
And it's, IMO, a "rear end" ugly style. Please tell him not to continue with that style if he's illustrating more Pathfinder books and/or GameMastery modules. I'd prefer not to think of the NPCs as carved seemingly from stone...
Here's the link to his deviantART gallery. A couple of the pictures he has on there are close in style to the ones of the NPCs ("Samanosuke - Color" and "John Locke").
He's one of the UDON crew (or used to be? I saw Wesley mention him on his own instead of just one of the UDON artists) and can do the more naturalistic style easily.I get that artists want to experiment with different styles, but I still feel that it's jarring compared to the general style of the adventure.
And I disagree with you, it's the body style that turns me off, while I don't really mind the brownish colours.
I'm not saying that these illustrators are bad at what they do, just that I find the styles disconnecting and mood breaking in comparison to the adventure itself.
I totally agree.
Well I finished looking through the PDFs and I'm too not that happy with the character artwork in Burnt Offerings.
I'd have to second this as well. Please don't take it as "piling on" or anything. This is just general customer feedback.
#1 Point to Get Across: I really like the overall product of Pathfinder. I can't say enough good things about the direction it's going, the level of detail, the quality of writing, the cool ideas, the scenic artwork, etc.
#2. Character Portraits: The "good" ones (IMO) were more along the lines of what we saw in the Sandpoint description of the Player's Guide...i.e., Mayor Kendra Deverin and Sheriff Belor Hemlock. Those, I can hold up with confidence as the GM and keep my players immersed in the campaign world. But, the "bad" ones (IMO) were the style used for Aldern Foxglove, Shalelu Andosana, Tsuto Kaijitsu, Orik, Bruthazmus, Koruvus, Ripnugget, etc. If I hold up these images for my players, it just jars acceptance of everything else. That's because the two styles are just out of sync with one another...like oil and water...they don't mix. I feel like the "good" images are closer to photo-realism...while the "bad" images are very far away from photo-realism. Thus, they don't just fail to work together...they actually work against one another. One set pulls me and my gaming group into the world for deep-immersion storytelling with imagery that believably backs it up. And the other set spins us off into an imaginary Saturday-morning action cartoon.
#3. The Realistic Stuff vs. Comic-y Stuff: Again, IMO, images like the one from p. 28 of Burnt Offerings with Seoni vs. Vargouille are much better than the style used to illustrate Koruvus, Ripnugget-astride-Stickfoot, Bruthazmus, etc.
#4. Elves & Their Ears: I made this point back when the "Pointy-Eared Elves" thread came up. But, in general, I prefer elves with shorter ears than those demonstrated in Shalelu's pic. Her depiction is just too over-the-top for me and most of my players. I see an image like that I really struggle to accept the rest of the surrounding text and the images they're building in my head, as well. Now I don't mind Merisiel. Her ears were a little longer than I might have imagined, but they didn't go too far. So Merisiel pretty much represents the very edge of acceptability when it comes to portraying elven ear-length...for me. Anything past that, and it's too anime-ish...again, IMO.
Just my two-, er...four-cents worth,
--Neil
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Creative Director
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Rest assured... we ARE listening to everyone's comments on the art. Starting as early as Pathfinder 2, you'll be seeing some of the results of some of the comments we've been hearing, in fact. Pathfinder 1's schedule was morbidly compressed due to Dungeon and Gen Con, and the editors were not the only ones pressed for time. Art directors and artists were too. While I really like most of the art in Pathfinder 1, some of it, I feel, isn't the right style for Pathfinder. You can expect the style and content of the art to continue evolving for the first few volumes, in any event, but as early as Pathfinder 2 we'll be pretty close or even AT where I envision the book line to be.
And we'll be using Merisiel as the basic guide for our elves, in any event. So the long ears are staying. As will the eyes with little to no whites.
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Since you're soliciting some feedback, I really like the look of the char portraits for erylium et. al. The ones for the goblins were not to my liking as a dm. They are too flat and cartoony to scare players. ;) I do like the way they look, though.
The big pieces on pg. 28 and 57 are especially evocative, and you should probably give the artist big checks (take your choice of meanings here - maybe lots of cash, maybe just checks that are 4ft across...).
The artwork in the Thassilon article was absolutely gorgeous. I definitely want to see more art in this vein.
After having looked over the artwork in better detail, I'm not too keen on the portraits for Aldern, Tsuto, and Lyrie, because as someone else stated, they look like they've been carved from stone. This style does, IMHO, work for Shalelu and Erylium, although Shalelu's ears need to be clipped a few inches shorter.
And the individual goblin portraits are just too flat, there are no real shadows to them, which makes them look cartoony and flat.
Starting as early as Pathfinder 2, you'll be seeing some of the results of some of the comments we've been hearing....
Cool. And I, for one, will keep giving feedback as best I can so you guys can continue refining things. Even if I'm unable to contribute anything from a freelance writing perspective yet, I still feel involved by giving you guys information that helps shape things to come. I want to see you succeed with Pathfinder, because I think you're creating something really unique and powerful in the gaming universe. And all the hard work you guys are putting into this is very much appreciated...
And we'll be using Merisiel as the basic guide for our elves, in any event. So the long ears are staying. As will the eyes with little to no whites.
I agree that the eyes with little to no whites definitely set apart Pathfinder's elves and give them that "otherworldly" vibe. Much moreso than the long ears. To me, the long ears give them a "cartoony, anime-ish" vibe, which is quite jarring for this old-time, old-school gamer. It just doesn't fit my (or my players') image of elves. But Merisiel presents a cool, new way of viewing them. Something that gives them a hint of fey-heritage without being foppish about it.
So again, the ear-length on Merisiel is completely acceptable. The ear-length on Shalelu? Definitely, definitely, most definitely not. That depiction detracts rather than adds to the coolness, IMO.
And the individual goblin portraits are just too flat, there are no real shadows to them, which makes them look cartoony and flat.
I'd have to agree with this in terms of the portraits. But any of the Wayne's scenic images portraying the "new" goblins are quite simply awesome. I say Paizo should chain him in their basement and have him do all the interior portraits for goblins, ogres, stone giants, etc. as well. ;-)
My two-cents,
--Neil
OK, I just got my copy of Burnt Offerings, and let me say that, especially for a first issue, the content is all I could have hoped for and more-- well up to Paizo standards. Much of the major art is top-notch: the cover and frontspiece are a great pleasure, the pieces on pages 8, 14, 17, 28, 39, 58, 64, 72, 75, 77, 81, and 89 are extremely evocative, cool, and up to any standards of art one could hope for. Kudos for all that. I'm even starting to dig the bizarrely misproportioned guy on page 23, too.
It's strictly some of the other "filler" artwork that I'm disappointed in here. Suddenly I can see exactly where "Falkedtung" is coming from. In one minute, I've suddenly become a HUGE Wayne Reynolds fan. The illustrations on pages 12, 29, 42, 45, 65, 67, 70, and most especially 68 (ugh!) sort of look like they came from a bad ripoff of a third-rate cartoon. Sorry to put it so bluntly. All of the Paizo staff has my deep respect; they can ignore this post as the rantings of someone who is "never satisfied"-- but bear in mind that I subscribed to Pathfinder sight unseen because I was so impressed with Dungeon. So here it is: a bit of comic-like homage I can easily live with. But some of these pictures are cartoonish to the point of absurdity; I'd personally rather have less artwork altogether than to have these examples. I also kind of have to echo NSpicer's comments on the ears on page 19. Long-eared elves are fine; go for it. But that chick is Dumbo; her ears are like 2 feet long. She's an elf (I assume), not a bunny rabbit!
So, overall I'm extremely pleasantly surprised with most of the artwork, and I absolutely love the product overall. How some of the cartoon cels snuck in is beyond me, however.
I'll now apologize once again for my annoying whining, and go back to enjoying Pathfinder.
I guess it's fitting that this is my first post here, since I'm a big geek when it comes to the art stuff.. For me, the design and artwork in a book can make or break it for me. If the Pathfinder stuff hadn't grabbed my attention visually, I wouldn't have paid any attention to it, no matter how awesome the stories and content might be. I just won't pay money every month for a product that doesn't look great, because the visual stuff fuels me as a DM. And as a former graphic artist and current freelance illustrator, I'm picky about these things. heh
So yeah, I have to give HUGE props to Paizo for hiring on some wicked-amazing talent in the art department. Sure, there are a few pictures in book 1 that weren't as awesome as others, but over all, it's WAY better looking than 99% of the other RPG products out there.
Wayne Reynolds has become one of my favorite artists. I love everything he does. Great style, unique characters, action packed, just cartoony enough to make it fun. I hope he stays with Pathfinder for a long time. And lemme tell ya, I never really liked goblins before, but after Wayne's art and this book, I'm now a Goblin Fan. :)
Bottom line for me - I love the look of Pathfinder 1. I can't wait to finish reading it. The art is superb. Call it "manga style" or whatever you like, but I love it (and for the record, I don't consider it manga style - I consider it "comic style" if anything). If Paizo were to switch up the look of the books to something more realistic and less cartoony, there's a good chance I'd start losing interest. This is exactly the kind of sourcebook I enjoy.
And we'll be using Merisiel as the basic guide for our elves, in any event. So the long ears are staying. As will the eyes with little to no whites.
Awesome news :)
Well, I don't know from manga but if Wayne Reynolds is manga then I say give me more. His style is one of the things that has really helped the Eberron setting come alive for me. Ditto, it seems, for Pathfinder. Can't say I have any problem with any of the other Pathfinder art either, for that matter.
I tend to like the *really* exaggerated styles a little less (chibi, etc.) but it doesn't have to be Boris for my tastes.
M
I'm not actually complaining about Wayne's stuff-- it's the "Garbage Pail Kids" people on the interior I have problems with. Jeff Laubenstein in particular just might be my new least favorite artist of all time.
His style is one of the things that has really helped the Eberron setting come alive for me.
Definitely -- Wayne's covers for the Eberron books are amazing. It always bugged me that they had those cover designs that confined his pictures to that tiny strip of space -- I wanted his artwork to fill the whole cover! :)
Going back to Pathfinder 1 for a moment, I also wanted to say I really like the artist who did the images on pages 23, 46, 50, etc. I don't know the artist's name, but kudos to them -- It's a really interesting style and makes for some cool lookin' characters. I like it. Again, props to Paizo for having great taste in art.
Okay. So. The elf's ears are a *bit* long. Ehhh, what's up doc? *crunch* ;)
I can live with it though. Guess that's what elves look like hereabouts. I just hope the halflings have furry feet and don't travel the countryside in carts 'cuz I'm tired of that trip. :)
M
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Okay. So. The elf's ears are a *bit* long. Ehhh, what's up doc? *crunch* ;)
I can live with it though. Guess that's what elves look like hereabouts. I just hope the halflings have furry feet and don't travel the countryside in carts 'cuz I'm tired of that trip. :)
M
I LIKE halflings with furry feet: they remind me of me. The other "hobbit" things, such as being somewhat lazy and having fifteen meals a day... not so much.
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Creative Director
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And we'll be using Merisiel as the basic guide for our elves, in any event. So the long ears are staying. As will the eyes with little to no whites.That's cool by me. But, not the length of Shalelu's ears, right? That was the the one downfall to her picture, really.
While I actually like Shalelu's ears that long quite a lot... they're a bit long for what we were aiming at. Merisiel's ears are about where it'll be at. Since the art for Pathfinder 1 got ordered super late, and since it came in at the last minute, I was more or less just happy to get it at all in the first place, to tell the truth, and I was really quite pleased Shalelu turned out as cool as she did.
Long ears aren't for everyone... and I certainly don't think they make her look like a rabbit.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Long ears aren't for everyone... and I certainly don't think they make her look like a rabbit.
I don't think it makes her look like a rabbit either, but it makes me want to chew her ear, and I think that might be a bit distracting when you're trying to have a serious discourse on killing a bunch of insane singing gobboes.
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I agree with the starter of this thread:
Despite the great content I felt slightly disappointed by the artwork. It felt very close to "Downer", in other words like a comic. So the artwork was in a stark contrast to the considerably more in depth content of PF #1.
It was clear right from the start that PF wouldn't feature Greyhawk style artwork (although there are some GH fans at Paizo and 2nd ed. artwork is still my favourite!), but I didn't expect this either.
Somehow the comic look of the npcs even manages to diminish the great landscape and map graphics. This means something because usually to me content is more important than "packaging".
Please change the artwork style in #2 (if still possible), PF isn't supposed to feel like a comic, is it?
Greetings,
Günther