@Yuce: No, the  art is better than the game behind it! If the game  was anything like the  art, Germany would rule the RPG  world!

@Angus McBride: He is ten ways of awesome. Osprey to the rescue!

Quote from: AkrasiaI loved the covers that Angus McBride did for ICE's Middle-earth line.  Those were gorgeous, as were the Middle-earth maps for that series by Pete Fenlon.  Fenlon's maps were the most beautiful I've seen for a FRPG (only Harn maps come close).

Most of the covers for the Stormbringer RPG were very good.



I have to agree with you about Tramp.  His 'Emirikol the Chaotic' sums up what original AD&D was all about.

I'm also a huge fan of Erol Otus.  His covers for the Moldvay Basic D&D set and Cook Expert D&D set firmly established what 'D&D' was all about for me -- and things haven't changed since.

Amen to Angus.......

Quote from: Settembrini@Yuce: No, the  art is better than the game behind it! If the game  was anything like the  art, Germany would rule the RPG  world!

Well, now you've got "Germany" "rule the world" and an artist who likes mustaches in the same sentence. That's troubling...

I always thought that Yuce is a rather bad Frazetta rip-off. The general drawing is okay, the style is monotonous, the coloring and texture subpar. I kinda liked the old black covers... (With each new cover style, the game is progressively getting worse, though...)

EDIT: It's a bad scan, but here we go:


The elves in the background might remain recognizable. But those cave men in the foreground? Yep, they're supposed to be orcs. If you stare enough at your screen, you'll see Lee Majors in the lower left...

So what? You only repeat the criticisms of the DSA setting slaves. The art is really great and adventursome. I don´t care  how anything  should be depicted "according to canon" . That´s totally against the idea of art.

Art is there to inspire and to be evocative. Yuce is one of the best in that area.

Quote from: SettembriniSo what? You only repeat the criticisms of the DSA setting slaves. The art is really great and adventursome. I don´t care  how anything  should be depicted "according to canon" . That´s totally against the idea of art.

Art is there to inspire and to be evocative. Yuce is one of the best in that area.

Cover art is advertising. If the contents of the product totally disagree with the presentation, something's wrong. The old D&D modules often managed to present scenes that could actually happen in the adventure. The Yuce cover art isn't part of the game. Not that I wouldn't want to play a game according to the art, but that's not what you get when you buy the box/book.
(And I still say he is dull. Duller than the usual Vallejo skinjob)

Quote from: AkrasiaI'm also a huge fan of Erol Otus.  His covers for the Moldvay Basic D&D set and Cook Expert D&D set firmly established what 'D&D' was all about for me -- and things haven't changed since.

Same here.  To choose one Otus pic as a favorite is near impossible, but there's one in the Cook Expert book that I've always loved for its little details: a picture of a wizened, almost scarecrow-like alchemist in his shop.  That bizarre atmosphere was always so compelling to me.

I also have a liking for Clyde Caldwell's art.  While his women were definitely cheesecake-type material, he had a neat, realist style with a decadence-tinged flair.  He had a unique way of illustrating jewelry and stonework that (in addition to his distinctive signature) make him instantly recognizable.

Just in case anyone hasn't seen it:

The Erol Otus Shrine

(Sorely in need of an update.)

QuoteIf the contents of the product totally disagree with the presentation, something's wrong.

In that instance, it´s the product.

Quote from: mythusmageJanet Aulisio's interiors for Mythus.

Janet Aulisio rocks. Her work for Earthdawn and Shadowrun is top notch. I particularly like this one.

Quote from: SettembriniIn that instance, it´s the product.

The writing came before the art, therefore the art has to adapt.

I don't like the writing that much better than the art (although the products of the Yuce-era at least were better than the current ones), but if a symbiosis can't be reached, it's the graphic artist that has to conform. Even if his mustache gets all soggy from crying about that...

Brom was about 60% of the coolness of Dark Sun.  His art really communicated that this is not the same old D&D.  I'm not a huge fanboy but his art really madethe product stand out.

When I saw the subject, I had planned on immediately posting a link to jrient's Erol Otus Shrine.  However, my slowness and jrient's shameless self-promotion has rendered that aim pointless.  

Otus' cover for the Expert Rules box is perhaps the definitive D&D image for me.  (It helps that the image reminds me of one of my favorite bits of cover art for fantasy paperbacks: George Barr's Zothique cover from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.)





Along with Erol Otus, Jeff Dee is another one of my favorite gaming artists, and one that was instrumental in forming what would be my mental image of D&D.

Consider this piece:



Compare that to the awful, awful art that was just unveiled to be the cover for Mongoose's Lankhmar game.  The sheer energy of Dee's work is amazing, and is something that's sadly lacking in much contemporary gaming art.  Hell, it started moving out of RPGs -- or, at least, TSR's games -- during the latter days of 1st Ed. AD&D, with the rise of the Dynamic "E" Duo of Easley and Elmore.

Two more examples:





Fluid figures, energy and motion, great visual storytelling in a single image, evocative as all get out.  


I'm also fond of Bill Willingham's work, though I'm unable to find the pieces that I really love, and my scanner is what you'd call broke.  However, there's this:



(And did anyone actually own that product?  Hooray for having to spend money on hex paper!  I bet I still have that somewhere.)


I always forget the name of this artist, but this is my favorite RPG cover:




It's probably easy to guess the period when I started gaming.  While there is contemporary stuff that I like as well -- DiTerlizzi and Brom come to mind -- nothing is so firmly rooted in my mind and nothing's ever come close to selling me a game's world than this stuff.

Every picture I have ever seen from Skyrealms of Jorune.  

Miles Teves is utterly amazing.  I want to buy the books just for the sake of all the incredible art.

Stuff like this:  

From the AD&D Monster Manual:


Well, I don't know about you, but it sure as shit made thirteen-year-old me want to go on a dungeon crawl.

I also really like this pic from Gamma World 4th Edition:  



EDIT:  And here's a picture of the miniature:



http://www.warpaintstudio.homestead.com/atv.html