What should Lords of Olympus' Art look like?

[Norbert G. Matausch]

If you ask me, the game art should look like NC Wyeth's stuff: http://www.google.de/images?hl=de&q=nc+wyeth&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=E-r8TP2KNoSRswbAh4mUBA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CDgQsAQwAA

Both his paintings and drawings are superbly inspiring to me...

[RPGPundit]

That is a very nice style of art.

RPGPundit

[JongWK]

Some artists:

EDIT: I forgot about Guangjian Huang (China), who is insanely talented. Links to his personal website here and deviantART profile here.


Nacho Molina (Spain)

• Masquerade Ball (Warhammer)
  
• Sunset Riders: Steve (old Western videogame)
  
• Silk Spectre (Watchmen)

Ignacio Bazán Lazcano (Argentina)

• Nuclear Russian Soldier
  
• Barbarian
  
• Pirates
  
• Templar
  

SnowSkadi (Russia)

• Scene from Mozart's The Magic Flute
  
• The Monkey King
  

Leonid Kozienko (Russia)

• Agni Devi
  
• Braveheart - Tavern
  
• Chapter War (WH40k)
  
• Hold your ground
  
• Barbossa (Pirates of the Caribbean)
  
• Far over the Misty Mountains (LotR)
  

Raeh (Colombia)

• Bolivar
  
• Kantei Mitso
  

Daniel Kvasznicza (Canada)

• Concept: Chinese Monastery
  
• Mental Ray: SkyPool
  
• Environment: Infernal
  
• Speedpaint: Mongolia
  

Andree Wallin (Sweden)

• Imperium City
  
• NYC (after polar meltdown)
  

Ling Yun (Canada)

• Lord of Hell
  
• Speedpaint: Lady of Crows
  
• Temple
  
• Scene from Gears of War
  

Stephan Martiniere or J.P. Targete are good, but likely beyond budget.

[Lorrraine]

My one concern with the art, watch out for cheesecake. Seriously.

Amber has a lot of female players compared to gaming in general and the art does play a part in that.

So I would say avoid cheesecake on the cover and use it sparingly within.

Aphrodite's picture- yeah, definitely cheesecake.

Hera's picture- Dignified. No cheesecake.

Eris' picture- Scary. About as far from cheesecake as you can get.

[RPGPundit]

What with the subject matter and all, I think there would probably be at least as much male "cheesecake" as female.

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

Good one, lorraine.

I always find it rather insulting, truth be told, like "If I put a babe in bikini on the cover, he's gonna buy my crap book". I may be rather stupid at times, but I don't like being rubbed in

[Evermasterx]

Good one, lorraine.

I always find it rather insulting, truth be told, like "If I put a babe in bikini on the cover, he's gonna buy my crap book". I may be rather stupid at times, but I don't like being rubbed in

I too hate fantasy-bikini. If I wanna see something like that I can always buy a porno magazine.
But above all, from the point of view of armor and defense, those dressings are ridiculous...

[Lorrraine]

What with the subject matter and all, I think there would probably be at least as much male "cheesecake" as female.

Cheesecake of any gender works as long as it suits the character in question.

I don't tend to worry as much about excessive beefcake because I have yet to see a rpg where depictions of scantily dressed men with bulging trousers got to the point of discouraging males from buying the game. I have also never seen a supposedly competent male fighter shown to rely on a chain mail posing pouch as armor.

[kregmosier]

Pundit,

Chris Huth did some great work for me...I enjoy his style, and he didn't disappoint for the Dead.

As for style, definitely no anime-inspired silliness, as everyone else has said.  I'd go for a "real-world meets the fantastic".  (American Gods meets the classics, without any Superhero posturing...)

[Aos]

I think the gamer obsession with the inclusion/exclusion of cheesecake is goofy. I mean, have any of you seen a movie or a post 1958 TV show, or walked across the quad at a university in the last three decades? I see more cleavage and crack in an hour lecture than could be crammed into a line of fifty game books. And as for TV and movies, well there aren't enough gaming books put out in year to cover what happens in an hour of prime time. I think that comics and gaming get held to a different standard because they are primarily male hobbies. I mean, dudes are not the target demographic for Desperate Housewives.
However, the overwhelming presence of bouncing, tightly-packed and well displayed torsos doesn't seem to be driving woman away from that. Put it in or leave it out, but don't agonize about it or think that you're fitting or failing to fit some universal criteria of morality*.  

*Pundit, make no mistake, I know you aren't agonizing over it.

[boulet]

The problem isn't cheesecake in itself, at least not for me. Problem is :

• insulting cheesecake that portrays passive women... with maybe an exception when it's genre appropriate (Conan and ladies in distress)
• irrelevant cheesecake, the one that makes me go WTF? Cheesecake that feels pushed up front for marketing reasons only and doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of book
• ugly cheesecake, like say this one below

Now, of course an illustration of Aphrodite should turn me on. That's what this goddess is about!

[Aos]

Good points all, but bad art is bad art.

[RPGPundit]

That image is absolutely hideous, and doesn't seem to be in any fucking way thematic to the subject of the title.

Anyways, I would probably like the cover of Lords of Olympus to have either Zeus in all his glory, or the whole Olympian family, or an image of Olympus itself, or maybe some really out-there image of say a group of godlings fighting each other on modern earth, some of them wielding glowing spears, others have uzis, one of them is casting magic, whatever; something that emphasizes the "multiverse" aspect of the game.

RPGPundit

[Evermasterx]

That image is absolutely hideous, and doesn't seem to be in any fucking way thematic to the subject of the title.

Anyways, I would probably like the cover of Lords of Olympus to have either Zeus in all his glory, or the whole Olympian family, or an image of Olympus itself, or maybe some really out-there image of say a group of godlings fighting each other on modern earth, some of them wielding glowing spears, others have uzis, one of them is casting magic, whatever; something that emphasizes the "multiverse" aspect of the game.

RPGPundit

something like this?
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=zeus#/dufw6a
and other gods/goddesses in the gallery...

[Ian Warner]

Perhaps you could have Zeus as GM and all the other Gods sitting round with their character sheets?

Or is that me thinking too comedy?