Favorite / Least Favorite Art in new PHB?

[Shining Wrath]

My favorite: the gal blowing a "kiss" on pg. 253 - oh, that's no kiss, it's Insect Swarm.
Least favorite: Page 132. Wrong on so many levels.
Honorable mention: pg. 148. Eat shield, boneface!
Honorable mention: pg. 188. YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

[hymer]

Worst, well... The little people throughout the book tend to look rather... deformed. Ugh. But enough that's a little unspecific, and I expect many to point them out besides me.
I dislike the p. 169 blue-haired elf due to blue hair and exaggerated ears. That sort of thing seems to be spreading. :smallfrown:

But I like many of the full-page ones. Special mention goes to p. 172, which has a lot of detail and a whole little story with irony and tension and amusement going on.

[Shining Wrath]

I'd also like to compliment WotC for what I don't see: bellybuttons. Except for pg. 137, armored females consider their entrails vital organs.

[Malifice]

The Halfling. Its huge head weirds me out.

Bring back Lidda in her sexy catsuit.

:smallbiggrin:

[Shining Wrath]

The Halfling. Its huge head weirds me out.

Bring back Lidda in her sexy catsuit.

:smallbiggrin:

You are required to supply a favorite. It's in the rules as decreed by me, your humble OP. :smallbiggrin:

[SaintRidley]

The Halfling in the racial description weirds me out with those freaky small feat.

Honorable mention to page 206, which seems mostly an excuse to give the players some Druid butt to think about. Well-composed picture and all, but seems to exist solely for the butt shot.

The Halfling doing sleight of hand on 176 is much better, and is one of my favorite images in the book.

Honorable mention to the druid on page 67. Antler power for life.

[archaeo]

I don't care what anyone says, that halfling is awesome art and I think she'd be a lot of fun at parties.

[Shining Wrath]

The Halfling in the racial description weirds me out with those freaky small feat.

Honorable mention to page 206, which seems mostly an excuse to give the players some Druid butt to think about. Well-composed picture and all, but seems to exist solely for the butt shot.

The Halfling doing sleight of hand on 176 is much better, and is one of my favorite images in the book.

Honorable mention to the druid on page 67. Antler power for life.

Know what bothers me about page 67? The tiger. Because 5e druids don't get animal companions. What is that tiger doing there?

[Malifice]

You are required to supply a favorite. It's in the rules as decreed by me, your humble OP. :smallbiggrin:

My bad.

Pretty much all the art in the Magic section rocks. They really captured the feel there.

[SaintRidley]

Obviously she cast Conjure animals.

Or it's her girlfriend who's also a druid and decided she felt like being a tiger that day.

[Cambrian]

Know what bothers me about page 67? The tiger. Because 5e druids don't get animal companions. What is that tiger doing there?Druids have so many animal centric spells that it'd be surprising for a druid to not be shown with a large animal in the book at least once.

My favorite pieces would include that Druid picture (it's as gratuitous as the book gets and she's in no way sexualized) as well as the pick pocketing Halfling on 176.

And I'll add to the consensus: the Halfling on pg. 26 is terrible. The technique is fine, but the proportions are seriously off. Honestly I like or at least remain indifferent to the rest of the halflings in the book.

[Muenster Man]

Favorite art has to be p. 148. Great character design and she looks like someone I would want in my party

Honorable mentions:
P.10, I like the composition of this page
p.13, sample character Bruenor with his "I'm so drunk, I can barely stand right now" expression
p. 126, bar room brawl
p. 176, goofy looking guy getting pickpocketed
p. 220, Burning Hands art, the embers falling are a nice touch
p. 268, great Prismatic Spray art, before this my only other reference has been OOTS and it's tough for me to visualize the spell without this art
p. 286, this one makes me feel very claustrophobic and good use of lighting

Least favorite is clearly the racial halfling art on p. 26 due to it weirding me out the moment I opened that page, although nearly every other portrayal of halflings (and gnomes) don't weird me out at all.

Second least favorite is probably p. 138. It's supposed to be art for the sage background, but it's just an elf woman balancing awkwardly. Apart from the scroll she's carrying, there's nothing very sage-like about it.

Overall, the art in this book is phenomenal

[Shining Wrath]

Favorite art has to be p. 148. Great character design and she looks like someone I would want in my party

Honorable mentions:
P.10, I like the composition of this page
p.13, sample character Bruenor with his "I'm so drunk, I can barely stand right now" expression
p. 126, bar room brawl
p. 176, goofy looking guy getting pickpocketed
p. 220, Burning Hands art, the embers falling are a nice touch
p. 268, great Prismatic Spray art, before this my only other reference has been OOTS and it's tough for me to visualize the spell without this art
p. 288, this one makes me feel very claustrophobic and good use of lighting

Least favorite is clearly the racial halfling art on p. 26 due to it weirding me out the moment I opened that page, although nearly every other portrayal of halflings (and gnomes) don't weird me out at all.

Second least favorite is probably p. 138. It's supposed to be art for the sage background, but it's just an elf woman balancing awkwardly. Apart from the scroll she's carrying, there's nothing very sage-like about it.

Overall, the art in this book is phenomenal

I think you want the web spell on page 266? :smallconfused:

[Muenster Man]

I think you want the web spell on page 266? :smallconfused:

We're both wrong, it's 286 :smallwink:

[Soras Teva Gee]

Most Fave: Pg 156, rider in the foreground. I got a thing for desert scenes and gear.
Least Fave: Pg 140, Samurai woman. Just doesn't seem to fit in for me


I'd also like to compliment WotC for what I don't see: bellybuttons. Except for pg. 137, armored females consider their entrails vital organs.

Add a full shirt not just a fur underlayer and I think I've seen almost that exact design pretending (none too convincingly it was armoring) a dude.

Still more practical then some of the death traps people are wearing in the book. Probably not armor but at least wouldn't confine you while giving lots of nice bits to grab onto. Looking at you, Cleric page dwarf! That shoulder poke you in the head? Though far from the worst fantasy art on that front.

(Looking at you GW and your pauldrons!)

[Grynning]

My favorites are all the pictures of the recurring party with the red-bearded dwarf, the human female paladin (who I like because she looks like a real warrior and is drawn with a more average looking face instead of the hyper-feminine look we're used to), the elf ranger, and the gnome wizard. They first show up on page 44 and have a couple other pictures in the book.

Least favorite is probably the tiefling rogue on page 129. A) I hate the draenei-esque tiefling look that carried over from 4th edition and B) that outfit is just goofy.

[Inevitability]

Halflings are just terrifying. Nothing more needs to be said here.

A pic I really like is the cover. The other pictures sometimes feel to blurry for me, but that one doesn't suffer as much from that, in my opinion.

[Surrealistik]

Least Favourite, Page 26: Less halfling, more Lovecraftian horror.
Dishonourable mention goes to the samurai woman on 140 which does indeed seem out of place and even disproportioned.

Most Favourite, Page 310: That is one awesome skeleton rendition.

[Raland]

Least favourite would probably be the halfling race page, mostly because of the giant head. Most favourite would be the bard's page because of the axe she is carrying.

[Durazno]

Favorite: the picture for the Human entry. She looks badass, but in a grounded, practical way.

Honorable Mention: the bard, who also looks badass, in a less battle-ready but still very cool way.

Another Honorable Mention: the elf on page 25. The mouse on their staff is a neat touch.

Least Favorite: Drizzt being the marquee picture for elves. It shouldn't even be a named character, let alone him.

[Callin]

Favorite is pg 205 BURN!
Worst is pg 26

Honorable Mentions- 46, 61, 166

[some guy]

I'm a fan of the fighter (that beard), the paladin and the cleric bashing a skeleton.

I really don't like how halflings are visualised (I liked the concept art better).


A pic I really like is the cover. The other pictures sometimes feel to blurry for me, but that one doesn't suffer as much from that, in my opinion.

I don't like the cover; much too busy. However, I think the full picture is pretty sweet. It's less filled and I can see much clearer what's going on.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=61746&d=1400610665&stc=1

[Shining Wrath]

I'm a fan of the fighter (that beard), the paladin and the cleric bashing a skeleton.

I really don't like how halflings are visualised (I liked the concept art better).



I don't like the cover; much too busy. However, I think the full picture is pretty sweet. It's less filled and I can see much clearer what's going on.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=61746&d=1400610665&stc=1

I like the sparks as the sword smashes into the ground, but I'm trying to figure out what class the central PC is - wizard? druid?

[Mr.Moron]

The first thing that comes to mind was that weirdly-posed elf next to the Researcher background ability.

My favorites were the sketches on status effects page, and the ones in the introduction with the little tiny guys next to the gaming dice.

[ImperiousLeader]

I'm not a fan of the new Halflings. They all look wrong to me. The Gnomes are okay.

I really like the Gnome on 172 doing a Mission Impossible impression. I also like the bar fight on 126.

[Janus]

Don't have my PHB with me right now, so I'll have to join in on this later. Still wanted to say-

My favorites were the sketches on status effects page
I'm glad I'm not the only one who loved these. I want more of that and less "LOOK HOW AWESOME I AM" artwork. Reminds me of 1e.

[Muenster Man]

The sketches are very entertaining. I didn't realize there were tiny goblins that had broken through the 4th wall and were hiding behind gigantic dice.

[Mr.Moron]

Don't have my PHB with me right now, so I'll have to join in on this later. Still wanted to say-

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loved these. I want more of that and less "LOOK HOW AWESOME I AM" artwork. Reminds me of 1e.

Yeah. They're very charming and feel more like expressions of concepts than the art somebody commissioned of their favorite PC from their campaign I never played in.

[EccentricCircle]

My favorite has to be the party in the dragon's lair on page 171. I kind of think that would have made a better cover illustration than the one we got.
I really like the art for the status effects, also the Map of the planes. I and am generally very impressed with the overall quality of it. It is just a shame they decided to make halflings look so weird. I just hope that we get "normal" eberron halflings rather than them trying to apply this style to all their worlds.
Although it's more graphic design than art the one thing I really don't like is how small the page numbers are. It's making it really difficult to use the book as a reference during games, I literally have to take my glasses off and squint at the corner of the book in order to look something up...

[Yorrin]

Alright, after long and hard debate I've decided it's Prismatic Spray from 268. Never has that spell looked so awesome.

As for least favorite- I'm with the multitude against the halfling racial art.

[Beleriphon]

My favorites are all the pictures of the recurring party with the red-bearded dwarf, the human female paladin (who I like because she looks like a real warrior and is drawn with a more average looking face instead of the hyper-feminine look we're used to), the elf ranger, and the gnome wizard. They first show up on page 44 and have a couple other pictures in the book.

I was going to mention that group as well. They do show up in a few places and its fun with that kind of carry through.

Other favourites, the conditions sections with funny little illustrations and the gnome teaching the area effect shapes.

Least favourite, the racial halfling art. I found other art that WotC used on Conceptopolis that is the same kind of proportions (even a halfling child) but don't look so weird.

[Shining Wrath]

By acclamation, the worst art in the book is on page 26. I hope WotC takes note: halflings are not, as one poster put it above, pure Lovecraftian horror.

There's quite a bit of love for the sketches that are less elaborate. This surprises me, I guess since I can't draw at all I appreciate the effort that goes into the more complex pieces.

[EccentricCircle]

There's quite a bit of love for the sketches that are less elaborate. This surprises me, I guess since I can't draw at all I appreciate the effort that goes into the more complex pieces.

I don't think it's that they've necessarily put less effort into those cartoons. While it's certainly an easier art style it's been very deliberately chosen to fit the context of those pictures. The sketchy art style suits those humourous asides far better than the more photo realistic* digital artwork of the rest of the book. It's a counterpoint, but isn't really a lower standard.


* or somewhat photo realistic, at least when halflings aren't involved...

[SpellthiefOfUr]

The first thing that comes to mind was that weirdly-posed elf next to the Researcher background ability.

My favorites were the sketches on status effects page, and the ones in the introduction with the little tiny guys next to the gaming dice.

The AoE drawing on p.204 was pretty nice too. Not quite in the same vein as the status effects art, but similar in that whimsical feel. For something more realistic, the barbarian on p.48; the hermit on p.134; or the skeleton bashing on p.148.

I'm not sure what to think about the p.169 art. At first, I felt it was too high-fantasy for my tastes. But I ended up passing by it a lot (still acclimating to 5e feats) and am beginning to enjoy the details and the composition of it.

And then there's the halfling on p.26. Between the size of the head and the tapered legs, something's quite off. And I don't think it has anything to do with Uncanny Valley. On the other hand, the warlock on p.104 does that "off-ness" in the right way.

[archaeo]

And then there's the halfling on p.26. Between the size of the head and the tapered legs, something's quite off. And I don't think it has anything to do with Uncanny Valley. On the other hand, the warlock on p.104 does that "off-ness" in the right way.

I'm sorry, but people keep saying that the proportions on that halfling are off. What proportions, exactly, are we comparing them to? Human proportions? You know, an entirely different species wholly unrelated to humans and therefore likely to have totally different natural proportions?

That halfling is rocking out, and being totally rad, and y'all haters can keep to the left.

[MeeposFire]

I'm sorry, but people keep saying that the proportions on that halfling are off. What proportions, exactly, are we comparing them to? Human proportions? You know, an entirely different species wholly unrelated to humans and therefore likely to have totally different natural proportions?

That halfling is rocking out, and being totally rad, and y'all haters can keep to the left.
It shouldn't matter if we are talking about human proportions or not. We are talking about how much we like the picture and clearly many do not like the halfling picture here. Now the reasoning for some could be the proportions and yes perhaps it is different from human proportions and perhaps that is why we find it ugly.

He may be rocking out but he is not a good looking rocker to me. Sadly I am going to have to go to 3e and 4e halfling art (though not PHB Lidda she is ugly in a different way).

[archaeo]

It shouldn't matter if we are talking about human proportions or not. We are talking about how much we like the picture and clearly many do not like the halfling picture here. Now the reasoning for some could be the proportions and yes perhaps it is different from human proportions and perhaps that is why we find it ugly.

So, it's ugly because it has inhuman proportions? Like, you know, inhuman creatures like halflings might be likely to have? So I guess you don't like the half-orc or dwarf pictures? How about pictures of real-life people with dwarfism?

Seriously, I guess I can accept that people don't like this picture, but the idea that people dislike the picture because it has inhuman proportions just seems totally and utterly ludicrous to me. Nobody's singling out the gnome, for example, who also has weird proportions (and is standing in a way no archer in the history of archery has ever stood). I think it's just a visceral thing, a I-know-it-when-I-see-it kind of dislike, and you're looking for some kind of justification.

You could instead talk about, for example, the brushiness of the face compared to the precision of the feet and hands. That halfling's face looks like it was painted by another artist entirely, almost, though I guess maybe it's supposed to be a little splotchy since this halfling rocker is a) totally hammered and b) singing what is probably a bawdy and awesome song about eating food and having fun.


He

Unless this halfling is performing in drag (which would be totally awesome and would make me love this picture even more, as if that was possible), I'm pretty sure she is a lady.

[FadeAssassin]

Obviously she cast Conjure animals.

Or it's her girlfriend who's also a druid and decided she felt like being a tiger that day.

Yes that is excellent