About time female Elven Wizards looked right...

[T.G. Oskar]

I reckon that there was a thread detailing PHB art, but it's been some time, so...

Between the back and forth of reading the feats section, I always happen to stumble upon the image of the female elven spellcaster in page 169, and always tend to think that it's about time they made such a gorgeous image. Being...I don't think the right word is "tortured", but it's a set of images that reach memetic levels of awareness, so... by the image of iconic Mialee in 3.5, having this art is not just refreshing, but even mind-blowing. Considering that the elven wizard is actually sexy but not over-sexualized (she has a stunning, simple gown, and although her robe has ample cleavage, she doesn't seem to have equally ample cleavage), and specifically because of her eyes (they meet the ones from her owl familiar!), it comes to mind quite often as I check the Feat section for rules clarification.

Just wondering: did anyone actually mentioned that in earlier threads? If not, did you find equally mind-blowing that, for once, the image of an elven wizard is elegant rather than...well, anorexic? (I try to be fair to world-shaker Mialee, given that one of her epithets is "frog-faced"...)

[hymer]

I mentioned that image, but I was listing it among things I don't like. Don't get me wrong, overall I think it's more appropriate than most of Mialee's art. But the blue hair and the contribution to the growth of elven ears towards the ever more spectacularly ridiculous are my major strikes against it. Your mileage may vary, of course.

[niks97cobra]

I hate it. It looks too much like an anime characters... which I want far away from my D&D.

[Strill]

I hate it. It looks too much like an anime characters... which I want far away from my D&D.

How? The hair color? Because the body proportions look perfectly realistic to me.

I'd just say she prestidigitationed her hair a new color.

[niks97cobra]

*Goes and gets book to make sure he is thinking of the right picture*

Yup, right picture.
1. Those ears.
2. The hair color.
3. The rounded face.
4. The strangler.

All seem to be popular in anime. Or at least, from an outsiders perspective of anime. A quick 'anime elf' google came up with a picture that resembled the elf. I know very little of anime, so I know nothing about if the proportions are the same used with anime. I was disappointed in the artwork in the PHB as a whole anyway. A lot of it looks cartoonish.

[Hytheter]

Whether you like the image or not, it's nowhere close to anime style. :smallconfused:

[Strill]

*Goes and gets book to make sure he is thinking of the right picture*

Yup, right picture.
1. Those ears.
2. The hair color.
3. The rounded face.
4. The strangler.

All seem to be popular in anime. Or at least, from an outsiders perspective of anime. A quick 'anime elf' google came up with a picture that resembled the elf. I know very little of anime, so I know nothing about if the proportions are the same used with anime. I was disappointed in the artwork in the PHB as a whole anyway. A lot of it looks cartoonish.

I'll give you the ears and hair are perhaps a bit unusual, but what do you mean by "rounded face"? How is her face any different from, say, this lady's (http://www.deskbeauty.net/data/media/17/Hollywood%20Celebrity%2038.jpg)? As far as chokers being popular in anime, I have no idea what you're talking about.


Whether you like the image or not, it's nowhere close to anime style. :smallconfused:

Yeah. Anime style for female characters usually means:

Very large eyes. Eyes are usually tall enough to cover one quarter to one third of the height of the character's head.
Nose barely visible or sometimes missing entirely
Lips similarly small, often consisting of just a single small line. The mouth, even when opened, is usually no larger than a quarter of the size of one eye.
Eyebrows visible through bangs, even if they should not logically be visible.

[stitchlipped]

I think on the picture on page 169 it is likely her hair is actually meant to be white, but is appearing blue in the glow of the magic aura around her hands. Note that at the back her hair is less blue with more white, and also the blue tint appearing on the side of the owl familiar and its perch.

I think the artist for that one may also have painted the picture of an Elf mage on page 25 - also tinted blue due to magic. They look different at first glance but on closer inspection the painting style is very similar.

[Daishain]

Don't forget that we've got examples of weird tinting throughout the book. The half orc on page 40 is an excellent example of this, since when were they light purple?

And then there's the apparently blue skinned wizard on page 200...

[charcoalninja]

I think on the picture on page 169 it is likely her hair is actually meant to be white, but is appearing blue in the glow of the magic aura around her hands. Note that at the back her hair is less blue with more white, and also the blue tint appearing on the side of the owl familiar and its perch.

I think the artist for that one may also have painted the picture of an Elf mage on page 25 - also tinted blue due to magic. They look different at first glance but on closer inspection the painting style is very similar.

She's blue because she's a moon elf. They have blue tones all over, it's an FR thing.

[Daishain]

She's blue because she's a moon elf. They have blue tones all over, it's an FR thing.
Turns out you're right, but its a 5E thing, not an FR thing.

In previous editions, the blue tinge has always been a very faint undertone, if it was present at all. The predominant color was that of pale silver

[Bakakiba]

It left such an impression that I didn't even notice it.

[Shining Wrath]

I prefer page 253. "Let me blow you a kiss".
Not sure she's elven, I'm going with human druid, but still, nice picture.
EDIT:
She's got pointy ears, and since Insect Plague is on the Sorcerer list, I'll go with Elf Sorceress.
EDIT 2: Swordsages! Swordsages are everywhere!

[Daishain]

I prefer page 253. "Let me blow you a kiss".
Not sure she's elven, I'm going with human druid, but still, nice picture.

She's got the ears. Either an elf or a half elf.

[MeeposFire]

Whether you like the image or not, it's nowhere close to anime style. :smallconfused:

Well it may not be traditional but the art of the elves in Record of Lodoss War do have the larger sized ears for example the character Deedlit looks like this

http://www.angelfire.com/anime/ssj973/LW/madelf.jpg

Interestingly enough this character and anime OAV was based on D&D, classic basic style D&D to be exact. The story was based loosely on a campaign of D&D that the creators group participated in and the characters in the anime were based on the characters in that campaign (if I recall correctly). Later on when they put out rules sets of basic D&D (I think it was for the Rules Cyclopedia) in Japan they had this anime as the basic setting instead of or in addition to Mystara.

It is a great classic (so very classic) anime by the way. Even people that are not great anime lovers tend to like this one.

[CyberThread]

Quick comparison! http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140721210529/forgottenrealms/images/f/fc/157992_SunElfWizard_ScottMFischer.jpg


http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/e1/92/a9/e192a9e6e9801bb957e476f497bd67ef.jpg

[CyberThread]

Yeah am just not getting the anime or japense art style vibe from it period.

[Strill]

Quick comparison! http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140721210529/forgottenrealms/images/f/fc/157992_SunElfWizard_ScottMFischer.jpg
At first I said "Dear lord what happened to your face? Did you get flattened by a rolling pin?" But then I realized, this person is obviously from The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

[Cambrian]

Turns out you're right, but its a 5E thing, not an FR thing.

In previous editions, the blue tinge has always been a very faint undertone, if it was present at all. The predominant color was that of pale silver
Silver turning something blue?
http://www.detoxdietsblog.com/wp-content/ddb-images/colloidal-silver-detox.jpg

[Psyren]

At first I said "Dear lord what happened to your face? Did you get flattened by a rolling pin?" But then I realized, this person is obviously from The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

The rolling pin visited her(?) chest too. Also, a spine curve that would make Liefeld blush and arms that belong on the ranger.

[archaeo]

Just as a note, disliking anime is all well and good so long as you have a legitimate reason for doing so. Disliking the aesthetic is acceptable -- those big eyes and spiky hairdos aren't for everyone -- but disliking the genre based on the content is not. Certainly, the best of anime compares favorably to the best in films and television shows from around the world.


It is a great classic (so very classic) anime by the way. Even people that are not great anime lovers tend to like this one.

Ah, this is the first anime I ever purchased, back when DVDs were brand new.

Also, note well, Playgrounders: the Record of Lodoss War anime was based on a series of so-called "light novels" by an author who was inspired by -- wait for it -- his D&D campaign. Indeed, I'm not going to go looking, but I'm almost positive that they were written as an outright campaign journal.

It really is a pretty fun show.

[T.G. Oskar]

Re: "anime" design...I think the concept's a bit overblown. Anime is well known for its "big eyes, small mouth" design, and the art's eyes are mostly small. Not only that, while the elven spellcaster has obviously good looks, they aren't exaggerated, at least from my opinion.

Also: "blue" hair is not exactly a mainstay of "anime"; it is older than it.

IMO, the design of the elven spellcaster feels more like the kind of art done by fey-themed artists. The owl is certainly not cartoonish, and the look in her eyes really feels like done by a faerie artist (and not of the Tinkerbell kind; the kind of "faerie art" that's elegant and colorful).

As for the given "anime elf" exhibit: that could be Chinese or Korean art, which isn't exactly "anime". Eyes are small and beady, which goes somewhat counter to typical "anime" art (unless you go straight for Final Fantasy XI, which has normal looking eyes except for beady Tarutaru eyes, and even then, FF art sometimes goes away from usual "anime art" trappings). It's certainly not "comic art", nor more professional art like that done by Reynolds, Widermann or Parrillo (or, why not, Lockwood, Crabapple, o'Connor and Spencer, who did most early 3rd Edition art), but it's definitely not "anime art".

Also: need I remind that the 4e female Elf Ranger's hair was dark green? Just because it's not bright green, it doesn't mean there's a difference; it's an atypical hair color, and that's about the extent of the difference.

But yeah...ouch, "5e elf" exhibit...I would have thought that, with the awareness of female art in impossible poses being less rare than before, that kind of pose would have been a bit more relaxed. Wonder if one of the blogs dealing with "bad art" already made a similar "male Elf spellcaster" version with the same art?

[Vizzerdrix]

Meh. The woman on page 18 is better looking.

[Elana]

I just wish they had used more actual drawings, then just applying photoshop filters to pictures.

The worst thing must be the lazy half assed thing on page 73.
It looks nice until you get the idea of reading the runes.

Somehow it ruins the picture when you noticed that they didn't change the defaults and the text reads: "This is photoshops version of lorem ipsum....."

[Gnomes2169]

I hate it. It looks too much like an anime characters... which I want far away from my D&D.

It's closer to a Grimm's fairy tail style, especially that owl... Not the art after the horrible bodily disfigurarion, but before it when there was just a person making potions and dilly dallying with magic.

So the first page of a Grimm's exposition story... Yeah.

[archaeo]

The worst thing must be the lazy half assed thing on page 73.
It looks nice until you get the idea of reading the runes.

Somehow it ruins the picture when you noticed that they didn't change the defaults and the text reads: "This is photoshops version of lorem ipsum....."

I suppose, on the plus side, that these were just generic runes, and not the Dwarvish script later referenced in the PHB. But yeah, the artist on that picture probably could've put in just a bit more effort, huh?

Otherwise, I'm not sure I get the photoshop thing. Maybe I haven't seen enough pixels in my day, but the art looks pretty authentic to me.