Art Credits

[Catullus64]

So... none of the art in the 5e books (at least, not the core books I own) is directly credited to the artists. There's just a big swathe of names at the front, with no indication of who made what. This is, I am pretty confident, bad.

Now this is bad for my purposes because it makes talking about and analyzing patterns in the artwork just that much harder. It makes seeking out other work by the creator of pieces you like more difficult.

I don't have enough industry knowledge to understand the rationale behind it, or how standard of a practice this is; anyone understand this better than I? Do you have to pay artists more if you credit them for specific pieces? Are there royalties involved?

And, pursuant to all this, is there an unofficial way to find out? Can you find the stuff from the 5e books in individual artists' portfolios, or find statements about who drew which pieces? Or is this the kind of stuff kept under lock by NDAs and industry taboo?

On top of everything, it just seems like a huge disservice to the art teams themselves, and I struggle to see the positives of this approach.

[Dork_Forge]

For what its worth I think WotC changed this practice and now credit artists on the same page their art appears. I don't think the art is 'secret' they just credited them in a rather thoughtless way, googling and the forum can likely identify anything you're curious about

[Psyren]

Reverse image search might help.

Have you tried reaching out to them regarding any pieces you're particularly curious about?

Crowdsourcing on a more populated forum (e.g. Reddit, DnDBeyond, Twitter/FB) might work as well.

[Brookshw]

I don't have enough industry knowledge to understand the rationale behind it, or how standard of a practice this is; anyone understand this better than I? Do you have to pay artists more if you credit them for specific pieces? Are there royalties involved?

There's a lot of different situations involved in crediting in media. No, you do not generally have to pay more to artists if you credit them, and I can tell you that out of the 3,000+ books and a few dozen series/movies I've done contracts for, the only times (and we're talking less than a dozen) that I've seen the artist get a royalty was when they were also the author (note that the music industry works a bit differently depending upon the use, and that smaller publishers could try to save on initial costs by offering a royalty - though I've never seen that in practice). Credit requirements are usually a result of the applicable license or contract associated with a specific piece, and failing to follow that requirement can have legal ramifications. Usually, where licensed, the requirement is on page or at the end of the book, usually an artist will agree to follow whatever the standard for the book is, but some are sticklers and want it on page regardless of whatever the rest of the book does. Where credits are not on page, my experience is that its usually a result of the editors feeling that putting them on page would clutter it, so they stick them in the back, usually in order of appearance and with page numbers.

However, stuff that's a Work for Hire through an independent contractor or is developed in house is usually listed in the opening of the book where they credit the people that worked on it. Doing it the way that D&D does isn't uncommon where everyone is lumped together depending upon their role.


And, pursuant to all this, is there an unofficial way to find out? Can you find the stuff from the 5e books in individual artists' portfolios, or find statements about who drew which pieces? Or is this the kind of stuff kept under lock by NDAs and industry taboo? Depends on a few things, but usually the artists retain or have a license back to use their pieces as part of their portfolio for the purposes of finding further work, but not to be independently commercially exploited. I've never seen an NDA regarding the authorship of an image, to the contrary, most producers/editors/directors want to credit the people who work on their projects (and yet I'm pretty sure they only credited me in one book and one movie, bastards).


On top of everything, it just seems like a huge disservice to the art teams themselves, and I struggle to see the positives of this approach. Less cluttered products and preserves space for content. Ultimately, if the artists agreed to sign whatever license or contract was involved, then they made a decision to accept the terms.