When did they turn green?

[Kami2awa]

Sometimes I think that the people who do the art have never met the people who do the descriptions, and are possibly of a different species. Dwarves, gnomes and goblins are all good examples of this.

There's quite a tendency in fantasy art to revert to archetypes; for example, look at Josh Kirby's Discworld book covers. Rincewind is described in the text as young but on the cover looks like Gandalf; Nanny Ogg is described as rotund but is drawn as a stereotyped (thin) crone-like witch. Its a well known fact in fantasy art that average-looking, sensibly dressed women in the text become gorgeous scantily clad women on the cover...