Images for NPC's

[Far'adrim]

I like to look up images/drawings of NPC's in my campaign, makes them more real for my players. Monsters are often fond without problem, but I am looking for more pictures of regular folk. Commoners/henchmen etc.

Do you guys know where I could find images like this?
An on-line library perhaps?
Or should I just continue roaming the web? (It just takes so much time)

Help would be appreciated.
Cheers.

[Kol Korran]

I also started using quite pics for NPCs some time ago. I find it helps narrowing the search somewhat, either by race (halfling, dwarf, and so on), gender (man, woman), role (warrior, rogue, caster, peasant, king, noble) and also other stuff as it suits, such as expression (happy, grim), weapon (sword, flail) and so on.
my two biggest sources are Google really, and Deviantart. work 90% of the times.

good luck!

[Slipperychicken]

You could explore the Arts and Crafts section for existing pics. Or find people like this guy, who are taking requests to draw stuff.

[Grinner]

Try googling "108 Terrible Character Portraits". There was a Kickstarter some time back to commission 60 character portraits. They ended up with enough funding for 108. They're in black and white, though.

[Actana]

As Kol Korran said, Google and Deviantart are both very good places to start with. You might need to be a bit specific, but it'll more often than not work.

Other places I've found good have been the WotC art archives which have all the 3.5 artwork in them for free (I think anyway). Those can give you some serviceable, if rather standard, pictures.

This page also has links for a few galleries, separated into categories. There's tons of good pictures there.

A third place is to think of some video game which has fitting themes and then search for concept art or other resources. A bit time consuming and you might not find what you wish. The Assassin's Creed series is particularly good in this regard, and the wiki has a lot of pictures of multiplayer characters, guards and other people, most being high quality enough to be usable, even though they are 3D renders of the characters.

[inexorabletruth]

If you want to get customized NPCs, try this link. There's a 3.0 version of it as well which has more options, but I think for NPCs, 2.5 is quicker and easier to use.

[Kol Korran]

This page also has links for a few galleries, separated into categories. There's tons of good pictures there.

Wow! this page is magnificent! thanks! I bookmarked it for a long, thorough reviewing...

[Saph]

Assuming you like the art styles, I recommend the character pics for the Suikoden and Fire Emblem series. Both have LOTS of characters, very nicely drawn.

Suikoden III characters
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance characters

I used a selection of those for my last major 3.5 campaign and they worked wonderfully. I'd carry the pics around on my laptop and show them to the party whenever they met the character and as a reminder, and it was amazing how much it helped the PCs remember the NPCs!

[Balor01]

Go to 4chan, kindly ask on /tg/. It always worked for me and stuff was top tier.

[valadil]

If you want to get customized NPCs, try this link. There's a 3.0 version of it as well which has more options, but I think for NPCs, 2.5 is quicker and easier to use.

Came in here for heromachine. When I want something specific (dwarf, purple robes, wand, etc) HM has been quicker than google.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

It may be a bit hit or miss to search if you don't know the game already, but Magic the Gathering produces several hundred pieces of fantasy artwork each year and has done it for nearly the last 20 years. Here's the official card search engine. Make sure the Name and Type boxes are checked and type a keyword or two. For example, "elf druid" gets you these results. Don't forget to check the Other Versions column to the right of the search results as some cards have been reprinted many times with very different art (like this one.) If you see something you like, you can often Google the card's name to get larger and/or higher quality images.

Be warned, Magic tends to change up aspects of its art every year or so as it prints sets of cards in different worlds. In one, you might find vampires that look like this, in another, they may be more like this, or even this. Still, there's lots of variety and nobody to say you have to use them as what Magic called them. That second vampire, for example, could be a human druid. Just entering "creature" in the search box might get you some useful results that Magic used as creature you wouldn't have recognized them as. (These aren't dryads, but they could be.)