Bad Fantasy Art & Unintentional Comedy

[Hooligan]

TL;DR: I wanted a thread where we could post bad fantasy art, double points if said art is unintentionally funny.

Longer story: While searching for a particular Dragonlance book last night I found myself clicking on the "images" tab of my search engine where, much to my delight, I was greeted a ton of really terrible illustrations. Some of them were so bad that they were unintentionally hilarious. Seriously I must have spent a good half hour doing this.

A lot of the choicest stuff was from the 80's and 90's (although time is certainly no barrier: many illustrations from D&D 3e PHB & DMG come to mind), often with recurring motifs of scant outfits, bad haircuts, big cats, gleefully bizarre backgrounds

2 terrible ones from last night

Spoiler: Caramon The Gladiator (Dragonlance) by Larry Elmore

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This embodies what I think of as bad fantasy art. Awkward facial expressions, hamfisted poses, swimwear. Best part is the botched title "CARAMON THE GLATOR" High comedy.

Spoiler: Conan 14 by Blas Gallego

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again, great expressions.

[Eldan]

So, there's a German RPG called Splittermond, and some of their illustrations are hilarious.

I badly copied them from a PDF, so the edges are weird.

Spoiler

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Due apparently really hates turning into animals:


Artist maybe took the spell "Mind shield" a bit literally:


Stone Fist is ideal for knocking out marmots:

There's more, but mostly, they are just not very well drawn monsters, not all that funny.

[Ravens_cry]

So, there's a German RPG called Splittermond, and some of their illustrations are hilarious.

I badly copied them from a PDF, so the edges are weird.

Spoiler

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Due apparently really hates turning into animals:

I don't know, the first one looks more to me likes he likes it too much

[oxybe]

5th Ed D&D halflings

Spoiler

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T'was then with a mighty crack, Fiddlefaddle's ankle broke and, like most of his kind, was relegated to crutches for the rest his life.

"Curse our inbreeding" he muttered "and our tiny, dainty feet and ankles that should not carry our bloated guts and bobbleheads."

[Shamash]

A macho and msucle bound monotaur with pink horns always strikes me as funny:

Spoiler

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[Rowan Wolf]

I think the minotaur was from a magic card with a crystal or horn doesn't matter when it is piercing your throat flavor text.

[Psyren]

Obligatory Greg Land and Rob Liefeld references. (Did they ever do sourcebooks or magazines or the like, or was it just comics?)

EDIT: Also obligatory, the godawful photorealistic "art" in Book of Erotic Fantasy

[Beleriphon]

Obligatory Greg Land and Rob Liefeld references. (Did they ever do sourcebooks or magazines or the like, or was it just comics?)

Not that I know, but Liefeld is by far the worse of the two. There are whole pages and articles dedicated to his terribleness.

40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings. Warning naughty language.

[gkathellar]

Can I just post the entirety of Wayne Reynolds' body of work for Paizo? He's perhaps the ultimate case of an illustrator who has overindulged his strengths while neglecting to work on his weaknesses, until like a dying star he has collapsed into a singularity of artistic excess and terrible anatomy hidden behind way, way too many belts.

[Ignimortis]

Can I just post the entirety of Wayne Reynolds' body of work for Paizo? He's perhaps the ultimate case of an illustrator who has overindulged his strengths while neglecting to work on his weaknesses, until like a dying star he has collapsed into a singularity of artistic excess and terrible anatomy hidden behind way, way too many belts.

I don't know what you're talking about. It might not be the best art, but it's pretty OK as far as D&D art goes. Maybe I haven't seen the worst of it.

[Psyren]

Not that I know, but Liefeld is by far the worse of the two. There are whole pages and articles dedicated to his terribleness.

40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings. Warning naughty language.

In fairness to Liefeld, he's only worse because he tries (badly, but still.) Greg Land's "art" is literally just tracing, whether from magazine covers, other people's drawings, and most famously from... er, less savory sources. I won't link directly to the latter for obvious reasons, but here's a tamer blog post making it obvious and linking to other examples if you're interested.

Note that I'm not defending Liefeld by any stretch, just pointing out that they are both awful in different ways.

Can I just post the entirety of Wayne Reynolds' body of work for Paizo? He's perhaps the ultimate case of an illustrator who has overindulged his strengths while neglecting to work on his weaknesses, until like a dying star he has collapsed into a singularity of artistic excess and terrible anatomy hidden behind way, way too many belts.

I've found that people either love or hate WR's style. Personally I agree with you that he can go overboard with belts and pouches, but I still love his characters regardless. His character designs in Occult Adventures were among my favorite for the entire edition.

[sakuuya]

Speaking of too many belts...

Spoiler: Get Your Life Together, Hennet

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It's possible that some people just gloss over Hennet because poor Mialee gets all the attention when it comes to questionable 3.X iconic design, but take a second to look at this dude with fresh eyes. Look at his pants situation. Look at his sick pec tats. Look at the rubber band around his left bicep. Look at how he's wearing belts over pants that are already made of belts.

[Ravens_cry]

A macho and msucle bound monotaur with pink horns always strikes me as funny:

Spoiler

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Do you want to tell him that? I'm sure that will turn out great.

[Psyren]

Those horns look red to me. They seem to be reflecting the blood moon in the background.

[The Jack]

5th Ed D&D halflings

Spoiler

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T'was then with a mighty crack, Fiddlefaddle's ankle broke and, like most of his kind, was relegated to crutches for the rest his life.

"Curse our inbreeding" he muttered "and our tiny, dainty feet and ankles that should not carry our bloated guts and bobbleheads."

Square cube law. If it's a problem still, it's not as big as you think.

[Shinizak]

this vampire either has too many legs or is VERY happy to be at this party.

Spoiler

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[Rerem115]

It's hard to tell with the small file size, but I think that's Voldaren holding up her dress with her hand.

[PhoenixPhyre]

It's hard to tell with the small file size, but I think that's Voldaren holding up her dress with her hand.

Yeah, that's clearly her holding her dress up. It's also a natural motion for someone in a full dress on stairs (otherwise you can trip and fall). Some old dresses had handles built on them to make it easier to lift up the skirts of the dress as you moved (or so I've heard).

[Nifft]

Some old dresses had handles built on them to make it easier to lift up the skirts of the dress as you moved (or so I've heard).

"Your sister's so easy to pick up, her dress has handles."

"Yeah she's classy like that, plus the handles also make it easier for the servants to deal with the lacing."

[Doorhandle]

Speaking of too many belts...

Spoiler: Get Your Life Together, Hennet

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It's possible that some people just gloss over Hennet because poor Mialee gets all the attention when it comes to questionable 3.X iconic design, but take a second to look at this dude with fresh eyes. Look at his pants situation. Look at his sick pec tats. Look at the rubber band around his left bicep. Look at how he's wearing belts over pants that are already made of belts.

How is he not a JRPG character with that design?

I've found that people either love or hate WR's style. Personally I agree with you that he can go overboard with belts and pouches, but I still love his characters regardless. His character designs in Occult Adventures were among my favorite for the entire edition.

I'm with you on this, personally. Plus I always thought the over-cluttering/abundance of sharp edges was part of the charm.