Welcome to August, fellow gamers! Ah, the Internet. It holds such potential, and such treasures! And yet, our fickle virtual collective consciousness often spits up some deception, does it not?
Case in point: on my weekly search for End-of-Week Elmore fodder, I was given the image above as part of my seeking. Hmmm, we see Flint, Tasselhoff, and Tika of Dragonlance fame. Of that there's no doubt. And being Dragonlance, one would think that Elmore, the veritable master of Dragonlance art, would be the creator here.
But do not be fooled, folks! Anyone trained in the art of Elmore will see this is not his work! Methinks it be the work of a certain Fred Fields! I have to be honest, Fred is probably my least favorite of the "2nd Edition AD&D era" of artists. Back in those days, I greatly preferred the work of Elmore (obviously), Keith Parkinson, Clyde Caldwell, and Jeff Easley.
Fred Field's spot in last place seems to be a sentiment shared by others, actually.
Not that Mr. Field's work is bad. Indeed, his techniques and talent seem equal to those of the other "Fantastic Five" mentioned above. His work, to me, just lacked...something...and that something is what the other major artists of that era seemed to have in higher doses...if that makes any sense.
What do you think about the major artists of the 2E AD&D era? Who is your favorite? Whose work is less inspiring to you?
Fred Field's spot in last place seems to be a sentiment shared by others, actually.
Not that Mr. Field's work is bad. Indeed, his techniques and talent seem equal to those of the other "Fantastic Five" mentioned above. His work, to me, just lacked...something...and that something is what the other major artists of that era seemed to have in higher doses...if that makes any sense.
What do you think about the major artists of the 2E AD&D era? Who is your favorite? Whose work is less inspiring to you?
DiTerlizzi is my favorite 2e-era artist, hands down. I actually associate Elmore, Easley, and Parkinson more with latter-day 1e-era. Say, 1983 and on. Their 2e work wasn't quite as iconic to me and suffered from a lot of the art of that era as feeling too "posed" (with the exception of Parkinson, who was always gold). That's one of the reasons I like DiTerlizzi's work so much: his art felt more organic, more personal.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your points about Fred Fields. He had his moments, and my inner teenager prefers his cheesecake far more than Caldwell's (which has always come across as vaguely creepy), but for the most part he was the "posiest" of all the artists--you can practically see the models holding their poses in the studio.
My hands-down least favorite 2e artist, though, was and remains Thomas Baxa. I posted a lengthy rant about it here. As I said in that post, I actually like most of Baxa's latter-day work; I think he was just being asked to do too much back in the day and it negatively impacted his quality of output. Also, being the only other artist on Dark Sun besides Brom, you're always going to come out looking the poorer.
A case could be made for the relentless mediocrity of Terry Dykstra, but his work doesn't get under my skin nearly as much as Baxa's.