Awesome Fantasy Art

(A big thank you to Cheri Duncan for recommending a topic on a day when I couldn't get my brain and my fingertips wired together. Thanks to my friend Bruce and several of my fellow Ravenclaws for their assistance in producing this post.)

Friends! Romans! Countrymen!

Yeah, whatever.

Listen folks, I haven't been in the market for Science Fiction and Fantasy related art recently because reasons, but I hope to be in the not-too-distant future. I love the look of something related to a fantastical world. I think I'm going to do posts in the near future for both Science Fiction and Superheroes, but for now I'm going to concentrate totally on Fantasy because well, I mean, it's my blog right? So anyway, here we go.

I mentioned the Art of Dungeons and Dragons in a recent post. I love that. I always have. The picture above was taken from the Second Edition Player's Handbook. I've love that pic for thirty plus years now, and I specifically went looking for it for this post.Fortunately, the Google-fu is strong with this one and it was pretty easy to find.  And while we're on the subject of D&D Art...

Larry Elmore is one of my most favoritest artists ever. It was his work on Dragonlance (with an assist from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman :P) that got me started as a fantasy fan for real. The only real fantasy I had read before that was Lord of the Rings, and I never really realized that there was a whole genre to go with it. Go figure. Still, this guy is the dean of all fantasy artists. I was a fan before I knew I was a fan. It wasn't until the advent of that interwebs thingy that I found out who any of my favorite artists were. He was one of the first people I found out about though. I mean, anyone who did original and official Raistlin Majere art is awesome and he did it well.

Of course, not all fantasy art, not even all GOOD fantasy art is related to D&D. Brian Froud is an artist with a long history who helped out with Dark Crystal: Age of Rebellion. I loved that show and a large part of what made it so cool was the way it looked. The gelflings were cute. The sets were magnificent. The skeksis were evil and terrifying and a lot of the credit for that goes to Brian Froud.

Oh, and he also did The Labyrinth. I mean, just in case one Fantasy classic wasn't enough, why not two? He probably did some other really cool stuff too, but I'm not really an expert on the man. I'll leave it up to you guys to put some stuff in the comments if you want.

And of course, there's Tom Sullivan, who does a lot of Chthulu art. Look at that piece. It's amazing. My friend Bruce suggested that I include him, and he was right. A quick glance through this guy's stuff shows that it's all amazing.

Of course, not all fantasy art has to be super-serious. Those guys are amazing.I love the fact that those artists seem to jump off the page. Looking at that first Larry Elmore  picture, I can almost see myself skinning that dragon and using its scales for a shield. Not all of the good stuff has to be realistic. So let's feature a lesser known (not my fault, I've talked about her here before) artist named Cedar Sanderson.

I commissioned that piece for my now ex-girlfriend. I'm really happy that I did. It turned out fantastically awesome. The ex is in to Chthulu plushies (Which are also art, but don't tell your college professor I said that.)

and I thought it would be something that she would really enjoy. I was right. Of course, Cedar does all kinds of stuff. Her chainmaille dragons are really cool. She does lots of paintings, not just Chthulu. As a matter of fact, it was one of her dragon paintings that inspired me to have her paint the Chthulus. True story. Cedar writes a lot too and I've reviewed some of her stuff, but this isn't a post about writing.

As a matter of fact, the only item I got to pick out for my oldest daughter's nursery was a painting of a cutesty dragon with  a butterfly on its nose. My ex-wife picked out a theme of faeries and butterflies and I snuck the dragon pic in on the excuse that it had a butterfly in it. SCORE!!!

And then there's the in-between stuff:

SIGH

That's the cover of the first Harry Potter book I ever read, and it was drawn by Mary Grandpre (technically, that last e should have an accent, but I'm not sure how to do one on blogger.) That lady can draw! But here's my point about her work being halfway between realistic and cutesy: It doesn't really look life-like. It's more cartoony. On the other hand, it looks realistic enough that you're really drawn into it. Like, I  can see a realistic version of it in my head while I'm looking at the book cover. I really like this kind of work. It kind of makes me feel like a kid again, just looking at it.  One day maybe I'll be a big enough author to have a book cover by her. On that day, I'll probably die of happiness, but at least I'll die happy.

Ok, so let's see, we've got Books, TTRPGs, Movies/TV shows, Fan Art and  Comics,. OH. I know what I forgot:

Video game art is fantabulous and absotively has to be included. I went with two of my favorite MMORPGs because I could, but there is a lot more to it than that. Let's face it: Video game art goes back decades and a lot of the best stuff is fantasy based. Fantasy Star, Shining Force, God of War, , Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, I could go on for days. Some of the art is a bit dated now, but that'll happen in the gaming industry over the course of forty years. It's all gorgeous for the time it was produced though. I think the visual/immersive aspects of good video game art  that moves on the screen and sucks you in. What Everquest player can forget the first time they ran across the West Barrens and had to flee from a Young Kodiak?

And last (on this list) but certainly not least, is cosplay. Cosplayers pour immense amounts of time, effort and money into their creations.  They deserve some credit and their individual takes on popular characters aren't really all that different in principle from comic book artists and the different way they draw characters.

That's what I've got. You guys tell me what I missed in the comments., I'll be back soon with SF art!

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