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Old 07-08-2018, 11:21 PM   #31
DarkPumpkin
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Cidri (exact location withheld)
Default Re: The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition Cover Sketch

The original cover was a flawed piece which has become iconic over the years: but let's not claim it was up there with Frazetta's finest.

With the new piece, I agree that the cleric at the back smashing the orc looks like she's not moving her arms, and it's made worse by the streak marks in the air attempting to tell us that she is.

Don't like the mage's dour face overseeing everything like a slightly carb-bloated schoolmarm. And it doesn't match the face on the new Wizard cover.
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Old 07-09-2018, 01:58 AM   #32
Jim Kane
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Join Date: Mar 2018
Default Re: The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition Cover Sketch

Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin View Post
The original cover was a flawed piece which has become iconic over the years: but let's not claim it was up there with Frazetta's finest.
Where did you read that being done?

JK
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Old 07-09-2018, 05:02 AM   #33
tbeard1999
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Tyler, Texas
Default Re: The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition Cover Sketch

I’m no art critic, but I am an experienced consumer who does believe that artwork has a significant impact on purchasing decisions. My comments below should be read as though each one starts with “In my opinion...”

My summary review is that this artwork, while not awful is also, unfortunately, not attractive.

I personally think that our eyes tend to focus on the face. If so, then I think the faces need some work. The female wizard, in particular, looks odd. Her posture seems off; she’s firing a line of sight spell, but her hand isn’t pointed at the target. The target that she’s actually pointing at is the Orc in the lower right corner with the ax.

The spell appears to be firing at about a 30-45 degree (horizontal) angle from the line of her arm. Maybe she missed her DX roll and the spell hit the wrong target? Anyhow, it just "looks wrong" to me.

Worse, she’s rather homely, which clashes with the conventions of classic fantasy art (and really, for that matter, virtually ALL commercial product art conventions). Her expression makes it look like she’s just drank a quart of grapefruit juice laced with alum. She’s just not a figure I particularly want to look at. And she’s the main figure in a commercial cover art piece so I’d think that’s a Bad Thing.

I don’t have a strong opinion on motion lines, other than to note that while the motion line for the mace wielder is effective, the one for the Orc seems pointless.

At the end of the day, this art just isn’t up to the current standards of art in professional gaming products. Worse, it’s technically inferior to the covers of the Metagaming version of Wizard (2nd ed) and TFT:ITL. I don’t know that it will make anyone less likely to buy TFT, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to increase sales either.

All in my opinion, of course. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler, so no disparagement of the artist’s abilities are intended.

Last edited by tbeard1999; 07-09-2018 at 05:00 PM.
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