[Alucard]

Is it just me or does anyone else here find about 90 percent of the fantasy artwork(particularly for covers) to be a bunch of crap?

It seems that most covers have one of the main characters who looks nothing like how they're described in the book, dressed in pants so friggin' tight that it's a wonder the character hasn't gone sterile, with proportions so out of whack that they look like they have some sort of bone diease, slapped onto some cheesy backround that tends give non-fantasy fans ample reason to point and snicker.

Most fantasy covers just look plain ridiculous to me. Does anyone else feel this way?

[FitzChivalry]

You probably encountered just Darrel Sweet covers.

[Mutation]

I find that most of those are for books written by women. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[saintjon]

Shadow War had solid cover art. You're right, though, most of it's pretty bad. Who the hell is responsible for those black-cover Drizzt books? The guy who makes Drizzt look like a 55 year old white guy deserves an ASS-KICKING in my opinion. Mortalis had a good cover artist.

[SusF]

Oh man the Drizzt covers are horrible! Just horrible. Especially the 55 year old white man covers, though none of the covers really match what he's supposed to look like.

Susan

[saintjon]

IMO the Crystal Shard and the new one, Sea of Swords aren't bad.

[saintjon]

Okay, I gotta mention "the World of the Wheel of Time". Those damn paintings they did of all the characters and shit are so terrible my drawing teacher gasped when she saw them this morning.

[Ogg]

I find that many of the covers are not all that great. Much of the stuff you find on the web is better than many covers. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/frown.gif

[Alucard]

hahaha....Exactly my poiny saintjon. Jordan's covers are a large example of what I'm walking about. I don't know who paints these, and I'm not going to criticize them, I've been painting my entire life and know how difficult it can be (though these artists really need to learn a few things about proportions), but I quiestion the people who okay it for the final cover. Why on earth would you put that on a book? Sorry, some people do judge books by their covers. Why not make it look a little less silly? This is just my opinion on it all, I'm sure that some people actually like this kind of art, but in my eyes, I'd rather have plain old text on the cover than these silly characetures.

On a side note, I do like a few covers out there. American gods, Perdido street station, neverwhere, and the most recent cover for the original dune were all great.

[saintjon]

Actually, Darrell K. Sweet painted the WoT covers, but that's not what I'm talking about (although other than Eye of the World they're pretty weak) I'm talking about the crappy watercolour paintings in the companion book. Good lord, the guy should be hung! And if he happens to be someone who frequents this site

I DON'T APOLOGIZE

On a calmer note, my teacher said the reason these books have bad art is that the people who choose the artists don't know a damn thing about art! Isn't our society wonderful?