Favourite Old School Fantasy Artwork

Stormbringer

Stormbringer

Member
Thinking back to the days of your innocent youth, what was the most inspiring piece of fantasy artwork you ever saw?

As a 7-year-old boy, I can tell you that nothing got me quite as excited as the cover of Sega's Golden Axe by Dermot Power (1990):

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Golden Axe was (and still is) an excellent game, but this image perfectly captures the basic game-play in a really epic style. I used to study it for hours, trying to work out the Barbarian's chances of survival. Would he hack at the Amazon on her Dragon mount before the Ogre's hammer came down on his skull? Or would he spin around and cut off the Ogre's arm, only to be scorched by the Dragon's fire? I loved this one so much I believe I even tried to re-create it with a Biro on A4 paper.
 
Elbows

Elbows

Member
I spent an awful long time absorbing almost anything I could find...mainly Palladium role-playing game books, the occasional old White Dwarf and board-game box covers (Hero Quest, Battlemasters).
 
Stormbringer

Stormbringer

Member
Elbows":31kpzt40 said:
Battlemasters
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Actually, that's a good point -- the artist who created the Battlemasters cover is one of my favourite fantasy artists of the 90s. Chris 'Fangorn' Baker.

Wikipedia":31kpzt40 said:
In the early 1990s, Fangorn provided art for Games Workshop, including the covers art of boxed games Advanced Space Crusade, the Space Hulk supplements Deathwing and Genestealer, and Battle for Armageddon, as well as the covers of several issues of White Dwarf magazine.
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My favourite work of his is the front cover of Waddington's Dark World board game:

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Zhu Bajie

Member
Its funny, I always associate Fangorn with the early 80s - he was doing covers and interiors for White Dwarf in the 1970s when it was still in single digits, had work in the UK edition of D&D and the Fiend Folio.

But If I had to choose just one old school fantasy art as a kid (around 9/10) was probably:

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It's the whole thing, the typographic logo, the cinema-poster composition, the red gradient background, the faux oil-painting look, the whole shebang.
 

stone cold lead

Member
Zhu Bajie":3om0z540 said:
stone cold lead":3om0z540 said:
Zhu Bajie":3om0z540 said:
...the faux oil-painting look...
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It was painted in oils! ;)
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I always assumed it was acrylic - well that will explain it then! :lol:
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I only know because I've got the Art of the Dragonlance book still kicking around. Some great paintings in that and really was the pinnacle of 'art' for me as a 14 year old. I believe I got that book for Christmas one year and that led me into reading a few of the DL novels. That was kind of spoiled though after reading a rather critical review of the DL series that suggested that the books were full of Weiss and Hickman's religious ideologies.

Most of my favourite artwork though was more record sleeve oriented and sometimes it crossed over into fantasy. I love the covers to the first two Kreator albums. Crude and unpolished but hit the spot for me back in the day (I'd still like to see the Pleasure to Kill cover done in miniature!).

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Count Von Bruno

Count Von Bruno

Member
This is what kicked it off for me
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My brother got the then new basic set, and I played my first game of D&D when I was second grade.

Got f*$ked up by that Carrion Crawler under the drawbridge and then moldy plates.

Most of the art from those books is pretty seminal for me...even though I remember next to nothing about it, Fire And Ice was pretty big for us back then too.
 
Stormbringer

Stormbringer

Member
Oh, good shout! That is a classic piece. Elmore is a wonderful artist.

It also reminds me of this one, which was also a seminal stepping stone in my road to Fantasy Nerdville:

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EnglishRed

Member
Count Von Bruno":2s6sdco6 said:
This is what kicked it off for me
DND-Basic-Ancient-Red_zpsa3xxdccr.jpg


My brother got the then new basic set, and I played my first game of D&D when I was second grade.

Got f*$ked up by that Carrion Crawler under the drawbridge and then moldy plates.

Most of the art from those books is pretty seminal for me...even though I remember next to nothing about it, Fire And Ice was pretty big for us back then too.
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Me too! The Red Box was my first introduction to fantasy gaming of any kind. I spent ages looking at that picture, and the lovely pen and ink stuff inside the Players guide. The next lot of stuff to inspire me was the art in the Fighting Fantasy game books, as well as Gary Chalks brilliant work in the Lone Wolf books.
 

Brandocles

Member
Stormbringer":3a2jy4yg said:
My favourite work of his is the front cover of Waddington's Dark World board game:

DSCN3668_zps26c6428e.jpg
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That game is really good, and a font of nifty figures. Especially the Ogres. Not bad at all. It still gets sporadically reskinned and rereleased.

I like the Easley-drawn fighter within the Mentzer boxed set, to contribute to topic.
 
dieselmonkey

dieselmonkey

Member
I got give this book when I was about seven, and it's had an impact on me ever since:

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It was just full of the most incredible artwork, both sci-fi and fantasy.

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There was also a copy of it in the studio that I saw when I was there. ;)
 
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