The Worlds of TSR Fantasy Art Book Review - Larry Elmore Jeff Easley Robh Ruppel Fred Fields

I have an enormous library of art books. Some of them have aged very poorly over the years, referencing outdated techniques or offering poor-quality photos. And then you have books like The Worlds of TSR. This was published in 1994 and it is STILL a stunning, useful book with high-quality images that inspire and amaze.
They have all types of artists, from high fantasy to space aliens, from shape-shifters to dragons to vampires. Each work is identified by its artist. This includes Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, Robh Ruppel, Fred Fields, Brom, Clyde Caldwell, Paul Jaquays, and Dana Knutson.
That is part of the problem, though. ALL you get is the artist name. You don't get the medium, the surface they painted on, where the artwork was used by TSR, or anything at all. You have to go digging by yourself to track down the details. Without the title, that can be fairly tricky to do.
Also, some are nicely full page which gets you a good look at the detail. However, others they cram 2-3 to a page which means each one becomes quite tiny. It becomes really hard to see the detail in those images. And then worse of all, the ultimate sin, they sometimes put an image ACROSS THE FOLD which means parts of the image are completely lost in the binding. What?? That makes NO sense at all in an art book.
They went a little too high-gloss with the pages. That can cause all sorts of glare issues when you are trying to see the details. They should have kept the pages a bit less glossy, so the details could be seen well.
Still, this is a beautiful collection, and it should definitely inspire any fantasy fans or artists out there. For some of these images it's really the only way to get a large-size unadulterated (no text on top) view of the image in question.
Well recommended.
It includes art by:
Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, Robh Ruppel, Fred Fields, Brom, Clyde Caldwell, Paul Jaquays, and Dana Knutson
#fantasyart #fantasy #dungeonsanddragons

[@beastrabban5991]

Dungeons and Dragons and many of the other RPGs have amazing art in their gamebooks and other materials, and some of the artists, like Brom, are included in a number of books on SF and Fantasy art.

[@lisasheaartist]

As a very long time D&D player, I would caveat that sometimes the art is beautiful in those books and sometimes it's ludicrously beginner level :). It does get better as the years go on and people take it more seriously.