Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 bfishy Jan 18, 2010 14:30:58	was browsing my favorite art forum and found these from one of the artists there!  mmmm! www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php... oh...it's really just the first image in the thread..."Marauders of the Dune Sea" :D what's that big beastie in the BG?  p.s. - for artists and lovers-of-art who don't know, this site is a must in your favs.  tons of professionals post on this site.  it's the best of the best...and people here offer some amazing feedback and crits on your work.  plus you'll get so see a lot of WoTC artwork from the actual artists!  sweet!
#2 jimsmaher Jan 18, 2010 22:20:51	Marauders of the Dune Sea by Ralph Horsley
#3 jimsmaher Jan 18, 2010 22:49:39	arena.athas.org/forums/product-feedback/... img43.imageshack.us/img43/36/drik.jpg
#4 Pennarin Jan 19, 2010 9:32:24	Lol, hardcore kreen-enthousiasts must be rolling on the floor in pain at the sight of a kreen riding an animal! Nice pic, albeit the fortress on the back of the drik is unrealistic. It's like a vision of what 19th century artists believed the evolution of iron naval vessels would look like a hundred years from then, with lofty towers somewhat in precarious equilibrium.
#5 Janx_14 Jan 19, 2010 9:34:35	Lol, hardcore kreen-enthousiasts must be rolling on the floor in pain at the sight of a kreen riding an animal! Nice pic, albeit the fortress on the back of the drik is unrealistic. It's like a vision of what 19th century artists believed the evolution of iron naval vessels would look like a hundred years from then, with lofty towers somewhat in precarious equilibrium. Your sure thats new? The Thri-Kreen in the Order of the Stick rode bugs that look just like that.
#6 morskittar Jan 19, 2010 10:23:20	Lol, hardcore kreen-enthousiasts must be rolling on the floor in pain at the sight of a kreen riding an animal! Nice pic, albeit the fortress on the back of the drik is unrealistic. It's like a vision of what 19th century artists believed the evolution of iron naval vessels would look like a hundred years from then, with lofty towers somewhat in precarious equilibrium. Your sure thats new? The Thri-Kreen in the Order of the Stick rode bugs that look just like that. Yeah, by the Thri-Kreen of Athas (iirc) Kreen consider riding animals to be like "playing with your food".  That said, it always seemed somewhat arbitrary and the change in form factor for the Kreen seems to facilitate a change. Personally, I think the image of a bug riding on a bug is awesome enough to redo that little bit of Kreen psychology.
#7 big_goon Jan 19, 2010 11:12:03	Thanks bfishy! Nice picture. The pretty sky with all its clouds (not talking about the dust) takes a away a bit of the arid look, but is an excellent painting otherwise. Anybody know of links to pictures for the other 4e Dark Sun covers? Or who painted them?
#8 Silverblade_The_Enchanter Jan 19, 2010 13:33:53	the Drik painting isn't by Mr Horsley, it's by Ghandi iirc. see Ralph's paintings on Deviant art by the way... ;)
#9 Pennarin Jan 19, 2010 14:55:20	Wait, that would be a Ghandi pic? Doesn't look like his style. Looks very 4e, and Ghandi is more realistic...
#10 bfishy Jan 19, 2010 21:04:48	also of note is the fact that the kreen is holding multiple weapons with multiple arms :P
#11 Pennarin Jan 19, 2010 22:51:35	It's not Ghandi's, as all of his pics are signed with a W over a V.
#12 Alacryss Jan 19, 2010 23:43:40	I wish I had this for a wallpaper!
#13 jimsmaher Jan 20, 2010 4:46:17	It's not Ghandi's, as all of his pics are signed with a W over a V.  To clarify ... Marauders of the Dune Sea is by Ralph Horsley ... here's his post: Blogspot - Ralph Horsley: Dark Sun - Digital Tweak. Wednesday, 6 January 2010
#14 big_goon Feb 10, 2010 10:32:08	The newest Dungeon article had a neat picture of a Dragonborn behind a hazy sun. It looks Dark Sun-ish enough that I thought I would link to it. I liked it. It's not the Dray like they were in 2nd edition pictures. The sword looks mostly steel (but details are hazy enough that it could be polished bone if you strech the imagination). If you read the pdf, the rest of the picture is far less Dark Sun-ish. The article is set in the FR, not Dark Sun. But if you can ignore all that... I really like the wanderer/gypsy/sellsword appearance of the Dragonborn (or would that be Dray?), and might use it as a reference for my characters if they'd like an image of a Dark Sun dragonborn. The article can be found here: www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/d...
#15 murph201 Feb 10, 2010 12:28:01	That dragonborn is pretty cool.  Makes me wish they had been able to secure Brom for Dark Sun again.  Love his stuff, really created the "feel" of Dark Sun for me. Reynolds' and this Horsley's stuff is way too cartoony for me.
#16 morskittar Feb 10, 2010 12:48:03	I quite like the final version of Horsley's Kreen picture.  I'm glad to see the sun was updated - that's the only part that gave me pause about the original image - it seemed far too bright.
#17 Pennarin Feb 10, 2010 13:00:05	Yeah, the old DS symbol showed a sun that had a black crust-like formation over it, veined with spaces through which light shone. The new sun, the one on the dragon pic, shows that exact design.
#18 morskittar Feb 10, 2010 14:07:12	It's great.  It really drives home exactly how different and unfamiliar Athas would feel.  Fundamentals are very, very different.
#19 Pennarin Feb 10, 2010 14:34:18	There would be good things to say about getting Brom back, but I also...sincerly think that Dark Sun, at least for me, needs a new visual identity. I didn't known the new art would affect me so much until I saw the Dragon hanging on to that old ruin. It's like new blood in my veins.
#20 Silverblade_The_Enchanter Feb 10, 2010 18:25:19	I've tried various ways in my3D art to get that dark veiny look for the Sun very hard, as a "real Sun that emits light enough to light the scene" could NOT be like that. also the sky would be dark reddish...though if the sky has some stuff that makes it green, as some DS art shows, you'd remove the reddish tint liek this www.silverblades-suitcase.com/darksun/da... so I have to fake the Sun of Athas which is much harder when I'm trying to get the Sun to react in the sky like a real one, so I put a sphere in front of the actual Sun, etc Mojoworld, I can make a Sun look more dark, but it doesn't work AS a real Sun would (corona etc) www.silverblades-suitcase.com/darksun/da... Vue, it cna't let the SUn be a 3D object, it's a light source infinitely far away but does create proper lighting in scene and has a corona So I put a sphere with suitable look in frotn of the Sun (which is harder to do right, than you'd think) www.silverblades-suitcase.com/darksun/da... Much easier to just PAINT an impossible Sun ;)
#21 morskittar Feb 10, 2010 18:46:57	Those are great Silverblade.  Really nice work. I've always imagined it as somewhere in between the latter two; a low hanging red giant that emits light like an LED or similar.  I've always imagined that you could sit and *look* at the sun too, without it being too painful.
#22 Silverblade_The_Enchanter Feb 10, 2010 18:57:34	*bows* yeah, it would cook you, or maye you blind without realizing it from invisible UV?
#23 morskittar Feb 10, 2010 19:09:56	*bows* yeah, it would cook you, or maye you blind without realizing it from invisible UV? Seems about right.
#24 big_goon Feb 11, 2010 12:38:37	I like number 3, Silverblade. Mostly because it's blindingly hot and beautiful with some "spotty" areas that are darker. Being critical, I would maybe try and enhace that feeling and emphasize the oxymoron "Dark Sun": dark spots exist over a blindingly hot core. You might be able to do that by superimposing some of the darker areas of the 2nd picture's sun overtop the 3rd's sun but maintain the sun rays that bleed into the noon day sky. Image 1, IMO, looks like the twin moons of Athas. The green is nice with the moons - makes it look dry and cooler than the molten sun of the day.
#25 ineti Feb 23, 2010 18:41:55	Great art, thanks for posting it! Does anyone have links to larger/clean versions of the 4e DS book covers, with or without the trade dress? The images on WOTC's site and Amazon are too small to get a real good look at the detail. I'd like to try and sell my players on the setting, and thought the art would help a lot.
#26 morskittar Feb 23, 2010 18:47:52	Great art, thanks for posting it! Does anyone have links to larger/clean versions of the 4e DS book covers, with or without the trade dress? The images on WOTC's site and Amazon are too small to get a real good look at the detail. I'd like to try and sell my players on the setting, and thought the art would help a lot. There's a link (I think) earlier in this thread with the Marauders of the Dune Sea one that's large and clean.  I have that as a desktop on two computers, right now. I'd love to find the first one as well; with the Dragon and the ruin.