Dungeons and Dragons Art Review - Jeff Easley, from Masterful to Derivative

 I started this blog years ago and it found a brief following because of the D&D art. I was focused on the four great oil painters from TSR's Pit. After all that time I never dedicated a post to Jeff Easley. The man was a master. He still may be, but his best work was done 40 and 50 years ago. My absolute favorite was the first orange spine AD&D book we bought, first because of the cover below, and then the content. I loved the art inside and out. 

The book came out in 1986, four years after Jeff Easley began working at TSR. I guess he did the painting as an on demand cover, but it is so foreign to most AD&D or D&D adventures of the time. It's way more imaginative than most encounters in the game would be.What is the monstrosity clinging to the mountain top? Don't know. Makes it scarier.  This is so much more evocative than run-of-the mill D&D. The vista, with river meandering off into the sunlight, the peak rising into a thunderstorm with lightning streaking down, the old bones and treasure chest merging into earth. Note that not only one of the adventurers is doomed to be either eaten or, more likely, tossed to his death, but that another is already falling to likely death in the lower right corner of the cover. In true Easley fashion, the primary warrior's armor has no basis in reality or game mechanics. I just love this one.  It is a major departure from the great art D&D books featured in their earlier years which generally depicted scenes that could be pulled directly from the game's mechanics. I enjoy both types, but Easley's vision is just so much more imaginative. 

Here's the best Jeff Easley painting I've never seen before until writing this post:

Jeff Easley 1981 cover from the late-era pulp, Creepy, done around age 27

Jeff Easley started working for TSR in 1982 with encouragement or an invitation from his friend Larry Elmore. Wikipedia states that the masters in TSR's Pit had him painting gemstones on the borders to the Endless Quests books. Look at that gorgeous painting above. They wasted this man's talent on border decor? That did not last long though. Easley was soon working on every cover painting to AD&D's collection of orange spine books, eleven in all by my count. Every one of these paintings is a masterpiece. Check out this link to Scott Taylor's Art of the Genre that looks at his top ten of these covers. He states there are two that did not make his list. One is Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis' Dragonlance Adventures. I cannot figure out what that twelth book might be.  

Of the four greats, Easley, Elmore, Caldwell, and Parkinson, Jeff Easley stayed with TSR the longest, even doing a few covers for Wizards of the Coast when they bought D&D in 1995. But by this point Easley's hot streak was over. He was becoming derivative, going through the motions, no more creative spark. 

Jeff Easley became so Easley in style, composition, and genre that the later TSR Pit artist Tony Szczudlo was able to distill Easley exactly, almost like a paint-by-numbers. I think his intention was homage to the master, but still....

Tony Szczudlo getting every element of Jeff Easley just right. I like it. The pieces from Szczudlo that shine through are the details in the hands and face of the warrior, tatters on the cloak. Easley was not one for detailed human anatomy. 

Did I get this wrong? Are the best Jeff Easley paintings later in his career? I think it's a hard argument to make. 

Another Easley favorite of mine graced the cover to the AD&D Dungeoneer's Survival Guide. Again, it looks very little like something from Dungeons and Dragons, and aparently that's because Easley painted this before joining TSR.  Again I think this amplifies the imagination and creativity. 

Here I will stretch beyond Easley's AD&D orange spine covers. Easley painted undead skeletons and magical power better than anyone, ever, at TSR. He combines them both in this painting.

The Magister, a AD&D Forgotten Realms supplement published in 1988. 

Another example of Easley setting magical power to the canvas. This is paint, nothing digital. Very cool. It's just magical. I'd taken oil painting lessons before as a youngster and did some decent landscapes. I simply cannot imagine how he does this. 

Cover to the Dragonlance module New Beginnings, published in 1991

To my mind, Easley's cover painting to the 2nd Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide is simply the best book cover ever for TSR. 

Jeff Easley's Wizard and Dragon, first published as the cover to the AD&D 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide in 1989. 

Last of all, here is a personal favorite. I just love the look on that big guy's face. This is also Easley's best strong female figure, a rarity for him. For compaison, turn to Art of the Genre and Taylor's article When Jeff Easley Had a Girl. 

Jeff Easley's Cutting Things Down to Size, an interior the 1989 AD&D 2nd Edition Players Handbook

Coming across in all of Jeff Easley's paintings is that he makes up for the lack of true skill with human figures and even clothing with his mastery of composition, color, dynamism, and storytelling. Overall he is consistently my favorite of the four greats from TSR's Pit.