Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, Keith Parkinson, Clyde Caldwell - Top Tier Works from the Four Greats

The Four Greats - Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, Keith Parkinson, and Clyde Caldwell. I've been so fosued on Frank Frazetta's art work over the last few months, but these four guys remain my entry point to art, especially fantasy art. I've touched on all of their work in previous posts. Here I want to hit more of their great paintings, their top three not yet covered plus a few honorable mentions. I am not claiming these will cover their best works, just my favorites. I learned first hand at the Frazetta museum that brushwork, color, materials of original paintings change often cannot be reproduced in prints. 

The foundation of my knowledge of the Four Greats goes back to some TSR publications we picked up in 1989.  My twin brother, Leif, and I convinced my parents to buy us three art books from a game store in the Boulder's Crossroads shopping mall: The Art of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Fantasy Game (Art of AD&D), The Art of the Dragonlance Saga, and The Art of Dragon Magazine: Including All the Cover Art from the First Ten Years. Those titles are a mouth full. I recall that it was the preliminary design sketches in the Dragonlance art book that we used to convince our dad, who is an artist, to buy the books for us. "Look, we can learn from the sketch and design process!" We poured through all three books on a weekly basis, but my favorite was the Dragonlance book. We were still reading Dragonlance novels at the time and tried our hand at running adventures in the AD&D setting using 2nd Edition rules.  I loved looking at Larry Elmore's depiction of the main characters. He clearly had a special attachment to them, and indeed, was a lead designer in the original Dragonlance idea. The Dragonlance book also had paintings from Jeff Easley, Keith Parkinson, and Clyde Caldwell - the Four Greats from TSR's The Pit. I was especially drawn to the many exposed female thighs and Caldwell's bikini clad dark queen. My imagination and hormones ran wild. 

That said, The ART of AD&D was the most revealing on the painters themselves. The Four Greats all wrote page long exposes on their painting process and interests. The book's author/editor was Stephanie Tabat, who did production design, layout, graphics, and cartography at TSR from 1986 to 1993. Evidently she worked closely with the art team in the Pit, and she provides her insights on the each of the Four Greats, plus newbie Fred Fields, and a few other contributing artists. The book's primary focus is Elmore, Easley, Parkinson, and Caldwell. Its Tabat's writing that revealed Elmore's wife, who hard dark, curly hair, was the muse of many of his most famous works. I was fourteen when I read that. It struck me deeply and stayed with me all these years. The Art of AD&D is a great book, well worth purchasing for fans of fantasy art. I won't spoil more of its revelations here, but I will barrow four portraits of the Four Greats that accompany each of their exposes. 

Larry Elmore

Top 3 paintings covered in prior posts:

1. Waiting for Shadamehr

2. Ancient Red, cover to the Basic D&D box set

3. Death of Sturm - Dragonlance

Top 3 and an honorable mention yet to be covered in this blog:

Honorable Mention: Hidden Danger

An early Elmore painting. The trees are more simplified, as is the sky, showing a bit of Frazetta influence. That's not a bad thing. I think Elmore's great departures from Frazetta are his beautiful landscapes and the detail his places on clothing, weapons, and armor. Elmore does not begin to approach Frazetta in dynamic human forms, but he normally makes up for it with strong composition and beautiful natural scenery. I like this painting for three reasons: One, the composition literally has the trees grab the viewer, leading to focus on the woman's face, and yet not leaving out the crouching beast. Two, the muse in Elmore's wife is on display. Three, this is one of Elmore's few paintings or drawings in which the monster looks and feels mysterious, threatening, evil.

Number Three: Weasel's Luck, Dragonlance book cover

This probably does not make a lot of favorite lists. I love the composition, the direct, straight lines of the trees leading to the characters, dividing them from each other, their blades also going in different directions. I did not read this book and have zero familiarity with the story, but I get a strong sense that they are opposites who still need each other to survive. This carries over into my number two pick. Beyond this, the man with the sword and armor is some of Elmore's better work with the human form. It's not top notch, but interesting. You can see how the neck doesn't move naturally into the body beneath the clothing and armor. Otherwise it's a great pos, gesture of the hand and arm with the cloak. The colors of the trees and water give a strong sense of place. I love how Elmore treats the water soaking up their pants' legs. Very cool. Overall this is a subdued painting, not much about it that is flashy or yells look at me. That's fine. The composition is very good, and it has a strong sense of story and place. 

Number Two: Test of the Twins, Dragonlance book cover

This is a controversial pick, to be sure. I'm a twin, so this one just speaks to me. Beyond that, it's the most unique of Elmore's painting compositions, and it works. Why? The composition is essentially only what is necessary to know about the two characters. Virtually everything else is left out. Elmore has three paintings that do this, and they are all book covers for this trilogy. The composition suits the theme and the title perfectly. Even if the viewer is unaware of the underlying story, the dichotomy between the brothers is obvious. Because of the sword and the staff reaching upwards, something needs to occupy the background. The sky is beautiful without being a distraction, and also reflects each of the brothers personalities and stories. Overall the faces, posing, and accoutrements are rather cheese cake and could fit on the cover of a romance novel, but at this point Dragonlance was drifting into romance novel territory. It fits. Finally, I just love Raistlin's eyes and Caramon's battered shield. Really well done. 

1. The Crystal Shard, Forgotten Realms book cover

This is a masterpiece! It's comes from an early Forgotten realms novel cover that launched the career of the infamous dark elf Drizzit D, . seen in the middle foreground. Leave that aside though. This painting just rocks. First, the composition leads the viewer down through the faces of the characters, then to Drizzit's finger in the snow, then to the trail of blood leading directly to the viewer. It creates story, tension, mystery. Composition doesn't get better than this. The work exudes cold. Elmore is an expert with snow, ice, and frozen rock. This is one of his best examples. The handling of the characters, the strong positioning but weight carried in different ways, and realistic integration into the overall paintings is some of Elmore's very best work with human form.  I suspect this can easily be his best painted work. 

Clyde Caldwell

Top 3 paintings covered in prior posts:

1.The Elves of Alfheim, Dungeons and Dragon Gazetteer 

2. Captured! 

3. The Hands of Doom 

Top 3 and an honorable mention yet to be covered in this blog:

Honorable Mention: Spellfire, Forgotten Realms book cover

Caldwell's art is not for everyone. It's very specific, mostly featuring blatant cover girl models in minimal fantasy trope clothing blasting energy bolts from their hands or gesturing with swords. To be honest, I'm not a enamored with a majority of his repertoire. I love his paintings that adorn the covers of the Dungeons and Dragons gazetteers. I think they are the pinnacle of art and design for TSR. What about Spellfire brings it to my list? It's an early classic for Caldwell at TSR, instantly recognizable. The cavern has a nice sense of depth. The lighting (from the lightning) is dramatic and effective, drives the composition in terms of viewing. The dracolitch monster is certainly the star. The warrior figure in the front has an interesting tilt to his shield. It's a fun painting.

Number Three: Dragons of Despair, Dragonlace adventure module cover

So, here we have some of that amazing Caldwell thigh action. That's not why this painting is in my number three spot. Yes, the thighs and groin area of the central character, the elf princess Laurana, are attractive in every sense, and draw the viewer to the focal point of the painting, which is Laurana's face framed by the body of a dragon. For me the painting makes the list because of the dragon, the only effective depiction of the five-headed chromatic dragon Tiamat, in this case a manifestation of the dark Queen, the goddess Takhisis. The somewhat incorporeal body of the monster is effectively rendered, the five heads making a nice contrast to the head of the princess. This is an ambitious piece of story telling and Caldwell pulls it off. 

Number Two: Dragons of Dreams, Dragonlance adventure module cover

This is a rather powerful painting of suffering, or torment. The only other work of Caldwell's that comes to mind that enters registers pain in the human subjects is the wizard Raistlin held captive by the Dark Queen in her bikini.  I'm realizing that Caldwell does some really cool things with lighting in painting. The contrast between the elf king Lorac's hand and face is striking. The overall circular composition is very compelling.  There are many signature elements from Caldwell's works that just come together better here; the cobwebs hanging from the throne hint at a sense of how long the king has been trapped in his nightmare. The sparing use of the colored mist shifts the scene into a different reality. The bulbous gemstones are copied in the dragon's eye. It's a wonderful departure from most of the other Dragonlace paintings by the Four Greats, and a very marked departure for Caldwell from his other work. Maybe that's why I like it so much. 

1. Dragons of Despair, Dragonlance adventure module cover

I did not expect every one of my picks for Caldwell to feature dragons, nor did I think my top three paintings would all be from the original Dragonlace adventure module covers. Dragons of Despair is the first Dragonlance adventure published, and Caldwell nailed it. The composition is a little scattered, but the waterfalls do a beautiful job and drawing the gave downward, while the columns frame the dragon. The human figures (and dwarf) are fine, but nothing special. The dragon is spectacular, the sleek, deadly positioning of the creature moves to that powerful ejection of acid from its mouth. Overall the painting bottles the spirit of this adventure in an enticing elixir, the ruins with waterfalls tumbling out of them are absolutely fantastic. There is a lot of classic Caldwell here, from the weapon styling to the dragon's face to Goldmoon's bare thighs, but this painting also has a classically artistic and romantic feel that most of Caldwell's other paintings don't begin to approach.