By sheer volume, who created the most D&D Art?

Wofano Wotanto · Apr 12, 2024

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
By sheer volume, probably whoever made an official D&D sculpture.

3D is always going to beat 2D for volume, yes.

Joshua Randall said:
Do we count whomever designed the sculpt for the 4e bugbear? Because AFAICT there are millions of those.

I don't think we count every single copy of a piece of art that got printed/cast as a separate entry, but if we did the top slot would almost certainly be one of the sculptors who worked on the D&D Miniatures prepaint figs. They were made in huge numbers, enough so that "millions' might not even be an exaggeration for some of the commons - and most sculptors did more than one fig for the game.

But I doubt that's the intent of this thread or there'd be a strong bias toward people who contributed to core books rather than supplements.

Hard to say who produced the greatest number of unique pieces of art over the years, but there's one thing I'm sure of: Having a single drawing carved up to make up the art on fifteen different Spellfire cards doesn't count each card toward your tally!

FitzTheRuke · Apr 12, 2024

GuardianLurker said:
I forgot about the comic books. I was thinking it would be limited to the official DnD publisher materials, and as far as I know the DnD/FR comics were not published by TSR/WotC, but by Marvel(? I think). There also the problem of what constitutes a "piece of art" for a comic book. Given that artists generally sell pages, and not panels, the count would be much lower. But would probably still swamp the tally.

It was DC. And there are quite a few IDW ones now, too.

Distracted DM · Apr 12, 2024

I'd submit that the considerations be for (paizo and wotc) D&D magazines, D&D books (novels included), and PF1e books. And I guess D&D tabletop games.
Anyone think I'm missing anything?

GuardianLurker · Apr 12, 2024

So just to propose and get the first filters established:

Volume, in this scenario, means number of pieces. Not the physical volume of those pieces. (You wiseacres.) And we're discussing the visual, not written or audible, arts.

we're only considering the original pieces, not any reproductions (especially mass market). So the artist who did the official portrait of Mialee the Elf for the 3.x PHB gets to count that only once, not once per PHB copy.

Likewise, the pieces have to been officially produced for, and used by, TSR/WotC, or one of their direct licensees. So that piece of Mialee/Tordek slash that someone comissioned from the same artist*, but not for the public, or any official use. That doesn't count. Nor does any of the fan art.

For any sequential art, or any other collaborative piece, each artist gets a partial credit. And for comics, we'll exclude the writer and penciller credits from the discussion.That would generally limit the credits to the penciller, inker, and colorist.

Edit: (* for the record, I don't know if any such piece was ever commissioned. It is intended as a fictional exemplar.)

Moonmover · Apr 12, 2024

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
By sheer volume, probably whoever made an official D&D sculpture.

Surely then, it's the good folks at WizKids?

Whizbang Dustyboots · Apr 12, 2024

In terms of raw numbers, I agree that Holloway may be the champ, since his art spanned from the late 1970s, I believe, through the end of the TSR era. (I don't think he did anything for WotC.) Much of his work was spot art inside books, rather than covers, which means there was a lot more opportunity for his art to be used. And there were years where it seemed every issue of Dragon featured a new piece from him.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Apr 12, 2024

Distracted DM said:
Would Wayne Reynolds be on the top 5? top 10? Do we include Pathfinder art? I know the more classic folks got quite a head start

Yeah, WAR seems like a real contender as well.

GreyOne · Apr 12, 2024

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
In terms of raw numbers, I agree that Holloway may be the champ, since his art spanned from the late 1970s, I believe, through the end of the TSR era. (I don't think he did anything for WotC.) Much of his work was spot art inside books, rather than covers, which means there was a lot more opportunity for his art to be used. And there were years where it seemed every issue of Dragon featured a new piece from him.

Yes. This is my belief. Add to all the D&D stuff is the vast number of other games he worked on from Paranoia, Battletech, Chill, DCC, etc and I think he is the workhorse of RPG art.

I'm definitely not including comic art or 3d sculpts, lol.

GreyOne · Apr 12, 2024

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Yeah, WAR seems like a real contender as well.

Definitely since 3rd edition.

Wofano Wotanto · Apr 12, 2024

GreyOne said:
Yes. This is my belief. Add to all the D&D stuff is the vast number of other games he worked on from Paranoia, Battletech, Chill, DCC, etc and I think he is the workhorse of RPG art.

What, no callout for all those covers he did for Avalon Hill's Tales From the Floating Vagabond? Clearly his magnum opus, and the main reason most people bought the fool things in the first place.

GreyOne said:
I'm definitely not including comic art...

I don't think that's defensible when it comes to Trampier's Wormy strips, but he's not a contender for greatest volume anyway. Some of those comic pages rival any art that's ever been associated with D&D.

By sheer volume, who created the most D&D Art?

Wofano Wotanto

Hero

FitzTheRuke

Legend

Distracted DM

Distracted DM

GuardianLurker

Adventurer

Moonmover

Explorer

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero

GreyOne

Explorer

GreyOne

Explorer

Wofano Wotanto

Hero

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