DAILY ART FIX: Erol Otus – Dungeons and Dragons Artist

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Back in the 1980s, I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons. The visual style of the early version of the game was dominated by a few key illustrators, including Erol Otus. I was enjoying the fantasy adventures; at the time I didn’t give much thought to the artists who depicted the imaginary worlds. Only later did I recognize what they accomplished. Otus put it this way in an interview with RPGnet:

SA: Let’s talk more about your art. You’ve mentioned artists as disparate as Dr. Seuss, Bernie Wrightson, and Frank Frazetta as early influences, but from the start your style was very personal and distinctive, with its organic figures and its surrealist ideas. How did that style develop?

EO: I know I prefer artwork that doesn’t appear to be based on photographic reference. You know when you look at a figure in a painting and it’s obviously been painted while looking at a photo or live model? That saps away the interest for me. I’d much rather see something completely made up by the artist. I think my unconscious is largely responsible for how things turn out.

Read the full article here: THE RPGNET INTERVIEW #94: AN INTERVIEW WITH EROL OTUS, ICONIC FANTASY ARTIST

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4 thoughts on “DAILY ART FIX: Erol Otus – Dungeons and Dragons Artist”

  1. I just wanted thank you for your take on art and that I just bought your book Remodern America from Amazon. Looking forward to receiving it in a few days. Very much enjoy your blog and read it every day or two, hope you keep going! Thanks-

  3. Funny he says this:

    “I know I prefer artwork that doesn’t appear to be based on photographic reference.”

    The first time I remember definitively feeling this way way in the debate of Street Fighter vs Mortal Combat. I loved the illustrated nature of Street Fighter. The attempted “real” depiction in Mortal Combat always left me cold. I felt the same way as movies and PC games started making the turn toward real looking CG, too.

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