Friday, 9 June 2017

The Art of the Background

For years now I've used this as my desktop background:


I love it and wrote about it here.

That said, a change is as good as a rest and I think I might give Gawain and the Green Knight and the sorrowful horse a well-earned break. What do you have as your desktop background? And what single piece of fantasy art which I might not have seen would you recommend?
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26 comments:

  1. JC9 June 2017 at 06:35

    This:

    http://www.kuniyoshiproject.com/Warrior%20triptychs%201851-1852,%20Part%20I%20(T252-T269)_files/image031.jpg

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    1. noisms9 June 2017 at 23:58

      I am brewing up a post on a subject related to that.

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  2. Unknown9 June 2017 at 06:56

    Jakub Rebelka, who worked on a "the Witcher" game, has a bunch of art that's pretty good. I had this one (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xDAmR) as my wallpaper for a long time. His tumblr is here: http://shzrebelka.tumblr.com/ where the guy has a bunch of cyberpunk stuff, too.

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  3. Simon Hacking9 June 2017 at 07:34

    I alternate between Uccello's Battle of San Romano and Breugel's Fight between Carnival and Lent for similar reasons.

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    1. noisms10 June 2017 at 00:00

      I used to have Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.

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  4. Melan9 June 2017 at 15:41

    Currently this photo: http://68.media.tumblr.com/96e14a7c74ed31307e2b16eeace22749/tumblr_oq54yf0enN1rxmn3vo1_1280.jpg

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  5. Stone Drunk Wizard9 June 2017 at 19:44

    This one:
    http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100604135260/finalfantasy/images/e/e8/Amano_Vana%27diel.jpg

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    1. noisms10 June 2017 at 00:01

      Wow. Very nice. That's Final Fantasy related?

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    2. Stone Drunk Wizard10 June 2017 at 21:05

      Yup, it's from FF XIV i believe. By Yoshitaka Amano if you didn't know the guy alreadly.

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    3. Stone Drunk Wizard13 June 2017 at 00:30

      Yup, FF XIV i believe. By Yoshitaka Amano of course.

      Delete
  6. jbeltman9 June 2017 at 20:51

    I currently have this one from Spirited Away. There are other versions out there.
    http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/spirited-away/images/29095928/title/spirited-away-wallpaper

    I love this one, The Mumak of Harad by John Howe, but I guess you already know about it.
    http://www.john-howe.com/portfolio/gallery/details.php?image_id=89&big=1

    I used to like this land by John Avon, about two thirds of the way down this page.
    http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/show-me-blubber-2007-03-29
    You can see more of his lands here:
    http://www.johnavonart.com/gallery/mountains.html
    It's a bit hard to get wallpaper versions of his art.

    Another one I have liked it this one!
    http://morriperkele.deviantart.com/art/The-Moth-40101950
    From this comic:
    http://www.blastwave-comic.com/index.php?p=comic&nro=24

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    1. noisms10 June 2017 at 00:03

      Great set of pictures. I did know the Mumak one and used to have that on a rotating set of John Howe wallpapers.

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  7. Russ9 June 2017 at 23:45

    You've certainly seen it and I use it as the banner of my group's FB page, not a desktop, but it's a titan in in my own Appendix N of fantasy art. When I was a kid it deeply offended my sensibilities- three freaky wizards dividing treasure, but no heroic paladin, stalwart dwarf, or necessary cleric and thief. Now it's one of my favorite things.

    http://68.media.tumblr.com/3bb47fe722846d331a9a354ad509ce69/tumblr_mqip14wtsK1scpq9co1_540.jpg

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  8. porphyre7710 June 2017 at 00:49

    http://www.wallpaperup.com/687992/artistic_art_artwork_painting_original_f.html

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  9. Yora10 June 2017 at 16:28

    I've been using the same photograph of a sunlit cliff in a forest almost continuously for close to 15 years now. It's something I always like to look at as a reference for the atmosphere of my own setting. I even ended up putting it in the header of my own website.

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  10. Patrick Mallah10 June 2017 at 20:45

    this link takes you to my desktop background
    https://68.media.tumblr.com/a0a526f349c603aae73b4c3bf9b74774/tumblr_orc0q7gu3Z1qj9jfoo1_1280.jpg

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  11. trollsmyth11 June 2017 at 03:05

    I'm currently using a polar shot of Jupiter as my background. I'm frequently using shots from NASA's Astronomy Pic of the Day website.

    As for fantasy you haven't seen... I'd be shocked if I knew any. I frequently go back to the "classics:" Parkinson and Elmore and Howe and Frazetta.

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    1. noisms11 June 2017 at 23:28

      Astronomy Pic of the Day is a good call.

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    2. trollsmyth12 June 2017 at 06:10

      Ok, after saying "probably not" here are some "well, ok, maybe:"

      http://michael-c-hayes.deviantart.com/

      http://shiantu.deviantart.com/

      http://raka-raka.deviantart.com/

      http://cryptcrawler.deviantart.com/

      http://madspartan013.deviantart.com/

      http://wildweasel339.deviantart.com/

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  12. shimrod11 June 2017 at 08:18

    Possibly my favourite piece of D&D art, evoking a similar mood I get out of a lot of Howe's work, seems to be obscure enough that you might not have seen it, even though it was published in a D&D book.

    https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0418/67/1439562884744.jpg

    I first saw it in my early teens, before I played D&D, before I read the History of Middle-earth books, when all those books were full of undiscovered wonder.

    That was one of the biggest draws of D&D, and arguably fantasy in general for me, that sense of secret things to be discovered, and this image really captures that for me. Like with the Green Knight, the colours make the figure seem a part of the landscape, and lacking a Gawain, the viewer seems more present in the image, almost intruding, having stumbled upon a humbling glimpse into something beautiful, wondrous, even sacred.

    A much older, non-fantasy example of much the same:

    http://c300221.r21.cf1.rackcdn.com/ferdinand-keller-18421922-the-pool-1359740958_org.jpg

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    1. noisms11 June 2017 at 23:28

      I have seen that one before - one of Diterlizzi's pieces I think from somewhere in "Planes of Conflict" perhaps?

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    2. shimrod12 June 2017 at 07:58

      It's certainly DiTerlizzi. I have absolutely no memory of what book it was, but it seems to be a cervidal guardinal, a Neutral Good monster, so Planes of Conflict sounds like a likely candidate.

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