Has anyone else found SR art in general disappointing? I find that it is generally too cartoony and bears not much resemblance to descriptions. Or it is too abstract (what is that supposed to be?).

You should probably have an extra couple of categories there. I liked the art in Man and Machine much more than I like the art in SR4. But there are still some good pictures now and again. So while I am able to categorically say that SR4 art is "worse", I wouldn't go as far as putting an exclamation mark after expressing my hatred.

-Frank

Ah, how I long for the days of Tim Bradstreet's gritty and realistic style.

Ya, not all artists take pictures and then run them through digital filters and touch them up.

At least that was my understanding of how Bradstreet does some of his work. Not to say that it the result isn't nice, because it definately is. Or to imply he is a no talent bum. But keep in mind that not all styles are intended to be photorealistic.

I find the SR4 art a mixed bag by my tastes. Some good, some bad, a lot of ok. Unfortunately I don't really think I can point to one particular piece and say it rocks my world. That is usually what I judge art in a book by. It can be mostly blah, but if there is one piece that I really like then it makes the book.

For some unknown reason, I find the art in the books that Steven Kenson had a big hand in to be the best. Perhaps he picks different artists?

My main gripe is with the cover art. The color work is good, but i think the original concept wasn't. Meaning, the things depicted were well drawn, but i don't like those things to begin with. Like the sammie's handblade. Or his coat for that matter. Does it look like wicker to anybody else? The whole scene looks kind of relaxed, too. Like these guys are yawning through a milk run or something.

A lot of the art inside the book is good though.

The only good art was stuff that was drawn for previous editions, most notably that from Cybertechnology, a book in 2nd Ed. Anything new was shit. Pure and total shit. (For reference: Page 68. What the hell is that?!)

I did prefer the feel of previous editions with the likes of Bradstreet, Prescott, and the great Laubenstien, but I dig most of the art in the new book.

That page 68 one is okay to me, 133 and 136 are examples of pictures that I don't quite appreciate. One thing to keep in mind though is the pictures do convey the the message they are meant to convey, even if you don't like the art.

I really like the chapter start pictures (except the equipment chapter)
There is some excellent art and some utter shit, but then again that is par for the course in a book. Since Fanpro have taken over the art quality has dropped a little in general but the really good piccies have got better.

Wow, You know, I have waited forthis thread ever since SR4 came out... (only had too much univerity-stuff to do, to put it on my selfe, so I did only bitch about SR4-Art whenever the topic came about as a sideline).

I realy HATE most of the artwork!!! Very little is good (some of the archetypes are actually quiet cool, I think, others -like the ganger- are rather bad though), some is ok (mostly stuff from old books IIRC), most is quiet bad and not that little is realy shitty IMHO (p. 65, 112 and 260 are probably my most hated, but thats hard to decide with such a large pile of crap ).

I could surely do better than most of the disprportional pictures, but that doesn´t matter, even if I couldn´t, cuz I´m not payed for it! I´d actually have payed extrabucks for an "unspecial" edition with most of the artworke removed, even without replacement.

Many of the illustrations look like fanwork, and bad fanwork compared to other stuff I´ve seen!

I am really disappointed about the artwork, though I like the rules and the layout. Problem is, that I´m really visual, so bad art detracts horrendously from my rpg-experiance and I probably have more of a problem to get the mood of SR4, than I would have had without this craptacular junk

I know this is much about personal experiances, but there are some objective criteria, like bodyproportions of Norms, that are not correct in many cases.

Oh, man I really can´t tell how dissapointed I am, withoug being rude, but the length of my post probably says enough.

Guess what I voted for

Edit: I allso agre with Ophis

There are some awesome pics in the BBB, but way too much crappy ones )like the race examples).

I would have voted but there wasn't a choice for 'I liked some of it, but some of it was god awful horrible...'

On a positive note, although I consider Shadowrun art sub-par at best, Shadowrun fiction has been excellent. In my opinion, the exceptional fiction that is ever-present in Shadowrun books counter-balances the exceedingly disappointing artwork. The whole idea of writing entire sourcebooks in-character is nothing short of brilliant, in my mind.

I'm comfortable with different art styles getting used, and actually like the variety.

The Tir Tairngire sourcebook had some great black-and-white art over a whole range of styles. Even the cartoony stuff served its purpose (such as the customs officer firing a full burst while quietly saying "Stop.").

I gotta say that Jeff Laubenstein never did anything for me (except make me sick of seeing people with little swirls tattooed on their faces).

Still think the art in SR3 looked more finished. Too much of the interior art in 4 (save for the sample characters and two realy good street scenes) looks like pencil roughs or first drafts.

Favourite art of all time:

Theres a picture from Cannon Companion (pg 60 or 80 I think). The one with the soldier in the tank looking down at the rocket about to impact on the turret. The expression on his face says it all. Priceless

some was good most was horrible, i mean, come on, all you have to see is the troll that looks like a klingon with horns, and that rastafarian ork and say "Ugh"

I just wish the art styles were more consistent. Have the same artist do all of the critter pictures. Same for contacts and such.

I'd like to know where to get those cool looking tribal-designs done by Nigel Sade (like the dragon-like one on p. 111, behind the Skills And Linked Attributes table).

I really liked Karl Waller's illustrations--interesting perspectives, good proportion, and a great movement of line. My least favorite picture in SR4 is on page 334. It seems to have nothing to do with the content of the page (or Shadowrun for that matter). Maybe it's supposed to illustrate cosmetic modification, maybe not. Maybe it's supposed to be an elf, maybe not. I'm thinking about making all of my NPC's look exactly like that, just as a joke.

*puts down the crack pipe and goes to bed*

I took that to be demal plating, which is listed in the table on that page and the end of its description is right under the picture. So wouldn't the grotesque deformation be correct?

Art I loved:
(pretty much all the stuff by Fergus Duggan)
pp. 5, 23, 37, 41, 44, 48, 53, 82, 87, 171, 207, 234, 257, 262, 270, most of the creatures and contacts

The stuff I didn't like was mostly because it looked unfinished and/or too soft (like p. 15, 18, or 165) or didn't get the tone right (p. 68, 112, 156).

Kudos to Adam for making the layout clean, sharp, and modern!