SR4 artwork preview gallery at Shadowrun.de.

What is this fascination with mechanical objects on peoples' crotches and silly pants?

Seriously though, not too impressive, although I like #6 (with the SEXXX sign) and maybe #8 (guy hanging upside down and shooting). Anything to help push the gritty and shadowy side of things.

Some is quite good, but ... well ... the ravenous trolls in the last one ... the humanoid troll ... what the HELL has gotten into artists about trolls???

I don't think those are trolls in the last one. If they are, they're some kind of ghoul trolls. As for technology on the crotch, go put together a computer, your crotch is truly a versatile tool for earning leverage and gripping objects both large and small.

Just be careful. Even slighly higher than body temperature will cook your flesh. Happened to a swede once. He kept a running (old) notebook on his lap for ten hours on end. Ended up with second-degree burns on very sensitive parts of his. Ouch.

Mmmm, slow roasted testes...

The third from the bottom looks... wrong somehow. It doesn't seem like his arms really belong on his body.

disappointing. hope they´re the worst of the bunch.

A lot of them seem that way. too much distance from shoulder to chin. makes them look like normal human scale and then a different head shopped in after the fact.

ok.

Now we can see a tendancy in the new art direction: SR4 will be full of crappy picture.

I like the 5th picture with the rasta elf woman, though.

Could be worse. Should be better.

Not good. Not good at all.

Maybe the troll in that pictuer just has bioware implant arms, but he was too poor to get troll size so he had to go with human size.

At least the human size arms come with funkyy grenade launcher thingy.

The first one looks disturbing. It seems that the mechanic is getting too friendly with his anthroform droid -- err drone.

Although, I do like the street picture with the Sex sign. Oh! Oui oui monsieur. This one catches at least some of the gritty feel of Shadowrun.

Here we go again another book of crappy art. Unless they are releasing the worst of it so that the bar is set low for the rest of the art in the book.

Veracusse

So does that mean there is still some hope left?

Well, they're not that bad. Though the pics #4 and #9 do have a serious problem with anatomic proportions. Everything else is a matter of taste, but proportions, that's something everyone can agree with.

Mike

I like the overall flavour of the pictures, moving away from the cartoonish-crap-like-style CC had. Proportions are not every time well drawn, that's true - and shouldn't happen.
But overall, i like the pics. Nothing would be better than a return of Tim Bradstreet though.

I like the one with the city scape, and the rastafarian elf, and the last one with the two trolls. The others .... well, they looked liked they were trying to be 'gritty' ,and just failed

It looks to me like SR4 is going to be SR3, "only more so." SR is cyberpunky--only more so (robots everywhere, a la Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Bladerunner). SR is fantasy--only more so (the dude is walking around with a fragging skull on his belt). SR is sci-fi--only more so (cables running everywhere like a security rigger's wet dream).

Also, try NERPS (gets the SEXXXX out! out!)

Also, anyone notice any illos which suggest how AR is going to look from a player/PC/game persepctive? Aside from the floating mohawked fellow, I don't see anything which looks like computer icing on a reality cake.

I think a lot of the proportion issues people are seeing in these illustrations might be caused (or at least strongly enhanced) by the fact that they are scaled down so far.

#1 - Not a very comfortable looking position, especially considering the underutilized state of the table...

#2 - Need a larger copy to really judge it

#3 (left) - The more I look at this one the more I like it. It could use some more contrast, though.

#3 (right) - See #2

#4 - Someone needs to write "I will not submit my rejected D&D pieces to FanPro" 100 times on the blackboard. What's with the unnecessary belt?!

#5 - Not bad, but there really needs to be a moratorium on swords, maces and other archaic weapons in SR artwork.

#6 - Awesome. Reminds me of art in Underground.

#7 - I can dig it.

#8 - Very nice. The fist looks a little weird, but when I examine it closely I almost think that might just be because the image is scaled down so much.

#9 (top) - Technically competent, gets the point across. I like it.

#9 (bottom) - See #2

#10 - I can't tell for sure, but do swords outnumber firearms in this picture?!

And here I thought I was the only other person who owned a copy of Underground.
The first pic reminds me of that as well.

Some of that art looks good, but it doesn't have the Shadowrun feel like Janet Alusio (SP?) (does she still even do pieces for them) or Peter Bergting's artwork. I prefer the grittier side of things, and realisticially i think their artwork would be more in tune with the runner underground of the 2050s-70s than the tight spandex female elf ninjas that mark zug and other current artists put out.

My favorites are 1, 6 ,9, and the last one.

I think that the old Seattle Sourcebook has most of my favorite art. I love the pics in the back with the various gangs, tribes, and corps stuff.

And for years, my wallpaper is the SR2 cover, at least the image part of it.

I don't know. Nothing I've seen so far has given me much hope that the endemic art problems of recent years have been fixed in SR4. This is not to say there hasn't been some good stuff- the cover of SoE was exquisite. But then I see that piece of shit they are using for the cover of SR4 and it makes me sad.

Yes, I know people have different visions of what SR should be, but come on... seriously! Judging from some SR artwork its hard to believe the artists have ever even played the game. Is it seriously that hard to come up with some decent stuff that has some kind of unified style and underlying feel appropriate to SR?

Or at the very least could we find an artist that can draw a decent looking firearm (not this super-future-space-raygun crap) or correct human anatomical proportions? I mean if you are going to try and make a living drawing guns or people you might want to crack a book or something and see how its done.

Personally I would like to see something like the sketch art in the last edition of WHFB: simple (read: cheep), elegant, unified, dark, dynamic, stylistic and fitting to the setting.

Art is a MAJOR component of the product we PAY for. IT IS IMPORTANT. Yet the more I see the less I like....

WHFB?

Warhammer fantasy battle.

Totally unrelated, but great art work...

<edit> And I should say, there are still places in the main rule book of WHFB that feature unique art or art from past edtions, but the use of simple, but well done sketch art throughout the book gives it a unity I find lacking in most SR products...</edit>

<edit2>I should also say that Games Workshop recognizes the value of artwork in thier books because the printed material is secondardy to their real money making business: selling minis. But the art in the books reflects the time and energy they've put into developing the look and style of thier game, and it sells.</edit>

You know if they want free art there are some very talented people on Elfwood.

Yeap. Elfwood has some damn awesome people. Lots of great character portraits and stuff there, for those interested, too.

Hit the button before I was ready, I should have said including... this person and this person.


Enjoy.

That one of the female elven street sam with green lipstick is I think one of the hottest drawings I've ever seen....

One of them even is from dumpshock ...

Yeah Rebekah is Crechebaby... my wife

So, will she do art for SR4?

I dig the artwork actually. I hope that a few of those picsl have some background added to them before they see print, for example pic number two and four. The troll with the disproportioned arms should go, or be seriously adjusted. But otherwise I'm happy. As far as the last pic, I'm guessing those are Doo-zoo-noqua or however you spell it. HMHVV trolls.

That as my guess as well

no, dzoonooqua look a lot more like having skin cancer al over their body, and lack clearly defined horns. But they could be troll ghouls.

I get the feeling the goat horned ones are something entriely more sinister.

I'm not at all impressed by any of this new artwork.

I prefer this art to the majority of the art in the SR3 rulebook (which ranged from awful to pretty good for the most part, in my opinion).

I think i figured out the Troll with the non troll arms. It's not a troll at all, it's an ONI. It's got the spirally horns that point upward, more human proportions, and a lack of dermal deposits. Take another look at it.

... and a wacky genetic defect that makes his limbs disproportionate to his body! THat's IT!

I think what the artist was really trying to show was that the character is a human who got a bioware replaced troll head. Bigger brains, horns, tusks, all the good things a shadowrunner needs. The wacky proportions are to reflect the fact that he needed to have his shoulders, and body frame reinforced to accomodate the larger cranial mass. All in all, a very realistic picture in shadowrun terms.

Veracusse