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Cover art: Sexist and lack of talent?

AmylionAmylion Member Posts: 38

Hi!

In my honest opinion the cover art is really bad, and even politically incorrect: It shows a sexist notion hostile towards men.*

Cover art

Original size here:

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/1992/2513130-firiona.jpg

- Bad style:

  • Faces are painted in a dilletante way: Blonde elf, ork, dwarf, kobold are failures.
  • Scene doesn't make sense regarding physical logic:
    • The original scene painted by Keith Parkinson was set down in a valley. This scene now is on a peak, but without paying attention to it: There are no such small ponds on a peak like seen on the right of the painting.
    • Shadows are not coherent.
    • The dragon would not be able to sit there on the edge of the peak, he would fall down.
  • The composition, the positioning of the characters relative to each other, is crap. Kobold, dwarf, ork and Kerran don't seem to correspond to each other, they are single elements looking as if they were added as an afterthought. Very bad!
  • Problems with feet / boots: Kerran, dwarf
  • Blonde elf (Fiorina Vie?): "sword" (no comment), bowstring is on the wrong side of the hand, the quiver can not be worn like this by a female.

- Sexism:

There is no equality regarding gender!

The front row is occupied by females. The only male humanlike is hiding behind another female. Other males are poorly painted animal races. The subtext is obvious: Women rule this peak, the only man is only a side-note (tolerated as someone standing behind a woman, looking into the distance without interfering with the scene), and the other maleness is depicted as rude, brainless savagery.

There is a clear focus on the female characters which are painted with much more love to detail, combining the grace of female "tenderness" with virile power (note the male leg of the female fighter to the right!).

I admit that the fantasy genre has been very patriarchal, but that was reflecting the medieval society and the target group. Things have changed and this is good, but that style is not only going over the top, but much worse than any art produced in the past.

It is bad art.

 

Amylion.

EDIT:

PS: Of course the depiction of half-nude women is sexist, too.

But I personally would prefer half-naked men over being cut out of the picture.

* EDIT 2:

PPS: I changed my mind, I don't see a sexist notion hostile towards man, but a serious imbalance regarding female / male models.

"My point is that positive male models are very important especially for young men.

The new cover art picture – contrary to the original art – shows a lack of possibilities to connect their psychological identities."

Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.

If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...

«1345

Comments

  • poefuepoefue Member Posts: 226
    I like to think of it as a homage to the original artwork of EQ seen here.
  • thinlizzythinlizzy Member Posts: 68

    Its bad in many ways

    however I do wish people would get over issues of sexism ffs

    ooo 1 of them but 3 of those OMG stop the presses... damn PC rubish

  • EvolvedMonkyEvolvedMonky Member Posts: 549

    EQ1 cover art was far worse. Brings back memories as a kid I felt so uncomfortable while in Comp USA my eyes kept glancing at the EQ art. I felt like a pervert geek everytime I picked it up to look at it....... Memories like the corners of my mind..MEMORIES

     

     

    Atleast they kept the dragon.

    image
  • BrooksTechBrooksTech Member Posts: 163

    Post like this, subjective only, get so old.

     

    OP, I disagree with you.

  • majimaji Member UncommonPosts: 2,091

    I'm not an artist so... I don't really care about details. The art seems to be to me somewhat generic, not bad, but also forgetable. It's not one of those "oh god I want a poster of that" pieces of art. More like "hm, ok" and move on.

    Regarding the sexism, my opinion on that is this: you treat the persons depicted in the art differently according to their genders. Ideally, you would treat them the same. You basically create some sort of sexism by sorting the persons in the art according to their gender. In some art men are in front, in other art it's women, I don't care about that. If all fantasy art would be about women being in front, I'd start to wonder about the reasons for that. But it's not that way.

    Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)

    Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)

  • ElRenmazuoElRenmazuo Member RarePosts: 5,361
    The orc looks like Genghis Khan, makes me think that Orc culture will have mongol cultural influence and aesthetics.  Which works imo it keeps orcs savage and warrior qualities but at the same time its a unique take on them from the typical fantasy Orcs.
  • Eighty7Eighty7 Member UncommonPosts: 22
    I'm no artist so it is just a big mix of colour to me. However as an archer...How does that elf plan to shoot the bow? The string is on the wrong side, there is no way to use the bow in it's current positioning.
  • RyowulfRyowulf Member UncommonPosts: 664

    This thread was made as a joke right?

    It was pretty funny to claim sexism against males when the female in red has almost nothing on.

    The art work is fine.  What would be the point of it being super realistic when the game is cartoony?

     

  • NormikeNormike Member Posts: 436
    Well it's a video game and they are catering to their audience (mostly male). This is clearly evident by: 1) the males being nearly covered from neck to foot in clothing/armor while the women are exposed like they're at the beach. 2) The women have exaggerated body curves while the men's bodies look like squares. On the men the curves are de-emphasized, even though the body of an in-shape male has more curvature than an out-of-shape male.
  • rojoArcueidrojoArcueid Member EpicPosts: 10,722

    theres no sexism in that image. Theres really something wrong with a lot of people these days that they find everything wrong and sexist.....

    The things that seem wrong with the image have nothing to do with sexism.

     

    Sigh.....





  • rosleckrosleck Member UncommonPosts: 28
    Wow, we must of run out of things to complain about in EQ-next. What's next Smedley's bumboy doesn't get a credit on the box?
  • AmylionAmylion Member Posts: 38

    I found the original art by Keith Parkinson for a comparison:

    Keith Parkinson's EverQuest cover art

    Original size here:

    http://www.keithparkinson.com/images/eq.jpg

    What a difference! Like night and day!

    And I can see now where some weird elements from the "EverQuest Next" cover art came from: note the blue sparkle coming from Fiorina Vie's wand. The Erudite looking into the distance makes perfectly sense in this scene. The overall composition is well done: The good guys fight the evil, savage creatures: ogre, troll, undead.

    Regarding gender it's not perfect, but not bad: The women take the front row, but there are also beautifully painted male characters there to get some balance. The female fighter to the right shows a bit much skin, so that could be considered a bit sexist, but it's within the limits.

    Amylion.

    Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.

    If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...

  • crasset15crasset15 Member UncommonPosts: 194

    How to make a EQN rant thread:

    1) think of an outrageous statement, such as "EQN developers used chinese slave labour to develop the game!"

    2) replace the exclamation mark with a question mark

    3) post thread

    4) profit!

  • LidaneLidane Member CommonPosts: 2,300
    Originally posted by Ryowulf

    This thread was made as a joke right?

    It was pretty funny to claim sexism against males when the female in red has almost nothing on.

    The art work is fine.  What would be the point of it being super realistic when the game is cartoony?

     

    image

  • irnbru69irnbru69 Member UncommonPosts: 124

    This reminds me of those crazy rants that people come out with when they predict things that happen in real life from the bible.

    People  will always find what they want to find in ART or Literature no matter how it looks or reads.

     

    Get a Grip.....

     

    Did you not consider the fact that it may be some clever marketing ploy to get more woman playing this game.

     

     

  • RyowulfRyowulf Member UncommonPosts: 664
    The odd thing is there will probably be a lot of women playing the game and the Devs have said you can cover your character head to toe if that's what you want.  It seems the art is mostly an homage to the old eq covers.
  • KarbleKarble Member UncommonPosts: 750

    It certainly is not high art in a way that would make me want to save it as a wallpaper or possibly order a copy to have in my pc room.

    It looks like the point of this art was to show off changes in the game from EQ to EQ next. You can see the armors, multi-classing, seemingly different player avatar choices, art style changes. All of this is subtly telegraphed in the drawing.

    So based on those ideas alone, I think the artist did ok.

    As for the rest of it, you are reading to heavily into it based on the politically correct side of our current culture, which has poked it's head into way to many issues that really don't need it. Basic common sense and calling things what they are has gone out the window with the pc crowd. Call something sexist, call something gender biased, call it racist, call it homophobic. But please stop with this politically incorrect business. This is not a political area and we are discussing fun topics that interest us. How is your thread helpful, productive, or interesting?

    thread is off topic for forums.

    / thread

  • donpopukidonpopuki Member Posts: 591
    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

    There's no Devinci code deeper meaning here. Maybe some of the artist's subconscious leanings and cultural filter but no secret motive.
  • VeldekarVeldekar Member Posts: 220
    Originally posted by thinlizzy

    Its bad in many ways

    however I do wish people would get over issues of sexism ffs

    ooo 1 of them but 3 of those OMG stop the presses... damn PC rubish

    +1

     

    #trollthreadisfail

     

    OH thinlizzy, do it til yer dizzy!

  • LidaneLidane Member CommonPosts: 2,300
    Originally posted by Karble

    It looks like the point of this art was to show off changes in the game from EQ to EQ next. You can see the armors, multi-classing, seemingly different player avatar choices, art style changes. All of this is subtly telegraphed in the drawing.

    That seems to be the case, yeah. It looks like an homage to the original Keith Parkinson art, but meant to show that this EQ is different from the ones that have come before it. 

    I don't mind it too much. The only thing that's jarring to me is the placement of Firiona's bow. How the hell is she supposed to fire that?

  • aesperusaesperus Member UncommonPosts: 5,135

    Bad art? Yes. It looks dated as hell.

    Sexism has nothing to do with it. If you are drawing sexist undertones from that image OP, it might be time to relax (maybe smoke a bowl or grab a glass of whine) and stop looking for things to get mad about. It's a beautiful day in most parts of the world, I'm sure there's a lot better things to do today than get mad at a crappy picture.

  • rojoArcueidrojoArcueid Member EpicPosts: 10,722

    The EQN cover art is CLEARLY a tribute image to the origianl art from EQ1.

    A tribute, not a copy. Of course its going to look different, but similar enough to notice its a tribute. Jeez OP......Jeez.





  • ShubawkssShubawkss Member Posts: 55
    Male sexism because he's behind ladies? Oh please. I'm a Male myself, but that is the dumbest argument I've ever heard regarding sexism. 
  • TibbzTibbz Member UncommonPosts: 613
    Not a single "F" was given in this thread 

    image
  • NBlitzNBlitz Member Posts: 1,904
    I don't agree with something so subjective like art being torn apart. If I could do better, I'd show it. 
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