Snowmancer – Viktor Fetsch
Among the artistic goals I set for Legends & Labyrinths was:
Goal #2: Find a balance between men and women.
I suppose one could claim this represents some sort of agenda for political correctness on my part. But, really, I just like pictures of pretty women doing heroic things.
Another goal was:
Goal #3: Realistic armor.
And this one is completely agenda-driven.
Primarily, this is about eliminating chainmail bikinis. But it’s also about recapturing the simple realism of a bloke in plate armor facing the terrifying and supernatural unknown.
I’m a huge fan of Final Fantasy and anime and World of Warcraft, but I think there’s a current imbalance in fantasy art. I also think that the interesting contrast between the mundane and the supernatural in fantasy art has been lost as heroes and monsters alike both reach for ever-more-gonzo proportions.
And after all, as Viktor Fetsch so aptly demonstrates with his Snowmancer, you can still look completely badass while dressed in completely reasonable clothes.
A couple of my favorite illustrations from Dragon (or Dungeon) magazine back in the day had some theme of women with a snow theme. Tough in both cases it was more an “adventurers about to get clobbered” situation rather than “adventurers rocking in awesomeness”.
Dragon #126 was one of these:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy7322?Dragon-Issue-126
On one hand, in such a cold climate she seems to be lacking much in the way of leg coverings, and piercing weapons vs. corporeal undead was a notoriously bad idea.
But on the other hand, the rest of her getup looks pretty practical, and you gotta admire the chutzpah of someone willing to stand their ground against a gigantic undead thing bearing down on them intent to chop their head off.
The other illustration I wish I could find involved a party trudging through the snow about to be jacked by a dragon bounding over the hill, with the female magic user in the foreground powering up a spell. Can’t figure out what issue that was in, but in my memory she was pretty well geared up for the situation.
That second picture mentioned is by Raymond VanTilburg. It was apparently an internal illustration in Dragon 169, but the painter now has a print available here:
http://www.offworlddesigns.com/p-431-winter-fantasy.aspx