More musings on cover art

[redchild]

Is that a marshmallow angel of death?

I have noticed a lot more action-centered sci-fi/fantasy book covers lately. A lot of the time, photography and cgi is used instead of paintings but when there are paintings, they usually end up looking more like RPG video game concept art.

Of course they do succeed in catching your attention. A quiet, mysterious setting depicted in the first image is not as eye catching as the second. Marketing comes before art in most cases.

But you could also argue that paintings like these are the "pulp" covers of our age-- most of them being digitally painted and depicting cliched, sensational sci-fi/fantasy imagery instead of contemporary settings. Not to say pulp cover-like illustrations are bad, though, as works done by artists like Frazetta or Alex Ross can be both striking and appealing.