Review of Elmore, Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio

Inside the glossy cover folder is a 96 page staple bound book with over 200 line art drawings of characters by Larry Elmore and a CD-ROM. Most of the art is portraits of various human and other races' adventurers, the last few pages containing line art versions of some very famous Elmore scenes. The CD has the same line art as Tiff files, 266dpi, sizes range from 8.5"x11" to 4"x5", in PC and Mac formats (as well as JPEG and the entire book in .pdf). No need to comment on the art itself, it's all Elmore at his best.

Now the kicker, although it is billed as an adult coloring book with CD printable backup, it is much more. Aside from the d20 OGL, there is a clip art license that allows almost all the images (the portraits, not the scenes) to be used for personal and professional publication so long as Elmore's signature appears with each one. Even altering the images is allowed, so long as the user understands that his altered images are then usable by others under the OGL as well. This is a terrific boon for web and paper publishers, small and large alike.

So, if you like to use character graphics in your gaming or publishing (amateur or otherwise) $20 is well worth having the likes of Larry Elmore in your stable. I don't imagine many adults will actually color the line art but you can always print some for the younger folk.

While I'm on the subject, Elmore Productions also sent me their two collections of postcards and their 2003 poster/calendar. Each postcard pack contains 12 ready to use postcards decorated with Elmore's paintings. One collection contains creatures and humanoids (critters), the other wizards and other magic users (magic users). Many of the full color art has appeared on magazine covers and other rpg products. At $15 for each set of 12, it's more than I pay for postcards but a collector of Elmore art may feel differently.

The poster is decorated with the new desert scene with the giant fighting the dragon, horse and rider in the foreground. The entire year is provided below, no space for writing, just months, days and dates. I don't know the MSRP of the poster, but again, for a fan it would be worth more than your average poster.