Guild Wars 2

What happened to the great art work for the zone loading screens? This looks like a kid’s fingerpainting >.>

I am ok with a swing in different art styles…but this style is kinda just a mess :/

That’s maybe because these days they don’t get much time/money for concept art.
That’s something you do on the early development of a game.
I could bet these days any drawings they make are more “technical”, so concept like this is put together hastily and because of that it can never be anything jaw dropping.

it’s because it’s unfinished

Hehe I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw it and wondered whether I should point it out or not so thanks for that. But yeah, it definitely seems like the artists are getting extremely lazy with the artwork IMO. I mean, abstract is fine and all but I expect more from the Anet art team.

They’ve done weird/abstract art before, but I do kinda agree it’d be nice for something a little more… solid? Easier to tell what it is?

The LA screen vaguely looks like it might have the drill in the back, but you can’t be sure.

It seems to have been done by the same artist that did some of the other recent loading screens (like Southsun Survival, for example).

Personally it is not my style, and I do not really think it is adding much to the style of the game. It really does look amateurish, but then again, it is art, which is very subjective.

I think the loading screens should provide some sort of glimpse of what is coming, not some highly abstract scene that takes longer than the loading screen displays to figure out what it is supposed to be!

It does seem rather unfinished, like the rough draft you start with before you actual add detailing (I do some digital painting and landscapes myself actually)

Normally you just start with a monochrome quick paint that helps determine foreground, background etc. then flesh out the details etc. and add depth further on through the process.

If a painting is done in steps (which it is) this looks like it stopped at step 2 and gave up :/

Maybe because the original concept artist (Kekai Kotaki) left ArenaNet?