While there?s no replacement for verbally describing your role-playing game character, having an artistic rendition of the character you describe can enhance the character?s ?reality.? Knowing just what he or she looks like brings an extra amount of life to the character and, overall, to the game itself. Unfortunately, most of us don?t have the talent or time to create a piece of artwork that would represent our character(s).

Bad Baby Productions? ?Character Portrait, Set 1? presents 10 full-color portraits, plus 2 bonus black-and-white images (only one of which is a portrait) drawn by Robert Hemminger. The illustrations are all of male, human characters, which immediately limit their use (although the one black-and-white portrait is of a character with pointed ears, so he could be an elf). The standard fantasy gaming classes are covered here; in fact, it seems as if every one of the core classes from the Dungeons & Dragons game is represented in this set.

Judging and reviewing artwork is completely subjective. What one person likes another might not like, and so on, but in an attempt to provide a fair assessment of this product, I have to say that I wasn?t overly impressed with this product. I?m not an accomplished artist myself, but too many of these portraits did not catch my eye. Some of the figures stand in unnatural, rigid postures. Others almost seem to be the same person, just in different clothing. A lack of detail in some of the characters? faces make this a difficult product to use.

The introduction to this product is also a bit confusing. In it, the artist states ?You may not resell these images,? but quickly follows up this statement that if the product is going to be used in someone else?s product, a copyright statement citing Robert Hemminger must be included. This confused me. Are other publishers allowed to use this artwork or not?

In the end, regardless of whom this product is marketed toward or whether it can be used in other products or publications, I wasn?t overly impressed with the artwork here. Check the demos first to see if this is artwork you can use before buying it.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The layout and editting of the project is simple and clean, and is easy to navigate. Also, the very last piece of artwork (which is not a portrait) is the best of the bunch.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The artwork just wasn't varied enough to warrant much excitement. Also, there is a bit of confusing language in the introduction that might scare off potnetial users of this product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Imagine that you have a friend that likes to draw. He?s probably not skilled enough to make a living doing nothing but illustrations, but he?s a fair enough artist that you ask him to do some character portraits for your regular D&D game. Your amateur artist friend then spends many hours carefully drawing a number of characters. When he?s finished, you have just shy of a dozen lovingly crafted full color illustrations for your game. They aren?t the best work you?ve ever seen, but you can tell that the artist put a lot of time and effort into these, and one of them will do just fine as a picture of your latest character.

The above scenario is exactly what I thought of as I looked through the pictures in Character Portraits I. The art is certainly not up to the quality of that found in a high end professional gaming product, but its light years ahead of anything I can do. The author notes in his introduction that a good character portrait can add a lot of impact to a game. I tend to agree with him. It?s one thing to describe your latest PC, it?s another thing entirely to hold up a picture and say ?this is what I look like.?

There is a nice variety of characters illustrated. All of them are male and human, but each one has a unique look, and most could easily represent a number of different classes / archetypes. I did note a certain similarity in the facial structure of a couple characters. At least two of them looked alike enough to be brothers. This isn?t a major criticism, but it could cut down on the usefulness of the book.

Art is very subjective. It?s really hard to rate what is good art and what isn?t. It?s also important to look at things in context. If this art were found, say, on the cover of Wizards latest product, I?d call it poor. As character illustrations, I?d say it?s decent. What it lacks in technical prowess, it makes up with flavor.

In the final analysis, the pictures really do look like something your artist friend drew for your home campaign. If you?re looking to illustrate your website, I don?t think you?ll find a lot of bang for your buck. If you?re trying to grab one or two pictures for your next D&D character, you?ll probably find something you can use.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: A lot of time and effort obviously went into each illustration. The characters have a great amount of detail in their clothing, weapons, and other adornments. Little touches like this add to the illustrations? usefulness as PC portraits by giving each picture a suggestion of history and depth. Where did the blonde paladin get his fiery sword, and what is the significance of the sunburst on his gloves? I really thought that the artist put a lot of effort into each picture, and I can appreciate that kind of hard work.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The art isn?t that great. It?s amateurish, but it?s on the high end of amateurish. If your favorite Dragon Magazine cover is the best fantasy art you?ve ever seen, think of Character Portraits I as a mediocre Polyhedron cover. It has a lot of character, but it?s obviously not on the high end of skilled artwork.

I thought that the value was a little low on this product at well. Yes, at a cost of $5 it does work out to less than .50 per illustration. The trouble is that you?re not going to have any use for every illustration. If you only like two pictures, the cost is now $2.50 an illustration. As a consumer, I?d be more interested in paying slightly more for a whole bunch of illustrations of a wider variety of character types. To be fair, $5 is pretty cheap, but if all I?m looking for is in-game character illustrations, the internet already offers plenty of free alternatives. What I?m paying for is either style or convenience, and I think increasing the number of pictures would have led to a greater amount of convenience, and therefore a higher score in the end.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>