Rincewind
Magister
Oh yeah, Tolkien's watercolour illustrations are glorious. I purchased an art book featuring his art last year, I really love his style. But he still very much uses pastel colours.
Btw, I'm not quite sure why many "colourful" games look like crap. I've just done a quick search for "fantasy landscape" on ArtStation and clicked randomly on some colourful results, and look what I found. These are very vivid and colourful but still look good; I wouldn't call them garish.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/OyxmXv
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aO44z
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/g2y6XG
Btw, I'm not quite sure why many "colourful" games look like crap. I've just done a quick search for "fantasy landscape" on ArtStation and clicked randomly on some colourful results, and look what I found. These are very vivid and colourful but still look good; I wouldn't call them garish.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/OyxmXv
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aO44z
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/g2y6XG