Everyone has seen fantasy art: on album covers, in movie theaters, on books, and elsewhere. How do the artists do it? How do they create those wizards and elves, those
castles and weapons, all those things we remember about fantasy art? This book, using examples by the author and other fantasy artists, attempts to explain the process.
Anatomy and proportions of common fantastic figures, perspective, image composition, even artistic media - from pencils and pens to the latest in digital imaging - are
covered, with an emphasis on finding the creative voice within.
Review
This reminds me strongly of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Science Fiction Art Techniques, in that it spends a few pages on a given subject, then offers the
reader/artist exercises to reinforce the lessons learned. Even if you don't have the time, space, or materials to try these things at home (and I have none of the above),
this is a great book to page through. Cowan packs a lot of information into his pages, and this book certainly needs to be read more than once to get its full impact.
Impossible cities, strange beings, peculiar tribal armor, biomechanical beasts… fantasy and science fiction art and stories present us with all manner of fantastic
worlds which, when properly rendered, can seem simultaneously bizarre yet entirely as real as our own world. This book describes how to create such worlds by examining
architecture, characters, machinery, details, and other necessities.
Review
It’s a bit difficult to give this an accurate review. I have read Cowan’s previous book, Drawing & Painting Fantasy Figures, which mentions several items
found here, though in differing levels of detail. I clipped it a point because of the redundancy, though to be fair this isn’t a complete rehash of the earlier book. I
think the two work best as companion works, each filling in blanks or weak spots left by the other. Both emphasize a marriage of traditional and digital media, and both
discuss not only creating art but studio setup and other survival skills needed for working artists. As promised, this book describes many elements of creating visually
compelling and original fantasy worlds. It also touches on characters and other items necessary to flesh out said worlds, and it includes some step-by-step tutorials. I
found some of the tutorials a little overwhelming just in reading them; I think the previous book did a better job giving readers an overview of digital painting
techniques and methods for producing computer-enhanced work. Overall, I can recommend this book to artists interested in creating fantastic worlds, but I can recommend it
more highly if they already own or plan to purchase Cowan’s first book.
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