Editor Marisa Lewis Publisher 3dtotal Publishing Price £20 Web http://www.shop.3dtotal.com Available NowF
Longque Chen often takes
inspiration from real-world
creatures, such as a
squid, for his concepts.A dinosaur-like design
from the imagination of
US artist Jordan Walker.development. The majority of the
artwork is in black and white; however,
a number of full colour illustrations
pop up randomly, making for a
welcome change of pace in among
the monochrome.
The image-to-word ratio is, quite
rightly, weighted heavily in favour of
the former, and the text featured is, for
the most part, carefully placed so as
not to intrude on valuable illustration
space. Page layouts follows the same
format for each artist – a shortFICTIONAL BEAST If you can think it then you can draw it, as this
inspirational book on concepting original fantasy creatures provesacing a blank canvas can be
daunting, particularly
when designing subjects
not of this world. Just what
and who do you turn to for
inspiration when designing mythical
creatures? The sixth in its series,
Sketching from the Imagination:
Creatures and Monsters is a fantastic
place to start. It’s an inspirational
paperback that gathers artwork from
50 illustrators working in the field of
creature design, while throwing in
some valuable artist insight for good
measure, too.
A glance through the book’s 317
pages and its format quickly becomes
apparent. Each artist has been
allocated a similar amount of space,
most of which is crammed full of the
most fascinating creature designs. A
varied subject selection provides
drawings of everything from dragons
and fairies to mechanical structures
and aliens, in all stages ofSketching from the Imagination:
Creatures & Monsters
introduction followed by inspiration,
materials and techniques sections –
which can get a little repetitive.
Highlighted boxouts, which feature
individuals’ artistic and professional
advice are, overall, much more
insightful (for a good example, see
White Ink is Your Friend on page 17).
A slight downside to this softcover is
that there’s no easy way (unless you’re
familiar with every artist) to quickly
find a specific subject matter or style
of interest. Instead, you’ll need to flickthrough the book’s hundreds of pages
to find those dragon designs you’re
looking for. If and when you do,
however, artists are detailed in a
summary of contributors at the back
of the book, should you want to
explore their body of work any further.
On the whole there’s very little not
to like about this book. The art is
accessible and fascinating in its variety,
and the artistic insight is a nice added
extra. Creature artists are sure to enjoy
all the eye candy on view, and at less
than £20, it’s a bargain to boot.RATING ++++
It’s an inspirational paperback that
gathers art from 50 illustrators working
in the field of creature design
Jin Yee Tew gives her
creatures a backstory
that informs the design.Reviews