Soft as Steel: The Art of Julie Bell

by Julie Bell, Nigel Suckling, Brian W. Aldiss (Foreword)

From metallic images to superheroes, Julie Bell's illustrations emanate power and sensuality. The term "metal flesh" has been coined to express one of her distinct styles, making it the trademark of her work. A series of exotic fantasy realms come to life with astounding vividness in her paintings, in which the bodies appear to be a melding of cold steel and vulnerable human flesh.

Genres: Art, Fantasy

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

And so on to the second of my Paper Tiger additions - this time from Julie Bell - now I will admit she is one of those artists of know less of. I will admit (and interestingly it is mentioned in the introduction to the book) that her work is often mistaken for that of Boris Vallejo and as a result I guess I have not recognised her work as much as I should have done (on a side note it should be said they are married and often collaborate on work together so there are a lot of synergies here).

But I think where I do know her work from is the incredibly evocative work on Marvel and DC comic characters in fact many of her pieces I feel epitomised the comic book scene for many years.

However like many large bodies of work - such recognition can over shadow other pieces some of which (at least to me) have greater significance. So yes a great book and a fascinating read which certainly changed some of my preconceptions/

[S. D. Howarth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very talented artist.