Quantum Dreams: The Art of Stephan Martiniere

by Stephan Martinière, Stephan Martinière, Scott Robertson (Editor)

"When I grow up I want to be an astronaut!" declared a six-year-old Stephan in 1968, a year before man walked on the moon. Not surprisingly, his first doodles featured blazing rockets and spaceships. Growing up in France, and not permitted to watch much TV, Stephan spent a lot of time at the corner cinema. There he was introduced to the likes of the Werewolf, the Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein and King Kong. He traveled on the Voyage to the Center of the Earth and experienced The Day the Earth Stood Still . The fantastic creatures and worlds in all of these classics were overwhelmingly cool. As Stephan's doodles of astronauts became doodles of monsters and aliens, he found himself enjoying drawing more and more--and the dream of becoming an astronaut gradually evolved into becoming a visual artist. Quantum The Art of Stephan Martinière is a collection of his sci-fi book paintings, video game designs and personal art. Stephan takes others' descriptions of faraway, imaginary realms--and makes them real.

Genres: Art

80 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2004

About the author

Stephan Martinière is an award-winning French science fiction and fantasy artist, using his considerable skill and experience to morph from cartoonist, to concept illustrator, to art director.

As of 2008, Stephan Martiniere resides in Dallas, Texas and works at id Software on Rage.

* Complete list of his book covers.

Book covers were something that Stephan wanted to do for many years: “As a kid I was buying sci-fi books mainly because of the cover art. I was a huge fan of Chris Foss.” His first cover was for a story from Jack Williamson, 'Terraforming the Earth'.
“Doing book covers is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding thing for me”, says Stephan. “As an artist, book covers offer individual recognition. Coming from a background in movies and animation where everything is part of a huge machine, you have no idea where your work goes and how it’s being used. It’s rare when you can see it all on the screen. As an artist it’s important to be able to show people what you do and receive feedback. It validates your art and yourself as an artist. Book covers are exciting because they are “undiluted”.
CGSociety, Grand Master Award interview.

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

This would probably appeal more to sci-fi fans and futuristic landscape concept artists.

This book is a showcase of Stephan Martiniere's art. The quality is great and obviously he's in a class of his own.

Most of them are for book covers and some computer game concept designs. Expect planets, star trails, space cities, humans with cool uniforms, and robots. Each painting is accompanied by the artist's comments.

There are 80 pages, and at the end, I felt wanting more. However, you can see more paintings on his website.

This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a title I stumbled across while researching something totally different which is often the case with me.

This book stood out with yes you guessed it the giant mecha. The book itself is filled with amazing artwork along with notes from the artist of what inspired them and how they made the image.

Now I appreciate that these books "cherry pick " the best images but I loved the number of book covers referenced but not only that but books I have and want to read. So not only do I appreciate the art but it connects to my collection as well