Drawing & Painting Fantasy Worlds

by Finlay Cowan

*With movies like Lord of the Rings, fantasy art is more popular than ever *Covers a wide range of media including watercolor painting, illustration, and digital painting *Showcases inspirational finished art from today's top fantasy artists Respected and successful artist Finlay Cowan follows up his popular Drawing and Painting Fantasy Figures with a book that shows fantasy artists how to create worlds as wide and vivid as their imagination. This complete guide to covers all of the elements of creating fantasy art from amazing creatures, to spellbinding landscapes and mythical characters--all explained with detailed step-by-step instructions. Fantasy artists will love this mixed-media approach for incorporating watercolor painting, 3D art, digital painting and illustration into their work and will be inspired by a sensational range of finished artwork from some of the genre's most accomplished artists. Artist, designer and animation director Finlay Cowan has worked for Pink Floyd and is currently working in the film industry."

Genres: Art, Reference, Nonfiction, Drawing

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2006

Reviews

[Anna C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is it just me, or is a lot of the art in this book..... just bad? Usually the lineart looked pretty good , but the coloring was invariably flat, and once they started tinkering with their drawings in Photoshop, I had to cringe. (Maybe because this book was published in 2006? And digital art was younger then... and they just didn't know any better?)

I teach a fantasy writing and drawing elective class for middle schoolers, and I had hoped to put this book in my classroom library. In terms of prose and intellectual content, this book is definitely on a middle school level. However, Finlay Cowan and his co-contributors also gravitate toward mainly drawing skimpily-armored-enormous-breasted-fantasy-babes. If there were just one or two fantasy babes, I could Sharpie out the worst parts or demand a certain maturity from the kids, but with partially nude warrior women on every other page..... that's just asking for trouble.

[Parka · Rating 4 out of 5]

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The book however provides lots of ideas and examples on fantasy art. Things like researching, symbolism of characters and archetype, creating costumes and things like that. There are a few step-by-step workflow process tutorials.

I've mixed feelings about the book because of the lack of depth in certain areas. It's worth looking through but to really hone your techniques, you might have to get other books.

Other fantasy art technique books that I recommend are 100 Ways to Create Fantasy Figures and Fantasy Workshop: Mastering Digital Painting Techniques.

[Ben Claymier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine guide on building fantasy worlds and advice on making them feel less "antiseptic" and "overwrought". Like the other books in this series however it just left me feeling like there was more to be said, and more inspiration to impart on creating unique fantasy worlds.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good read.