Product Description

This book presents 100 exciting and ingenious ways to design and draw better fantasy figures: from developing the characters to adding costumes, props and backdrops.Hollywood concept designer Francis Tsai shares tips and tricks for creating imaginative figures, giving readers a unique opportunity to gain guidance from a real pro.The images use an inspirational mix of styles and approaches, with influences ranging from Celtic, Greek, Roman, Oriental and Medieval to 19th Century Gothic.The accessible layout, with a stiking image and accompanying text on each page, provides a sourcebook of key approaches and techniques - perfect for artists and illustrators who want bite-sized information that will make a real difference to their work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8301 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
There's something here for very palette. --Imagine FX

This is a book that can be referenced time and time again. If you enjoy painting fantasy characters, you owe it to yourself to own a copy of this book. --Corel Painter

About the Author
Francis Tsai is a renowned conceptual designer who has just completed work on the Mutant Ninja Turtles movie for Warner. He was the principal artist for Darkwatch and has worked on many other fantasy gaming assignments, as well as pen and paper role playing games, manuals and trading cards. He is a regular contributor to ImagineFX magazine. He lives in San Diego, California.

Customer Reviews

100 'tips' is a better title
This book doesn't get 5/5 for a few reasons. While this book is helpful, its certainly not a book for beginners. This is more a book of 100 tips for people who have a clear idea of what they want to draw, but can't just get it perfect. While there are some very useful sketches showing each of the stages of a drawing, the book suffers from a lack of them (possibly 4-8 in total). The notes in the book are nice, as are the small tip boxes dropped in every now and again, though it feels they could be a little deeper in parts. One of the best features of this book is the art. Drawings are fully coloured and are of a very high quality, with smaller boxes displaying close-up inspections of each picture and the technique used. There is also a large number of pictures with span a whole page, or half a page of A4. These are very useful for picking up technique to be used in your own drawings.
Overall whilst not being amazingly helpful to a beginner, someone who has got the basics of drawing and shading/colouring would benefit a lot more. A good buy, but not as basic as I expected.

Excellent for fantasy artists
I loved this book. This is an exeptional book for anyone looking to improve there art work through valuable insights of a top professional. The book will not teach you how to draw but thats not its intention. Technique and ways to develop your ideas and your imagination are key. The illustrations / paintings in the book are all of a very high standard, inspirational. I've kept this one handy since I bought it and Im sure I'll have it around for a long time to come.

scottyb
I found this book very enjoyable. I appreciate the fact it delivers the material on a level that someone with talent could take and run with. it is not only well stylized, but it also has effectually informative. only thing i found, and its really just personal preference I wish I could have gotten it in hardback for better storage.