Product Description

This is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the rapidly expanding area of digital painting.Bold finished artworks sit with demonstrations for a book that's as breathtaking as it is practical.Diverse subject matter ranges from futuristic spacescapes and revolutionary vehicles to medieval landscapes and beautiful maidens.In-depth materials section introduces all the equipment you'll need, from computer hardware and software to more traditional art media.Detailed basic techniques section caters for newcomers to the digital medium plus those who want to brush up on their skills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5354 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
Review from Advanced Photoshop - Essential to fantasy and Sci-fi artists alike. The book itself presents a high-gloss, professional approach that allows the attractive working examples. --Advanced Photoshop

A remarkable, well produced guide to creating science fiction and fantasy art on our computer. Calling something The Bible of its own particular field is a mite presumptuous, but for once it s well justified. --Death Ray

Calling something ' The Bible' of its own particular field is a mite presumptuous, but for once it's well justified. Bold Visions: the Digital Painiting Bible should be a core text in your library of reference books. --Death Ray

About the Author
Gary Tonge is one of the UK's foremost games concept designers, currently working for Swordfish Studio (Vivendi/Sierra) as Art Director. He has his own freelance concept and illustration business where his clients include the BBC, Rock Planet Album Covers and National Geographic; his work can be seen at www.visionafar.com. Gary lives in Coventry.

Customer Reviews

More of a starter guide to digital painting
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RZ7RXUQ6WQN30 Bold Visions is more of a starter guide to digital painting than a bible.

It goes through the core art techniques such as colour, lighting, composition, research, materials and stuff like that. The good thing is all these concepts are explained clearly with great illustrations as examples.

The techniques and tips are presented in a pointer style as well as in the form of several step-by-step workflow screenshots. These step-by-step processes take a look at how Gary Tonge creates his digital sci-fi illustrations, as well as explain the considerations he takes to achieve certain effects -- sometimes dictated by clients. These are not tutorials that go into technical software details like changing opacity jitter and settings.

This book is recommended to beginners to digital paintings, especially fantasy and science-fiction artists.

If you're looking for step-by-step tutorials into digital painting, you might also want to check out ImagineFX's Fantasy Workshop. The tutorials there are slightly more in depth.

There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.

GREAT FOR BEGINNERS AND A SOLID RESOURCE FOR THE ADEPT
I have been scribbling and colouring ever since I can remember, and have worked as a graphic artist in many different capacities throughout my adult life, and as such I fully understand that you never will, or can, know it all when it comes to an ever shifting and growing subject matter such as art. So when a resource you feel would be beneficial to your craft comes along you should grab it with both hands and absorb it wholesale and this, people, is one such resource. This is a book of tips and hints that will benefit the digital painting initiate hoping to add more depth to their work: starting with primers on perspective and lighting and working on from there. However there is much to be gained for the more seasoned artist as a glimpse into another artists technique can help to bring new perspective to already inspired and accomplished work. Also as an indispensible wealth of tips and hints there is bound to be a good few things that help you streamline your workload in here (or even something you may have a more effective method of achieving which will make you feel good about your work!).

Now I have read one or two (and I do mean one or two) middling to bad user reviews of this gem on a few other sites and they all boil down to one glaringly obvious point: this book cannot teach you how to draw and will not inject you with a talent that you may not have the capacity for. Some people will always expect too much but if you take note of the cover which states 'for fantasy and science fiction artists' you can't go far wrong. If you want to try and boost your basic drawing skills a beginners guide to such things is going to be more up your street, this book assumes you have some skill with a pen, paper,certain programs and a graphics tab/mouse: and if you possess these things you will at one point of another make great use of this excellent guide (and impressive gallery of work).

Don't waste your money!
I was hoping to be introduced to the world of digital art, having been a traditional artist for more than twenty years, but that's not what you get. There's nothing useful about the tools that you couldn't glean from their names, there's no explanantion of things like "Gamma", or how colour curves work, or what different brushes are used for, or anything of real use to the newcomer. All you do get is example after example of work flow, and chapters on things like colour and light - useful if you've never lifted a paintbrush before, but nothing unique to digital art.

Gary Tonge is an excellent artist, no doubt there, but a teacher he isn't. I suggest trying another book.