Mastering Fantasy Art - Drawing Dynamic Characters: People, Poses, Creatures and More

How well you will like this book depends on your skill level. New artist will find it a good starting point and experienced artist will not find it helpful. Some nice reference pictures and some tips you may not have thought of.

It's an okay book. Lovely artwork and helpful on drawing from models and applying it to your work but that's about it. I had sort of expected it to have a little more "oomph" but while I don't feel like it falls flat but I feel like there is something lacking.The creatures part of the book is probably something that should have either been left out or more elaborate because it only contains how to draw a unicorn and a dragon, along with some elves and a single image of a rendered dwarf character.Overall the book is just okay and maybe occasionally I'll flip through it for an idea or two but it's not something I find myself drawing upon all of the time.

This book was to teach me how to DRAW! So this was an ok book.

It was very detailed but maybe hard for starting artist.

Great book. John's method for ilustrate scenes with a great pencil drawings. I expect more color illustrations in this book. But i'ts a really good book.

I recently got to hear Robin Hobb speak on her writing and she said something very interesting. "If you want to make fantasy believable what is real and known in our world must be rendered accurately. If you get that right people are more likely to believe the fantastic." I don't believe this only applies to writing but to fantasy art as well.That's where this book comes in.Most aspiring artists soon learn if you're interested in really developing as an artist you're going to need to understand realism and there are a lot of pose books around, or online photo galleries, or you can use photos you have taken yourself to help you fill in the details your brain just won't hold. I have pose books and anatomy books and a gallery of references but this is the first book I have seen that deals with both taking your own reference photos and transforming that basic image into an original character (or even really using photos to draw from at all).The excellent artwork is monochrome pencil sketches, it doesn't deal with colour but it does deal with lighting, making composite images, dealing with models professionally and even making models out of clay to work from. It offers many good tools and idea for the artist and goes into how you can harness the power of photography, models and objects to improve your art.The section on fantasy creatures is limited but you can expand on the basics given here to compose your own references beyond what's offered which is another point in it's favour and what I think the purpose of this book is. Not to show you "this is how you draw a dragon" but "this is how you can use props and pictures of the natural world to create a believable fictional being."Once you know how to use these tools well you're not going to be limited to what's in this book. You can create your own looks, add colour, find your own props to incorporate into your art. I like what this book says and how it says it. I think it has a good message for aspiring and developing artists.

For any aspiring fantasy artists whose work lacks "realism," especially artists who struggle with characters drawn poorly out of their heads, this is an excellent primer on how to combine your imagination with purposeful photography to get the most out of your ideas. I teach art for a living, and I've begun to recommend this book as a top-notch resource for understanding how to use reference and get the most out of it. If you understand what he's giving you, John Stanko delivers.

I like the way he simplified everything. I often just draw whatever it is that I'm thinking but, I often have a hard time putting it on paper.Simplifying figures as shapes really helps.

This is an excellent book (kindle version for the purpose of this review) covering off everything you need to grasp for drawing fantasy art characters. It starts with the usual approach of equipment, lighting, reference etc and moves on to take you through john stanko's methods. It's very simple to follow and whilst perhaps aimed at beginner-intermediate level there are many useful nuggets of information for advanced artists. Definitely worth adding to your book collection.

Als ich das Buch bestellte ging ich von der Aufmachung davon aus, dass es sich hierbei um ein Buch für fortgeschrittene Zeichner handeln wurde und wurde eines Besseren belehrt.Das Buch an sich ist sehr gut aufgebaut, die Erklärungen sind anschaulich und sehr gut dargestellt.Allerdings geht es in diesem Buch hauptsächlich um das Abzeichnen von Fotos und wie man aus den Fotos Fantasyfiguren abbildet.Der Zeichenstil ist top! Und man sieht Schritt für Schritt wie das Bild entsteht, kann sich ein Bild von den Zeichenschritten machen und wird gut an der Hand geführt. Für mich hat es relativ wenig Sinn gehabt das Buch zu behalten, da ich etwas anderes gesucht habe. Ich habe etwas für die Darstellung von Charakteren in Farbe gesucht, dieses Bild beschäftigt sich jedoch hauptsächlich mit schwarz-weiß-Zeichnungen.