Book Review: The Art of Simon Bisley

Simon Bisley is a renowned illustrator and comic book artist and this book is a stunning collection of many of his paintings.
The book contains also exctracts from Bisley's most famous comics works like Batman, Judge Dredd, Lobo, Fistfull Of Blood and TMN Turtles.
Every page will blow you away, because of Bisley's brush strokes and color choiches.

Without any doubt this is a "Must Have" book.

Hardcover: 96 pages
Publisher: Heavy Metal Magazine (June 2003)
Language: English

ISBN-10: 1882931750
ISBN-13: 978-1882931750
Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.4 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds

You can buy it from Amazon.com

Please note that a new version of this book, called The Art of Simon Bisley Redux has been printed in soft cover and it contains some more paintings that the original version.
You can buy the new version from Amazon.com

 

 

 

Video Tutorial: The Gift

This is a painting I did for an Imagine FX contest.
The subject was "The Gift" and I thought about an Angel who's receiving a gift by "someone" above. the Gift itself has not been painted because I wanted to let the viewer decide about what it might be.

This video is not aimed to teach anything, but it's always possible to learn something just by looking other artists at works, so I put it into "Digital Tutorial" section.

• Lenght: 102 min
• Audio: No
• Resolution: 768x396

You can watch the video here: The Gift

Book Revew: Alphonse Mucha

This gorgeous volume is a survey of the entire spectrum of the Art Nouveau Master, Alphonse Mucha. Mucha's work is amazing and space between illustration, decorative art (drawings and photos), photos of his models and the historical paintings that were his life's passion. The book contains a stunning selection of 700 color illustrations: his design for the pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 1900 World's Fair to posters, jewelry design and painting, works on canvas, pastels and frescoes, photography and his magnum opus, the Slavic Epic (a series of 20 paintings depicting the history of his native people).

Another point of interset are the studies of the artist, done with pencils, (for me are the highlight of the book).

If you're looking for a comprehensive collection on Mucha's work or if you're simply a fan of Art Nouveau style, this is a "must have book".

• Hardcover: 356 pages 
• Publisher: Prestel USA (July 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3791343564 
• ISBN-13: 978-3791343563
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 9.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds

You can buy this book here: Amazon.com

 

 

Video Review: Comic Book Illustration with Phil Noto (The Gnomon Workshop)

In this new release by the The Gnomon Workshop "Phil Noto shows you his illustration techniques for creating comic book covers and pinups. Using a completely digital workflow, you will see how he goes from a preliminary sketch to finished art. He demonstrates how he uses Adobe Photoshop® for sketching and coloring, and Smith Micro Manga Studio™ for inking the art, while discussing the benefits of each program's toolset. Phil covers topics such as line quality, silhouette, proportions, Photoshop layer and channel management, color palette, brush selection, lighting and texture. Throughout the lecture Phil shows how he balances line, light, color and details to refine his illustration".

The video is very informative and Phil shares his personal workflow in detail giving some very insightful hints.

I would have preferred to have also the final image (at least in .jpg format) in order to look at it in detail but with the purchase you can download "only" the video and a .pdf file with some infos about the settigns of Quicktime to better view the video itself.

Anyway it's a product that worth every money spent for it and if you like Phil Noto's style it's a "must have"!
 

• Price: $49 
• Product Code: PNO01
• ISBN: 1-59762-800-X
• UPC: 805366017644
• Duration: 131 minutes
• Formats: DVD-ROM, Digital Download, Online Subscription 

Phil Noto
The Gnomon Workshop

Book Review: Sorayama Masterworks

Just arrived in the stores Masterworks is the complete collection of Hajime Sorayama's paintings.
Sorayama is a true master in rendering different type of textures, like skin, metal, silk, and so on and looking at this huge book you can understand why his name is worldwide recognize as one of the best modern illustrators.
The book contains every kind of illustration Sorayama did; his famous robots, pin-ups, beautiful women and also a huge number of erotic images.

In addition to the amazing artworks contained inside, the book is solid and very well printed, so it's a pleasure to seat down and look at it for hours.

My only little critic is about the format. With so many paintings of that quality I would have preferred to have it printed in a bigger size to look at every detail Sorayama painted more easily.

Anyway this is a "must have" book for everyone who likes art.

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Edition Skylight (July 14, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3037665998
• ISBN-13: 978-3037665992
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds

You can buy the book here: Amazon.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon FR | Amazon DE | Amazon JP