Art is a great hobby and one that many the world over like to do as a hobby and learning is a serious part of the arts world through books mainly as they are a great learning tool for artists who like to learn about specific art subjects as there are countless books on them subjects. And recently I have reviewed lots of books, but to sum up the best 5 that I think are recommended reading for an artist, then it’s the following five books, each with useful and creative artistic insight into drawing and art techniques.
Perhaps the first art book that I reviewed was Dynamic Figure Drawing and in that book there is in depth information on drawing dynamic and realistic looking figures and figures that matter with all the muscles in the right places and expert guidance on drawing figure forms and structures through many solid examples of figures and body parts such as the head, legs, arms and full body torso.
To be honest, this book is a great book if you are interested in learning about drawing the human figure in a dynamic format.
Drawing And Painting The Undead was another one that inspired in a very different way by giving lots of great examples of original undead fantasy art with creatures of the dead that you know and others that you may not know that well. Although the book was light on actual step by step examples it was a stand out book for me because it inspired as much as it taught and sometimes that is even better.
Fantasy Art Illustrators Techniques is a good book because it actually has some useful tutorials and information to go through on the subject of drawing fantasy art. The book covers the basics of selecting your art equipment to draw and create and then onto finding inspiration and actually drawing your own fantasy stuff.
John Howe’s Fantasy Art Workshop is more about the process of a well known artist than anything else and how he approaches the drawing of his popular style of fantasy art and this itself is very inspiring to read through and follow his work routine and gain some tips. John was one of concept designers who really made the look and feel of the Lord Of The Rings Movie trilogy together with Alan Lee and other conceptual artists.
Draw Comics The Marvel Way is years old but it serves as a testament to Stan the man Lee himself that a book like this can stand the test of time with such amazing art by the late John Buscema as it attempts to explain in very simple terms how to draw comic books. Every aspect is touched on, from drawing dynamic figures, drawing in perspective, drawing covers to comics, inking and page layout, this was the first and best hope for amateur comic artists and it’s still one of the best books out there on comic drawing.
And there we have my own personal top pick of the best fantasy art books that any self prospecting fantasy artists should seek out and learn from, I own these 5 books and find them highly useful and influential in my own art.
Wayne Tully is an artists of fantasy and drawer of self published comics (Coming Soon!) and he has a blog that features his own art drawing videos and insights into drawing fantasy art and you can reach that blog right here – Draw Fantasy Art
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