By: Boris Vallejo Publisher: Fireside Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Fireside Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 128 Publication Date: May 28, 1996
Product Description: In a captivating, behind-the-scenes look into the creative process of a fantasy artist, renowned artist Boris Vallejo discusses in depth the techniques of a personal style that has placed him among the leading international fantasy and science fiction artists of today. 91 color images; 32 line drawings.
More like a portfolio... I admire Master Vallejo's work and style, although sometimes he stays too much dependent on his female models, who may not be "flawless", as fantasy art would require...
Still, when I saw this book I thought Master Vallejo would share his genious with me... unfortunately this is not the case... the book is more than 100 pages but the "techniques" I expected to find may not sum up to more than 10 pages and the rest is pages of Master's great work... and those are mostly verbally explained while I would like to see more step by step visual instructions... and the tricks Master Vallejo wished to share with us are not exclusive to him...I accept that I had learned something from the book when I first bought it, but today you can find much more information from great resources in the Web about any kind of art... Then again, maybe Master Vallejo wanted to give the message that it is the talent that matters...
Before reaching a conclusion I have to underline something because it may be the single most important factor for you to decide to buy this book... The knowledge that this book offers may be of great value, if you are a beginner and trying to advance into indermediate level... But if you are more than that, all you see can be stuff you already know...
For me, this book can not go further than being a nice hard-cover portfolio book.... If I had bought it for this purpose, then I would most likely rate it with 5 stars... But, comparing its' name with its' content I give 2 stars (and one of them is exclusively for my respect to Master Vallejo)
Some of Boris's best early work and some good advice as well For a reader that likes Boris's classic early works and who wants to know more about the creative processes that went into these paintings, it's hard to go wrong with _Fantasy Art Techniques_.
_Fantasy Art Techniques_ by Boris Vallejo was published in 1985, and is a guide to how he creates his paintings, the steps he goes through in the process, and some of the areas he pays special attention to.
He specifically discusses the uses of models & photographs, rough sketches, how to do skin tones, and how to approach the painting & underpainting.
I found his discussion on all of these topics to be very fascinating, especially the discussion of skin tones. Boris has a very recognizable style to his art; after reading _Fantasy Art Techniques_, I understand that part of his style is his treatment of skin tones and his extensive use of human models.
In the Introduction, Boris states "I have always had the facility to draw. I can't remember a time my life when I wasn't drawing or painting. In this sense, art has always been a natural part of my existence." Given this statement, it is not surprising that _Fantasy Art Techniques_ is written for the artist who has already mastered basic drawing techniques such as shading, foreshortening, anatomy, color theory, proportion & composition. However, _Fantasy Art Techniques_ does do a good job of showing an accomplished artist the steps & thought processes involved in starting with a concept and creating a finished piece.
_Fantasy Art Techniques_ includes a lot of prints of Boris's works, and is worth purchasing just for that. Many of his most recognizable paintings are included, such as "Siren Song", "Dragon Tattoo", "Counterfeit Lover" , "Lavalite World", "In the Moons of Borea", "Primeval Princess", "Of Men and Monsters", "Iron Warrior", "The Victorious", "Scarecrow Angel", "The Magnificent", "Broken Sword", "The Sorceress", "Red Amazon", and "The Witch and Her Familiar".
There are many more paintings besides those included in the book, and also a number of rough sketches, pencil drawings, modeling photographs, and pen & ink sketches. Truthfully, I found I liked the pen & ink sketches even more than the resulting paintings.
[For anyone reading this review, I would also like to note that I am very biased towards Boris's earlier works. While the details in his more recent works are crisper and things such as proportion, posing & reflections may be more technically correct, I find that much of Boris's later work is . . . well, kind of boring. In his earlier works, including many of the paintings shown in _Fantasy Art Techniques_, it is easy to look at the painting and almost immediately start imagining the back story of the characters and how they wound up in the situation depicted. In his later works, I find myself looking at the painting and thinking that it's great technique, but I don't get a sense of any story at all, just someone who said "wow, painting such-and-such scene would probably be really difficult, so I'll go ahead and do that just to show that I can."
All of which is another reason I give _Fantasy Art Techniques_ five stars: it is a GREAT collection of his works from a stylistic period that I like a lot more than anything he's done since the mid 1990s.]
Wonderful conservation, like new It seems new. We think the book has a wonderful conservation, like new
Quite disappointing for a teaching aid I absolutely love Boris Vallejo's art, and as an artist, I would love to be able to do what he can. Which is of course why you buy a book like this.
I was very disappointed when I received the book. It serves more as a look back through his back catalogue of work (some unpublished stuff as well). There are a few (very few) pieces of advice and tips on how to set up your reference photos and prepare a portfolio, but overall it is so general and vague that you will learn little more than "there is no one way to paint skin colour" or "it takes time to get good". Chances are you already knew that...
This book was either compiled in a hurry by request of Boris Vallejo's financial advisor, or he is simply not interested in passing on the knowledge he has of his craft. Quite disappointing.
Techniques of a master illustrator Vallejo's techniqe is awe-inspiring and really very simple. He does a rough sketch, poses his models, takes pictures, and composes a finished drawing. He transfers this to a canvas, does an acrylic wash for the lights and darks, then adds colors with oils. And that's it! Well, he makes it look that easy, anyway. Vallejo let's you in on the medium he uses right down to the fast-drying ordorless turp used by housepainters. This book really disects the methods of an icon of fantasy artwork.
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