Book Review: Mecha Zone 2: The Art of David A. White

Thanks to David A. White for sending me a copy of his latest book. Mecha Zone 2. Art books on mechas are hard to find, mainly because you don't know they exist or you just don't know their title.

Mecha Zone 2 is a 112-page art book with a nice cover. It's very thick and the mecha art is given a in-your-face tight cropping.

Inside, there are plenty of mecha designs collected. They look very cool, industrial and fit for battle. You have the walkers, the transformers-type, humanoids, and the organic creature-like ones. The organic designs are refreshingly different compared to the typical mechas. It shows the potential in creating really radical designs. One had armor made of bone.

The tutorial is actually a look at the process of how David White created one of the mechas, from conceptualizing to the finishing ink. It's a detailed step-by-step demonstration with lots of screenshots. The design process actually starts with silhouetting and then cleaning up from there. The illustrations are all hand drawn with a few tools utilized, like the French curve and eclipse templates.

One thing that always baffles me about mecha designs is about getting the perspective right. Things like getting stuff on the left to align with right in perspective, or angle of a turning turret relative to its body, etc. In the tutorial, there aren't much perspective aid lines, although the base sketch looks believable.

Overall, Mecha Zone 2 is a beautiful and inspiring art book. Great for mecha fans and designers.

You can get the book at www.mechazone.bigcartel.com, mechazone.com, www.bigbadtoystore.com and Amazon.com.

Check out more work at mecha-master.deviantart.com and davidwhiteillustration.blogspot.com.

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If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

This book is available at:
mechazone.com | www.mechazone.bigcartel.com | www.bigbadtoystore.com | Amazon.com