Book Review: James Martin's Muse

Submitted by  Teoh Yi Chie on  July 12, 2021 - 5:51 pm

James Martin is an artist and teacher based in USA who has worked for more than 20 years in the advertising and film entertainment industry.

Martin started his career working for comic book artist Neal Adams as a storyboard and movie poster sketch artist. During his freelance career, he has worked with Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Marvel Comics and more. He has also worked as a background painter, visual development artist, matte painter for Disney and DreamWorks animation studios. He currently teaches at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.

This large format 350-page hardcover features his nude figure drawings, all female. Major influences on his work in MUSE are Dean Cornwell and Alphonse Mucha. Text is in English and French.

The book is co-published by Spiridon Giannakis and Editions Caurette. The binding is excellent for such a thick book and the paper used is 150g Munken Lynx paper (matte).

The contents as follows:

  • Foreword by George Pratt
  • Art (146 pages)
  • Oil Paintings (24 pages)
  • Gouache Paintings (4 pages)
  • On Process and Learning (4 pages)
  • Process (46 pages)
  • Sketchbooks (64 pages)
  • Life Drawings (70 pages)

His figure drawings are gorgeous. The artworks are drawn or painted with a variety of medium, e.g pencil, oil, gouache. There are also many sketches at various stage of completion to show the process. Martin has a way to not just capture the form but the life of the model.

This is an excellent artbook for fans of James Martin and those who enjoy figure drawing.

Since this book has nudity, I shall leave text links to the pictures of the book below rather than embed them.

Sample pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

Availability

US: Stuart Ng Books
Europe: Editions Caurette
Singapore: Basheer Graphics Books

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

Tags
james martin
art book reviews
spiridon giannakis
editions caurette
basheer sponsored
figure drawing

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