Book Review: John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop

John Howe best known for his work based on J. R. R. Tolkien's worlds. He's also one of the chief designers for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

This book is a collection of tips and insights on creating fantasy art, with material covering the course of his career. There are no step-by-step tutorials so you won't see how he actually paints. That's the only thing lacking in this book that would make it perfect.

Instead, each chapter is filled with his past work and sketches with commentary on how they were created. The lessons are mainly on a conceptual level rather than at a technical level, like mixing colours or how to draw. He talks about his inspiration, research process, working style and includes lots of information on things to look out for when painting certain subjects, like characters, scenery, armour, etc.

Towards the back, he shares some career related tips on how to tackle commissions, promoting yourself, and working on set design for the big screen.

This should be an inspiring book for fantasy artist.

If you like this book, you should check out James Gurney's Imaginative Realism as well.

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