Book Review: Tahra Art by Kyoung Hwan Kim

Here's the artbook of South Korea concept designer and illustrator Kyoung Hwan Kim (website | facebook)

It's a large 256-page hardcover with English and Korea text.

From what I can see, the artworks are from 2003 to 2012, with the majority from the recent years.

There are a few sections in the book.

The first section collects fantasy illustrations that are very much fairy tales inspired. Some involve children running in mystical forests with strange creatures, others are scenic or fantasy locales.

Section 2 features fantasy character design illustrations, those you typically see for video games.

Section 3 has mainly female character portrait like paintings. The style here is more flowery as compared the fantasy art earlier. Pretty cool to see different styles.

Section 4 it's fantasy character designs again, but without the background art. They look like game characters but there's no mention of which games they are for.

Finally, there's a step-by-step Photoshop digital painting tutorial on how he creates a painting from a pencil sketch to finishing with Photoshop.

It's a beautiful artbook. And it's good to see different subjects being tackled as illustrations, from the supposedly more serious ones like game character designs to more magical child-like illustrations.

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

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