Today I found a quite interesting arts design book, Fantasy Art---The best in Fantasy and SF art worldwide. This book was written by Dick Jude, and was first published in paperback in 2001 London.
As the title of the book, this book is all about the fantasy design. It covered fanstasitc illustration work of differernt arteists, such as Don Maitz, Chris Moore, Dave McKean, etc.
When I first looked at this book, it had an unusual shape. It came with a square shape (Unlike the usual book shape, height is bigger than width). I like the layout design of this book, there is at least one picture in every single page, even the therory and histroy parts. Also the sequence between each chapters is presented very well, it is in historical sequence. In the beginning chapters, all the artists' work are about the past western world, like "old Roma, War", "Gaius Julius Caesar", "Napoleon", etc. In the last chapters, all the artists' work are about modern world, like "bact to future", "iRobot", etc. I guess a lot of fantasy movies graphic design are based on those design in the book. We may also see them in the computer games, such as War Craft. And if you are interested about cartoon design, perhasps this book is a good reference.
There is only one point I don't like about this book, the front page. The picture of the front page is based on sky blue colour, and there are few flying dragons or some kind of monsters in the middle, with fire in their mouthes. I think that is a little bit sick and scare when you first look at it. The dragons or monsters are not very good--looking, and the front page colours are combined by blue, black and a little bit yellow and red. I don't think that is a good colour combination.
At the end, it is a very nice and interesting arts design book. You can know how the fantasy design and concept develop and improve by time. You will also have a little bit idea about the graphic design of the fantasy movies, how do they come from.
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