Fantasy Creatures: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Digital Painting Techniques is the second book published by ImagineFX, this time focusing on fantasy creatures from your traditional faeries, elves and the like to aliens, monsters and non-traditional “fantasy” creatures. The tutorials found within the book were previously published in ImagineFX’s magazine editions and are from various artists. If you don’t subscribe to ImagineFX or just want to collect the tutorials; everything is nicely put together in this one book.
The book is split into six chapters with each focusing on a certain creature beginning with traditional fantasy types and moving to beasts, vampires, demons, the mythical, aliens, and ending with a general creature creation section. Practically all the tutorials within are done using Photoshop with the exception of Zbrush in the 3D chapter. Though using Photoshop will make it easier to follow the steps, you should be able to replicate the tutorials with another graphic software that has comprehensive brush options and the like. In other words, you may have a harder time following the instructions using free or limited graphic softwares.
I would recommend this book for those who a) are into realistic digital painting and CGing b) at least intermediate or above in skill level and c) is at least of teenage years and up. This book focuses strictly in realistic digital painting and if you’re looking for how-to’s on how to draw or create creatures from scratch in a comprehensive manner, prepare to be disappointed! This leads to the next point of being intermediate or above in skill. If you’re still learning the basics of anatomy, then you’re better off getting a book covering those topics than jumping to something that you’re not ready for. Lastly, partly due to the amount of text and partly because there is one tutorial that had a nude mermaid, I would suggest this book for teens and up.
As I mentioned, this book covers a realistic and painterly style of CGing. From the creatures to the humans, expect the tutorials to cover techniques that will make your art look almost life-like. If you’re looking for cel or other anime digital painting styles, take a pass on this book. Instead, try out ImagineFX’s other book Manga: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Digital Painting Techniques which specifically covers manga CGing styles in-depth.
Fantasy Creatures: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Digital Painting Techniques
by ImagineFX (various)
ISBN# 9781843406020
208 pages
color
MSRP $24.95USD, £17.99; $29.95CAN
Contents
Introduction
Creature Gallery
1: Faeries, Fables and Friendly Giant
Painting a Faerie Scene: Bente Schlick
Paint Placid Titan: Vinod Rams
The Big, Bad Bunny Eater: Boby Chiu
Sexy Siren: Johnny Duddle
Masterclass: The Nature of Faerie Art
2: Beasts in 3D
ZBrush: Creating a Beast I: Scott Spencer
ZBrush: Creating a BEast II: Scott Spencer
Q&A: Lighting: Antonis Papantoniou
Hunter of the Deep: Khalid al Muharraqi
Feto Lives!: Alvaro Buendia
Top Ten Ways to be a Better Artist
3: Vampires and Demons
21st Century Vampire: Mélanie Delon
A Boy and his Cerberus: Jonatan Iversen-Ejve
Q&A: Rotted Flesh: Dave Kendall
Demonic Creature Concepts: David Blight
Masterclass: Vampire Tips
4: Myths and Monsters
Creature Design: Raymond Swanland
Release the Kraken: Bart Tiongson
Q&A: Painting up a Serpent: Rachel Haupt
Monster Creations: Jim Pavelec
Q&A: Muscular Dinosaurs: Paul Gerrard
5: Alien Races
Photo-realistic Sci-fi Portraits: Michael Kutsche
Q&A: Intelligent Aliens: Francis Tsai
Quick Martian Concepts: Andy Park
Masterclass: 25 Ways to Design an Alien
6: Creature Features
Create a One-Hour Monster: Joe Vriens Jr
Q&A: Merging Animal References: Patrick Reilly
Watercolour to Digital: Justin Gerard
Core Silks: Pen Tool
Masterclas: Creature Anatomy Workshop
Symmetrical Designing: Mike Corriero
Top Ten Essential Art Skills
