The Fantasy Artroom by Aaron Pocock

The Fantasy Artroom by Aaron Pocock ISBN-13: 9780486801247 Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: Dover Publications Released: May 18, 2016

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Do you love to create imaginative artwork? Would you like to add depth and richness to your creations? Could you use fresh inspiration? Here is the book that will help you brush up on your skills and add new tricks and techniques to your repertoire.

These step-by-step demonstrations offer easy-to-follow methods for drawing trees and landscapes; forming dwarves, witches, mermaids, centaurs, and other characters; and putting them all together into enchanting compositions. Introduce a new dimension to your drawing, line art, and watercolor images with this richly illustrated guide and its helpful exercises, tips, and suggestions.


My Review:
The Fantasy Artroom teaches how to draw, ink, and use watercolor to create fantasy artwork. The author assumed that you have no art training. He generally suggested the minimal necessary tools to get you started, and he gave tips on how to use these tools to get good results. He provided step-by-step demonstrations on how to draw a scene element (like a rock, tree, dragon, water, etc.) or whole fantasy scene. He broke the steps down enough that I felt confident as I did the demo and in using that information to create my own scenes. He was very encouraging and made art seem do-able for everyone.

He taught how to sketch or draw a scene, how to ink the scene using a dip pen or ink pens, and how to paint colored scenes using watercolors. His tips on using dip pens and watercolors were very useful. He showed how to use reference photographs, like using a picture of a lizard to create a better dragon. He talked about composing and story-telling in the scene. He provided demos on landscape elements, texture, and a variety of fantasy creatures (from griffins to trolls, mermaids, fairies, and more).

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone--young or old--who would like to learn how to create or improve their fantasy artwork.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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