Customer Reviews

The Art of Lorenzo Sperlonga

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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In the world of erotic/pinup art, Lorenzo Sperlonga is a true master. In a field loaded with some extremely talented artists, Sperlonga is one of the very best, drawing and painting some of the most beautiful women ever put on paper. This 104 page, full color collection from SQP collects some of the greatest works from the Italian artist. Sperlonga was "discovered" by Kevin Eastman, publisher of Heavy Metal and co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman was blown away by the lush, detailed, photo-realistic quality of Sperlonga's work. What I love about him is how diversified he is, being able to cross-genres from standard pin-up-style art, to fantasy, sci-fi, and horror with relative ease. He infuses his works with eroticism and an enticing wit.

Take a piece called "Angel Baby" showing a rather beleaguered blonde angel, sitting at a table drinking Jack Daniels with a cigarette burning in an ash tray. It's a fantastic piece providing tremendous fodder for conversation regarding its interpretation. "Come out and Play" features identical twin sisters, armed with aluminum baseball bats, ready for action...and I doubt it's baseball they're in the mood for. "Welcome to Hell" features scream queen, and Eastman's wife Julie Strain (damn but that man is lucky" along with the Porcelain Twins, as the official door greeters in Hell. This was taken from a Heavy Metal cover.

"The Mirror" is a tricky, creative painting as a topless woman dries herself off after a shower, and yet in the mirror, you only see the towel, seemingly hanging in mid air, as the woman casts no reflection herself. Sperlonga takes a stab at pop culture with "Hannibal's Revenge" showing Jodie Foster as Agent Starling, clad in a straight jacket and locked in a padded cell.

One of my favorite paintings in the entire collection is "The Mummy" showing a gorgeous mummy who has just returned to life. The use of light and shadow in this piece is just flawless. The way the light shimmers off the walls is mesmerizing. Lizzy Strain (half-sister to Julie) models for "Lizzy Goes to London" standing with an assault rifle in front of the Union Jack, flipping the bird. Buxom Anna Nicole Smith poses in a see through top, sitting on a pool table, in a painting entitled "Saloon Kitty."

The book provides a sketch, pencil and ink section and Lorenzo takes you through the creative process from rough draft to completed paintings. A comprehensive index gives a thumbnail of each piece including the name, medium and model name. Contrary to the other review, I will tell you that the book is printed on high quality, slick, glossy paper and is just a beautiful book. My highest recommendation for the Art of Lorenzo Sperlonga!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

SPECIFICS:
Page Count: 104
Number of images: 85
Small images: 5
Half page images: 8
Full page images: 71
2-page spreads: 1
BW images: 5

TEXT:
1 page introduction
1 page biography
4 pages with thumbnails of the art displayed, mentioning the title, year and real size

ART:
12 images: 5 stars
32 images: 4 stars
33 images: 3 stars
7 images: 2 stars
1 image: 1 star

Overall: 3,5 stars

This is a review of the first 85 pages and pages 94-97.
Pages 86 through 93 contain mainly sketches.

If you like erotic pin-up, sci-fi, or fantasy art dealing with realistic images of beautiful women, (and a great rendition of Spiderman and Vlad, the infamous impaler) this is the book for you. Not only are the paintings photo-realistic in many instances, but they are imaginative in their settings. There are many great artists of this genre to pick from, but this book is a little different in that Lorezno Sperlonga shows you he is not trapped in any box. There is something for every kind of pin-up art lover in this sleek volume of his work. For real art fans, Lorenzo lets you see his progression over a period of years and he is nothing if not improving with every brush stroke. I love this rather unassuming artist and the work he has put together here. I highly recommend this collection to any fan of erotic fantasy art. And by the way, not every painting is a nude rendition and yet even those that are not have great impact. There is even an endearing painting of a raccoon on the last page where he thanks all of the people who have helped him along the way. A must have!!

I like Sperlonga a lot, and this is a very nice selection of his work. However, this is a magazine and not a paperback. The cover and pages are very thin. SQP has just not put together a book with quality paper. If you can find the hardback on the web it is better though pricey.