Astonishing Fantasy Worlds: The Ultimate Guide to Drawing Adventure Fantasy Art [Paperback]

Christopher Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

Another sure-fire hit about one of today’s hottest genres—from best-selling author Christopher Hart!



• Drawing fantasy doesn’t have to be just a fantasy anymore


• Journey through fantasy worlds, meet strange and fascinating characters—then draw them, the Chris Hart way


• Brimming with fantastic art from top names!



Everyone loves fantasy, whether they’re young or old, male or female, geeky or chic-y. We all thrill to the bold heroes, the powerful heroines, and the evil villains. Now top-selling author and artist Christopher Hart reveals exactly how to draw every major fantasy genre: horror, Gothic, magic, medieval, primitive, undersea, and fairy. Here are wizards, beasts, soldiers and slaves, kings and queens, princes and princesses, knights, giants, nymphs and fairies, elves, griffins and unicorns, werewolves, dragons, and many more denizens of the many worlds of fantasy. And to make those fabulous creatures come to life, Hart uses his signature step-by-step style to explain exactly how to create deep shadows, high contrast, chains, spikes, sallow faces and bony fingers, cliffs, castles of light and castles of darkness, undersea cities, and other fantastic places and effects. It’s a fantasy lover’s fantasy, all between the covers of one fantastic book: Astonishing Fantasy Worlds.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christopher Hart is the world’s best-selling author of drawing and cartooning books. With more than 2.5 million copies in print in 18 languages, his books have set the standard for art instruction around the world. He lives in Westport, CT.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082301472X
• ISBN-13: 978-0823014729
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.4 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #919,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thanks for taking a look at my books, and this "Author Bio." I'm a competent tennis player, who also enjoys playing computer chess while I'm watching TV at night (Hey, it prevents me from channel-surfing). I'm keenly interested in M-theory, although i have become skeptical of it of late, despite Brian's Green's full-body gushing... I love being with my family, and even my extremely evil dog, a Welsh Springer Spaniel named "Rusty." Oh, yes, he truly is that evil.

As for my work, I'm the author of many How-To-Draw books, published by Watson-Guptill,the art imprint of Random House. Thanks to a lot of the wonderful readers (and you know who you are!), I have sold over 3 million copies domestically, which have been translated into 20 languages worldwide.

I'm fortunate to also have had 26 of the Best-Selling art books in the country, according to Bookscan.(Bookscan is the publishing industry's rating system for books, which is owned by same company that does the Neislen TV ratings.)

I also have my own drawing show on the Comcast Network, called, "How To Draw Action Heroes With Chris Hart." It's on Comcast's "Activity TV." I hope you like my books, and find them a valuable adjunct to your own imagination.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic guide, October 22, 2008

By 

Tim Lasiuta "Comic Fan 42" (Red Deer, Alberta) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Astonishing Fantasy Worlds: The Ultimate Guide to Drawing Adventure Fantasy Art (Paperback)

With an outstanding career as art instructor, Christopher Hart has released another theme specific book for those interested in fantasy. Christopher provides sections on Barbarians, Vikings, the medieval world, wild things, the enchanted faerie realm, and gothic characters. Within each topic, he further breaks down the genres into types. For instance, the Faerie Realm is divided into Faerie creature, female and male faerie face, fabulous faerie wings, sensational faeries, faerie details, and the faerie world.

He does not leave much untouched. What I really appreciate about Mr Hart's books is his inclusion of not only finished examples, but also the construction of a figure/character from rough circular sketches to a sometimes colored image.

This book, when added to the other Hart tomes, forms a marvelous collection essential to the library of anyone interested in illustration.

www.watsonguptill.com

Tim Lasiuta

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, November 6, 2008

By 

G-Art (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Astonishing Fantasy Worlds: The Ultimate Guide to Drawing Adventure Fantasy Art (Paperback)

If you enjoy fantasy art like myself, this is the book for you. This is not just about drawing fantasy art, but as in many of Hart's books, it is about maximizing artistic skills, and make the most of techniques; such as dramatic lighting, character design scene composition,
It's a great book, deep, comprehensive, yet easy to follow steps which allow you to draw the most interesting fantasy characters. Filled with examples arranged by type (Barbarians, Vikings, many ferry types and of course the vampires as well the many more. The attention to detail in the hundred of examples helps create the atmosphere the scene as the artist sees it. I highly recommend this wonderful book

1.0 out of 5 stars Rather useless for anyone but the ultimate beginner, December 1, 2011

By 

Alex - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Astonishing Fantasy Worlds: The Ultimate Guide to Drawing Adventure Fantasy Art (Paperback)

When the cover of a how to draw book is done by a different artist than the author I believe you have to be suspicious of quality of the product you're about to purchase. In fact I'd say that most of the better looking art in this book is from collaborating artist who are much better than Christopher Hart and never explain their methods or ideas.

All you really get when you buy this is the Hart methodology which boils down to the first chapter in Loomis's book Figure drawing for all it's worth. In fact I'd recommend the Loomis books over anything written by Hart. The text in this book is very simplistic, the art is very basic cartooning (except for some very detailed pieces by Julius Gopez and a few other artists) and the colors are very basic palettes.

I'd recommend buying a book of Frazetta's work, the above mentioned Loomis book or how to draw comics the Marvel way. Those books will teach you more basic skills which can be applied to fantasy art rather than showing you some simple cartoons of barbarians and faeries.