Customer Reviews

Digital Illustration: A Masterclass in Creative Image-making

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I didn't like the tutorials, and most of the illustrations in this book were terrible. You won't get much out of this book that you can translate into practical portfolio pieces. Get Illusive: A guide to contemporary illustration, or handmade if you want to see what the real movers and shakers in the illustration business are doing.

I like this book, however it could use a title change. Instead of "Digital Illustration," I think it should be titled "Digital Funky Pop-Art Collage." The work in this book bears no resemblance to the digital illustration that one would make for a client that requires either technical art, digital paintings, character design, or storyboards, etc. This is funky modern illustration design that you might see accompanying an article in a "hip" magazine. That being said, the examples are excellent, and cover a wide range of modernist pop-art styles. Much of the art seems to have a "street", "punk rock" or even "outsider art" surreal edge to them, definitely reflecting the taste of the author. (If this type of art isn't your thing, than this may not be a book for you.) An interesting factor to note about the examples is that they don't look or feel digital, that is they retain a painterly hand-made or hand-assembled freshness. This is indicative of the lessons repeated in this book; illustrators shouldn't abandon traditional media in favor of digital media completely, but rather combine them to achieve new effects and achieve a more efficient way of working. There are many tutorials covering the steps the artists took to achieve many of the effects, along with commentary from the artists. Even without reading the text, I am inspired to try to achieve the look, feel, and technique of these pieces. And after all, being inspired and getting those creative juices flowing is really what any art "how-to" book is about. I recommend it to any artist working digitally in any field, and it would make a nice accompaniment to a "how-to" art book collection.

I wasn't impressed with the illustrations that were showcased in this book. The vast majority (more than 90% of the book) of the illustrations are very juvenile and look as though they were created by an elementary school student. I don't have anything against that style, but there's certainly a wide variety of contemporary styles that could have been showcased instead of page after page of flat drawings.

If you're into this style of illustration, you may thoroughly enjoy this book. I was hoping for a broader range of styles and more substance regarding illustration techniques (the book is mostly "Illustrator Profile" interviews).