Customer Reviews

Fairy Song Volume One

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fairy Song is the latest release from SQP and one of their most beautiful and unique books of fantasy and erotic art yet. Gathering their usual stable of outstanding artists, the subject this time is the whimsical creatures of fantasy such as sprites, nymphs, and fairies. The book is a mix of both color and black & white illustrations but what sets this one apart from other SQP books is its combination of modern fantasy art and classical, almost Renaissance era art. It melds to form a unique look, befitting the subject matter perfectly.

One of my favorites, Pelaez has several pieces in the book. The first one of note is a b&w illustration of a topless, cloaked nymph, standing amidst an enchanted forest. Another one of my favorite SQP artists, Arantza also has several pieces in this collection including a beautiful, nude, butterfly-winged sprite wearing an elegant beaded headdress and standing upon a flower. It's a lovely and somewhat haunting piece. Enrique Villagran gives us two nude sprites, sitting on flowers and quizzically looking up something in a book.

Danilo Guida provides a full color piece called "Fly the Sky and Dream the Stars" in which a gorgeous blonde nymph with glistening wings stands daydreaming looking at the Heavens. The humorous side comes out in Diego Florio's "Forest Side Assistance" featuring a buxom blonde fairy riding on the back of a bumble bee that has the word Rescue on its side. Arantza checks back with one of the collections finest pieces, an unbelievably detailed b&w illustration of a dark haired sprite, nude and lying demurely on a flower. Note the detail of the flower petals, it is simply mesmerizing. Cesar Britez captures the innocence of these creatures depicting a nude fairy bathing in a pond and getting a kiss from a tiny doe.

Fairy Song is one of the best fantasy art collections to come out in a long time. The artists truly capture the essence of these beautiful creatures and their many moods. Bravo!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

SQP appears to be exploring an alternate format here for its Gallery Girls series, since two companion volumes, "Mermaid Song" and "Angel Song," are mentioned in the indicia, both unreleased at this writing. Hopefully, these are meant to supplement their black and white counterparts, and not to supplant them eventually. If not, consider this a nay vote from this repeat customer, for all the charms of this beautiful if uneven collection.

Since 1995, New Jersey's Sal Quartuccio and Bob Keenan have managed to publish a unique and alluring line of softcover books for a reasonable price, each spotlighting a narrow fantasy theme as interpreted by multiple artists in black and white, and revolving around unabashed renditions of the undraped female form. Enlarging their size and including color don't constitute changes that tempt me to feel happy about the prospect of paying twice as much, if that's the intent. It's true that amazon's price is lower than list, but the point holds.

"Fairy Song" consists of sixty-four interior full-page illustrations, with thirty-two in full color, seventeen in black and white, and fifteen scanned in duotone (as sepia/black). The big news is that this features some of Arantza's most exciting art in a while. Over time, her work's gotten looser and sketchier, but this theme and one last year of mermaids seem to have galvanized her. I was particularly struck with the force of a thunderbolt by a lovely, intricate image that appears near the back, a depiction of a nude fairy reclining on her side on some boulders. This stunning piece, "To Serve The Fairy Queen," has been mechanically duotoned here by editorial decree, but one longs to see it in its original black and white. In contrast with those of Arantza, the contributions of Pelaez seem stiff and a bit contrived, as though lacking empathy for the subject matter. A composition by Pelaez, however, "The True Secret Of The Grape," is among the finest and most sensual in the book. Eighteen other creators are represented by drawings or paintings in "Fairy Song," with examples ranging in quality from excellent to vaguely amateurish.

A minor gripe is that somebody - and apparently not the talent on display - has gratuitously added descriptive titles beneath every illustration. While this makes individual pieces easier to single out and identify, presumably when one's inquiring about buying originals, it makes me uncomfortable to think these may be impositions of the publishers', and not something that the illustrators had a say in.

It needs to be clarified that this isn't for children, like other Gallery Girls publications, despite the theme and lack of copy to that effect on the cover. I'd recommend this to anybody who enjoys erotic fantasy art, and look forward to "Mermaid Song" in particular.

The cover is by far the best art in this book... There are some other good ones inside, but most are incredibly poorly drawn and not very erotic at all; why they bothered putting a hard cover on such an amateurish effort is beyond me. Even the ones that are well drawn mostly just look like normal women with wings added as an afterthought. Bottom line, I'll snip out a few pictures to keep as art reference and throw away the rest.

a few great artists/illustrators (pelaez, arantza, danilo, sosa, and caruso) and a whole lot of amatuerish junk - pelaez and arantza have drawings that once again show them to be the masters of the pencil and the female figure - the few drawings they have here are well worth the cost of the book by themselves, otherwise i would have rated this book 1 star

arantza and pelaez, and to some extent the other illustrators i mentioned, can produce erotic art that is beautiful without being raunchy - however the rest of the art in this book is erotic art at its worst, poorly drawn and composed, raunchy instead of beautiful, overused cliched poses, models that look like hookers, and worst of all skin textures and outlines that make the figures look hard and rough

if you like that sort of rough junky porn looking art then you will like this book - otherwise i would suggest just buying art books by arantza and pelaez - but this book is so cheap it really is worth buying for the dozen pics that are superb

i was very pleased with the speed and condition of the book. thank you so much and will watch for more of your sales.

I bought this book thinking it was a beautiful book of fairy paintings.I was judging it strictly from the cover painting which is etheral and beautiful.Unfortunately every other portrait is a soft-core porn fairy.These images aren't even painted well.They simply appeal to low brow male fantasies.Buy a print of Beloved and skip the book.