Customer Reviews

Progressions: The Art of Jon Foster

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 0:13 Mins

The robot on the cover is Crowbot, traditional medium oil on board. Jon Foster likes robots. In this 80-page art book, there are quite a few.

Progressions is a portfolio book of illustrations, personal and commissioned work. Big name clients include Wizards of the Coast, LucasFilm, etc.

For the full colour illustrations in the book, they are mainly traditional medium. Sometimes, Jon Foster does work on them digitally to repaint certain aspect, as mentioned in the very few captions that appear in the book. I like the lighting for the scenes he creates, very subtle with that occasional slight yellow tint.

The concept sketches and digital paintings are all in black and white.

This art book is very character design focused. Most of the illustrations are actually portraits or scenes with the focus on characters.

Revolution: The Art of Jon Foster, the art book after this, packs more art.

Quality of the hardcover binding for this book isn't really great. The pages might come off (as in my video) if the book is not taken care of.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I saw this book in the bookstore, flipped through, and thought, "No, I'll just buy it online. $...is too much to spend." 5 minutes later I was at the counter doling out my hard earned cash. Unbelievable. Very well set up, and loaded with fantastic work. Buy it! You won't be sorry.

Every once in a while you run across an artist who makes you see things in a new way. Mr. Foster's book opened my eyes to new artistic possibilities and put a smile on my face :)

His technique is fantastic and the subject matter is exciting!

To imply that Jon Foster is merely a 'Phil Hale' clone is incredulous. Quite frankly i'm offended for him, if he isn't already. While there may be some similarities between his and Phil's work, it is only natural seeing as though they were both under the instruction of the same teacher and worked in the same studio space for quite some time. Style aside, they both have substancially different handling of subject and composition, and Foster's personality undoubtably shows through in his paintings (which is quite differen't from Phil Hale's). He is also one of the few artists who can paint digitally while still maintaining the same quality and feel as solid paint. His work is an inspiration to all artists who have doubts that with enough hard work, perseverance, and (of course) talent that anything is possible.

Jon's work is marvelous, and frankly, to be labeled a Phil hale Copycat, is testament to the inability for the fellow below to look at the breadth, and skill with which Jon paints. Aside form the prevalence of Robots, which seems to be everywhere in sci-fi illustration these days ( I suppose it always has been) Jon's work is singularly unique and impressive. His painting style, while admittedly similar to Hale's, is defiantly his own, and the subject matter is approached at a delightfully off-kilter perspective. I highly reccomend this book to anyone interested in Science fiction and Fantasy art, as Jon Foster is one of the most talented, and insightful people working in the field today.

I've been waiting for this book for quite some time now and was finally able to get my copy! I've been a fan of Jon Foster's work after seeing it in the Spectrum illustration annuals and Progressions does not disappoint. Not only is the content of the book exciting and thought provoking, the actual layout lends itself perfectly to his work. Progressions is an interesting combination of sketches, paintings, and reflection which I highly recommend!

A completely fantastic compilation of the art of Jon Foster. He doesn't bog down the pages with a bunch of text...he lets his work speak for itself. My only question is...when is book two gonna be available?

If you love well developed and skillful illustration you will love the art in this book.

Finally Jon Foster's incredible visuals are collected under one cover as opposed to appearing on them. From his jaw-dropping work on the various Star Wars books to his retro-futuristic robots, Foster's paintings explode with a stunning sense of wonder. Unlike many other illustrators working in the medium today, Foster's work is consistently innovative, fresh and inspired. A must have.

I give this book two stars just to acknowledge the technical skill, but Foster's work disturbs me every time I see it, as a painter myself, nothing irks me more than a fawning painter who admires and copies another artist's style to the point of not really having a unique style of his own. Phil Hale is a better person than me beacuse I would have sued this guy by now. As an alternative I recommend ANYTHING with Phil Hale's work in it...a true master.

Jon's skills as a painter are good, but having asked him myself why he imitates Phil Hale, he just looked at me and said, well I don't, I used to paint in the same studio as his but I don't understand what you mean. The book is fun to look at, but why not just go to the source? The laman may not understand but Hales work is as far above Fosters as Frazetta's is Ken Kelly's. The thing that bothered me most about the book is that Fosters seems to have gotten lazy and is finishing decent traditional paintings off by going in and doing digitally what it seems it to difficult(i know, its just time consuming)with the paint.