Revolution: The Art of Jon Foster [Hardcover]

Jon Foster (Author), Cathy Fenner (Editor), Arnie Fenner (Editor), Irene Gallo (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 29, 2006

Jon Foster creates irresistibly dark demimondes populated by retro robots, Star Wars villains, and creepy goth-inspired creatures that recall the work of James Gurney (Dynotopia), H. R. Giger, and past masters of the grotesque like Goya. Yet his work is inimitably his own, from the noirish lighting, off-kilter angles, and kinetic sense of movement to his singular technique of starting a project with oils and then scanning it into a computer to add more startling visual effects. This collection samples a wide range of Foster’s work, reprinting paperback art for novels by Michael Moorcock, Paul Collins, and Liz Williams, along with a selection of his work for Wizards of the Coast's Magic: The Gathering game cards, DC Comics covers (including Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic), and his unusual images for National Geographic. Some of his most striking work as conceptual artist for a forthcoming animated film based on The Diary of Anne Frank is included.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Underwood Books (November 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599290030
• ISBN-13: 978-1599290034
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,100,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too good for words - just get it!, September 27, 2007

By 

Andre Heeger (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Revolution: The Art of Jon Foster (Hardcover)

The postman arrived about an hour ago. I opened the parcel, the book and got lost in Jon's worlds.
I just shut it and I felt need to get this out now.
I first got hooked by Jon's art as I read Liz Williams' Inspector Chen novels. His covers are amazing. Before starting the novels, you are pulled into a world you wouldn't imagine.
My compliments also go to Underwood Books, the publisher. What a wonderful book, good paper, terrific reproduction quality!
Now to Jon's art. Like film stills each picture tells a story, moves like the wind and/or crackles like a rusty robot. You're there, in the tree with the kid amidst the red and golden leaves, next to the sizzling dragon, in a boat in the storm during the revolution, fighting the zombies as part of a hot-babe team. The list goes on and on.
Clearly influenced by the timeless classic masters in painting and illustration, Jon Foster has developed his own terrific style. No matter what material, oil or digital, which assignment, for National Geographic, Lucas Film, Books of Magic and tons of others, every single picture will fascinate you and pull you in as they do me.
If you would want to compare him - which I wouldn't cause he is entirely his very own terrific self, but still, if, then sometimes Vermeer and Rembrandt come to mind, or Ashley Wood, Kent Williams, even a hint of Frank Frazetta. But, as I said, don't, don't compare, just enjoy.
Perfect compositions, wonderful lighting, well chosen moments and characters - no flaws, except... please more of his terrific work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SPECTACULAR COLLECTION!, January 6, 2007

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Revolution: The Art of Jon Foster (Hardcover)

Even though the back dust jacket of The Art of Jon Foster talks about his meteoric rise to the top of the fantasy and Sci-Fi art world, I hate to refer to Foster as MERELY a fantasy and Sci-Fi artist. Fosters work goes so far beyond the traditional commercialism of book covers, calendars, and gaming cover artwork. Foster breaks out of the relative safety of genre art and dares to be wildly experimental, and yet also provide a classical illustration look. This collection of Foster's work comes from the good people at Underwood books who each ear provide fans with the wonderful Spectrum book, highlighting the best in fantasy, Sci-Fi, and comic art from the previous year.

Foster's Sci-Fi art isn't the typical gleaming, glittering scope that you see in many from this genre. Quite the contrary, his robots have a decrepit, rusted look to them, as if they may fall to pieces at any time. Witness a prime example of this with the painting "Crowbot", one of his most popular works. The steel, retro-looking robot is a vision of a futuristic scarecrow. Another example is the towering "Rust Golem."

Foster's range is one of his great strengths and the book dutifully gives many fantastic examples from the Renaissance-like "Lupercalia" to pieces like "Iggy" that look like they stepped off a 1930's pulp magazine. Another great example of Foster's period illustration paintings is his depiction of King Kong, rampaging through the streets of New York for Underwood Books' illustrated King Kong novel. Star Wars fans will be overjoyed that Underwood has included several of the covers that Jon did for the Star Wars comic, originally published by Dark Horse. One of the most spectacular of these features a bathe between Darth Maul and Darth Vader. There are also a number of other paintings included from the realm of comics including the dramatic "The Last Sons" featuring Superman and The Martian Manhunter.

One of my favorite paintings in the book also graces the back cover, "The Snake Agent" is a spectacular work of contrasts with an art deco, almost Rockwellian look.

For those looking for something just a little different, a little more creative, I highly recommend picking up the Art of Jon Foster.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Museum quality art, December 7, 2008

By 

Parka (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Revolution: The Art of Jon Foster (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:15 Mins

The only work I know from Jon Foster are the illustrations he did for Star Wars. I don't follow his work much so this art book is pretty refreshing to me.

There's a short 3-page biography to start the book. It talks his life, career and influences. It's always fun to read about who they are before they became famous. There are interesting things like financial concerns he faced when starting out, his self-doubts, success with Spectrum to the point where his works are displayed in museums.

Here's a short excerpt from from biography that appears in the book:

Jon Foster doesn't make things easy.

The standard artist-bios tropes don't seem to fit when trying to describe him, the cliches don't comfortably apply. The compliments and glowing adjectives about his art come easily, true, but the challenge to properly convey something about the man with the brush (or computer mouse) in his hand...that's the hard part.

<end excerpt>

This book contains his work done on oil and digital. There are a few pages devoted to pencil sketches. The paintings are truly amazing. I can only imagine how good they are in the museums or art galleries. Each illustration is captioned on the background and comes with quotes from Jon Foster explaining his inspiration.

This is a fantastic art book. It might be hard to find now because it was published in 2006. Check out the Amazon merchants if Amazon is out of stock themselves. Amazon links are below.

Jon Foster has a homepage and you can check out more of his wonderful illustrations there.

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