Customer Reviews

Secrets of Digital Illustration: a master class in commercial image-making

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

 

 

Anyone who's asking for a "how to draw..." books really isn't cut out for this book yet. This is a book for people who want to get into the industry and have skills. It provides very good insights into how a wide range of people work through creating designs and how they have achieved success and thier advice to others. It is entirely fascinating and brilliant, but don't expect it to hold your hand along the way and guide you from infancy.

This book is for people really on the cusp, if you're not there don't bother - get out of the kitchen.

If you're a student, if you're wanting to work in the industry.
GET THIS BOOK. (Especially if you've ever liked IdN or Computer Arts magazine).

For anyone actually interested in a masterclass in digital image making this is NOT the book. This is a great book, with a well-rounded collection of profiles for some of today's up-and-coming illustrators and a solid overview of the current directions in contemporary illustration, most of which an illustration student won't learn about in school. So I do recommend this book to illustration students and illustrators but not for what the title says. There's only a couple of tutorials throughout the entire book. I was hoping to get a glimpse at the method of some illustrators, particularily Adrian Johnson and Chritian Montenegro within the book but no such luck.

Another book by the same author, which I recommend is the Fundamentals of Illustration. Again there is not
a lot of actual how-to [make an image] but its a complete exposition on what a freelance illustrator does, can do and should do when starting out.

I bought this book because of the reviews and the title. It's okay - hence the three stars but it is most certainly NOT a 'masterclass' on commercial image-making. It would best be used as a visual brainstorming aid as the 'secrets' it contains are more like: "if you have a tight deadline and you're stuck, look out the window and make the first thing you see, your solution" (my paraphrase). Hmmmm.... If you're looking for a masterclass book, this IS NOT IT!

Pay attention to the cover of this book. If you find it useful, the book might work for you. What's on the cover turns out to be a good example of the book's design and of the author's approach.

What doesn't work for me is that the format is so heavy-handed that the featured works end up as ornaments to the author's own book design. Although there might be quite a lot of diversity here, it's eclipsed by large, bold serif numbers and by works packed onto pages like eggs into crates, but often with less care. The pieces look homogenous.

Don't look to the text to rescue the page design. The typeface is tiny, as if the author and editors agreed that readers should be discouraged from trying to parse nuggets such as, "Finding a method for combining the analogue and the digital while retaining a unique personal visual language is now top of the agenda for those embarking upon a creatively fruitful pathway."

Still, I wouldn't blame an author for a book's inapt title. Be warned, though, that the "master class" meanders between the unsourced (i.e., author's) banalities (see above) and platitudes documented by interviews. Again, if that works for you...

My hope was that this book would show a variety of artistic approaches. Unfortunately, what it shows instead is the author's illustration of illustrations: a long shadow that leaves readers in the dark about the topic.

Just got my copy today. Great collection of work from today's top international talent. Very informative features showcasing various styles and comments from the artists. The book is literally a who's-who of the movers and shakers of todays illustration landscape. A must have for anyone in this field.