Soft as Steel: The Art of Julie Bell [Paperback]

Julie Bell (Author), Nigel Suckling (Author), Brian Aldiss (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1560251913 | ISBN-13: 978-1560251910 | Publication Date: April 13, 1999

From metallic images to superheroes, Julie Bell's illustrations emanate power and sensuality. The term "metal flesh" has been coined to express one of her distinct styles, making it the trademark of her work. A series of exotic fantasy realms come to life with astounding vividness in her paintings, in which the bodies appear to be a melding of cold steel and vulnerable human flesh.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Julie Bell's best-selling work includes illustrations of the X-Men for Marvel Comics. She lives in Allentown, PA. Nigel Suckling's work includes profiles of fantasy artists Bob Eggleton, Wayne Anderson, and Josh Kirby. He is the author of Heroic Dreams, The Book of the Unicorn, and The Book of Sea Monsters. Brian Aldiss was voted "World's Best Contemporary Writer in Science Fiction" in 1970. He lives in England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (April 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560251913
• ISBN-13: 978-1560251910
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,684,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite look at Julie Bell's art!, August 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Soft as Steel: The Art of Julie Bell (Paperback)

This book combines comments from Julie with a variety of her work from oil paintings to pencil sketches. Especially exciting is seeing some of her trading card art in a larger format. The only problem is the binding. It can be hard to view double page spreads, as part of it is obscured in the binding. This is a great, inexpensive way to get your hands on some of Julie's art.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Julie Bell at her best, June 28, 2000

By 

"jcryan55" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soft as Steel: The Art of Julie Bell (Paperback)

This is the 2nd book i got hold after "Hard Curves". Fans of Julie Bell's fantasy art get to keep her prints in a single book. That's luxury! Profusely illustrated and a sure treat for fantasy illustration. Near flawless fantasy art collection in oil captured on prints. Perfect interpretation of human anatomy through her oil painting techniques. Definitely a must for fantasy art collector. One pity is some prints are printing over 2 pages and over time the paperback give way in the saddle and the prints gets torn out. Would have been better if it's a hardbound.

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Hard Curves, September 13, 2009

By 

Carlos Severino (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soft as Steel: The Art of Julie Bell (Paperback)

SPECIFICS:
Page Count: 128
Number of images: 84
Small images: 24
Half page images: 11
Full page images: 41
2-page spreads: 8
BW images: 7

TEXT:
2 page introduction
2 page foreword
Scattered text about the chapter's topic and the artist
Long comments on the paintings

ART:
18 images: 5 stars
43 images: 4 stars
17 images: 3 stars
5 images: 2 stars
1 image: 1 star

Overall: 4 stars

This is a review of the first 107 pages.
Pages 108 to 128 are comprised of 2 chapters. One is a private gallery with mainly portraits (19 small images), the other is about figure studies and it has 23 images, most of which are black and white sketches.