Customer Reviews

d'artiste: Digital Painting

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

 

 

This book is beautifully printed, and as contributor Robert Change noted, it would make an excellent coffee table book. My girlfriend, who is not an artist herself but loves art, enjoys looking at(and critiquing) the artwork and how each artist approached the creation of their piece. I, however, am an artist; I am writing this review as someone who is familiar with digital painting.
The book features 2 "tutorials" from each artist. The remainder of this volume is filled up with selected works by the featured artists, as well as works by other digital artists. The tutorials themselves are actually walkthroughs: the artists explain the steps they took to create their paintings, but not how or why they made each decision. They can teach you how many artists approach digital painting (workflow), but not the technicalities, such as brush size, colors, lighting choices, etc... There are really no lessons to be learned here, the information is on procedure alone.
Some of these walkthroughs can already be found online, and there is better material available for free. You will want to look up the artists individually and read their advice, study their pieces if you are serious about learning. In my opinion, an artist, especially a newcomer to digital art, will be much more benefited by joining a cg community than by purchasing this book.
However, if you are a fan of the contributing artists, you will surely enjoy seeing their works in print, up close and personal.

This was not the book I would expect with a subtitle of 'Master Class.' The tutorials are bland, and little to no technical advice (software specific tips) are included. Some of the work and advice is lousy. The few gems of this book make it worth the purchase - but it is really just a picture book more than a source of information for the new digital painter.

This book is beautiful, and I'm glad I bought it. However, it is mostly a gallery of the artists' selected works. The work is breath-taking, and definitely fun to look through for inspiration and ask "How do they do it?" The book, unfortunately, does not tell you how they do it. Granted, each artist describes their techniques in two tutorials, for a total of eight in the entire book, which is helpful.... I had hoped for more of a how-to book. Nonetheless, if you are a fan of any of the artists, and even of the digital painting medium, this is a must-have book. But if you do not know much about how to execute digital painting, a how-to book is more up your alley.

I just can't get enough of these Ballistic Publishing books. The art work in them is some of the best regardless
of how it was created. It would have been amazing done in traditional media knowing that they were created
using computers is amazing.

This book is beautifully printed and has served as inspiration for my own work. The tutorials may not be very helpful for beginner digital artists, but it's helpful when you know the tools. There's a nice variety of fantasy and sci-fi art included in this book. I would recommend this book for other aspiring digital artists.