Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art: A Collection of the Most Inspiring Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Gaming Illustrators in the World

by Karen Haber, Joe Haldeman (Foreword)

Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art profiles and celebrates the work of today’s leading practitioners of art of the fantastic, as well as a handful of gifted newcomers from around the globe. The range and impact of their work is both inspiring and far-reaching. These 28 masters have created images for television, movies, gaming, museum exhibits, theme park rides, and every area of publishing. Some of the artists featured only employ traditional painting techniques, while others use only digital methods, and many more blend the mediums to create their fantastical images. Each artist discusses his/her influences and techniques as well as offering tips to beginning artists. Science Fiction Grandmaster and Hugo Award–winning author Joe Haldeman contributes a foreword. Artists, science fiction fans, and art collectors will appreciate the outstanding artwork featured here.

Featured artists include:

—Brom

—Jim Burns

—Kinuko Y. Craft

—Dan Dos Santos

—Bob Eggleton

—Donato Giancola

—Rebecca Guay

—James Gurney

—Gregory Manchess

—Stephan Martiniere

—Terese Nielsen

—John Picacio

—Greg Spalenka

—Shaun Tan

—Charles Vess

Genres: Art, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Karen Haber is the author of nine novels including Star Trek Voyager: Bless the Beasts, and co-author of Science of the X-Men. In 2001 she was nominated for a Hugo for Meditations on Middle Earth, an essay collection celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien. With her husband, Robert Silverberg, she co-edited Best Science Fiction of 2001, 2002, and the Best Fantasy of 2001 and 2002 for ibooks and later, co-edited the series with Jonathan Strahan through 2004.

Her recent work includes Crossing Infinity, a science fiction novel of gender identity and confusions. Other publications include Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present, a collection of essays by leading science fiction writers and artists, Kong Unbound: an original anthology, an essay in The Unauthorized X-Men edited by Len Wein, and Transitions: Todd Lockwood, a retrospective of the artist's work.

Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many anthologies. She reviews art books for LOCUS magazine and profiles artists for various publications including Realms of Fantasy. She is currently at work on a major survey of fantasy and science fiction artists to be published in 2011.

Reviews

[James]

Beautiful and varied. This book contains mini-portfolios by a slew of artists illustrating, as the title says, F&SF titles and games. It's divided into three main sections: work done using strictly manual methods, work combining manual techniques and computer graphics, and work done entirely with computer graphics (although I'd have a hard time telling which category most of the pieces fall into.)

I got this looking for inspiration for possible cover art for a science fiction novel I'm working on, and it delivers on that account, but it's also much more. This oversized volume is a great coffee table book (if only we had a coffee table!) I've spent hours just paging through it enjoying the wildly different kinds of images and themes the different artists poured into it. Strongly recommended for anyone who loves visual art, especially that of the imaginary.

[Andrew]

This is the next book of the batch of artwork books I have recently been able to get my hands on. Again it has an amazing print quality and content. This time the book is separated in to techniques and artists, a number of which I have already books on and others I recognise the style of. The book is printed on heavy paper with a strong binding making it possible to open the book up and really appreciate the quality of the art.
One criticism is that there is a fair amount of fantasy art here even though it is based on masters of science fiction. However that said even from those artists I recognise and have been printed elsewhere – the book is still modern and up to date and as such the art the book it contains is very recent and unlikely to be connected in to other books (one of my personal dislikes is seeing the same piece of artwork repeatedly printed in various books and sadly print qualities).
However I still cannot be too dissappointed when I see proof that the artwork book is still very going strong and very much in production

[idk man]

This book puts into perspective how fast and how far we've come in terms of technology.

And for some of us on the sidelines, they're poised exactly where the excitement is: classical technique sharpened and heightened by technology that still seems futuristic.

By the time I read this book, Joe Haldeman is still alive. 14 years ago, he saw photo-editing softwares as incredibly seductive for their ability to change an image in every way possible then undo with just one click. What would he think of AI art?

[Mike Duncan]

Fantastic collection. Not as fun as the Spectrum Series but it includes articles on the artists and some progress photos of their work. It should be mentioned that this collection is of the most contemporary working artists not so much the classics of the genre.