Talexi - The Concept Art of Alessandro Taini: HEAVENLY SWORD, ENSLAVED and DmC

by Alessandro Taini (Artist), Andy Serkis (Foreword)

More than 250 amazing sketches and paintings that have never been published before! Italian artist Alessandro “Talexi” Taini is responsible for designing some of the most memorable and imaginative video-game characters and environments of the last 15 years. While at the acclaimed UK-based game developer Ninja Theory, he was instrumental in creating the overall look and feel of the fantasy adventure games Heavenly Sword, Odyssey to the West, Devil May Cry, and Hellblade, which together sold millions of copies worldwide.  This is the first book to feature his magnificent concept art, which is sure to thrill gamers and appeal to fans of fine art as well, with incredibly lifelike paintings that pay homage to master painters Caravaggio and Rembrandt, with additional inspiration drawn from the mythological work of Bouguereau and Frazetta.  Talexi - The Concept Art of Alessandro Taini covers the development of scenes and characters, from flushing out epic battle scenes to creating iconic character details such as silhouettes and weapons, and provides detailed tutorials of iconic scenes from popular video games.

128 pages, Paperback

Published July 19, 2019

About the author

Born in Genoa, Italy, Alessandro Taini is an art director, concept artist, and illustrator. He is best known for his work at video-game publisher Ninja Theory where he worked on the games Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DmC: Devil May Cry, and Hellblade. After leaving Ninja Theory in September 2015 after 12 years with the company, Alessandro became a freelance artist working for a variety of clients such as Riot Games, The Imaginarium Studio, Reel FX, Prime Focus World, and Luma Pictures. He is also the illustrator of several fantasy book series for Random House, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Marvel Books.

Some of Alessandro’s most notable works include the best-selling Spook’s series Joseph Delaney, Throne of Glass by fantasy writer Sarah J. Maas, and Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl.

Reviews

[Sara D'Amuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alessandro Taini, uno dei migliori artisti italiani andato in america senza conoscere una parola di inglese e ha lasciato che la sua arte parlasse al suo posto.

Ha creato design di personaggi incredibili con un lavoro di caratterizzazione visiva impressionante, grazie alle sue idee sono stati totalmente cambiati i copioni narrativi per inserire i suoi personaggi nettamente superiori all'idea iniziale, insomma, un pozzo di creatività con un ottimo senso di adattamento e di conoscenza scientifica strutturale e naturalistica.

Le ambientazioni sono mozza fiato e seguono riferimenti a luoghi e culture accurati ma allo stesso tempo rielaborati in modo del tutto nuovo e creativo.

[Nikola Ziki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some awesome images and great inspiration, but I feel that there could have been more. More images of the environments and characters and some more explanations of the same.
So sad that they didn't release this book after Hellblade was finished.