Dragon's Dream: Roger Dean

by Roger Dean

The first two volumes that chronicled the unique art and design of Roger Dean were met with huge critical and popular success. Views (1975) went straight to number one on the bestseller list and went on to sell more than a million copies, and its successor Magnetic Storm (1984) enjoyed similar success.

Dragon's Dream makes up the Roger Dean trilogy. A more ambitious work than its predecessors, it celebrates Roger's work from the last twenty years. This encompasses a panoramic dreamscape of original paintings; album covers, logos, and stage designs for bands including living legends Yes as they celebrate their 40th anniversary; virtual worlds, characters, and logos for computer games companies such as Psygnosis, Bullet-Proof Software, and Tetris; and concepts and designs for both opera and animated movies. Finally, there is a review of Roger's lifelong and prophetic passion for eco-friendly architecture, featuring the visionary prototypes with which he has addressed the topical issue of sustainable living in the twenty-first century. The first published collection of Roger Dean's work in more than twenty years, Dragon's Dream celebrates the enduring vision of one of the most significant artists of our time.

Genres: Art, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

An English artist, designer, architect, and publisher. He is best known for his work on posters and album covers for musicians, which he began painting in the late 1960s. The covers often feature exotic, fantasy landscapes. His work has sold more than sixty million copies world-wide, and his fantasy landscapes seem to have inspired those used in the film Avatar.

Reviews

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great selection of Dean's work from over twenty years (1988-2008). The large pages are perfect to view his fantasy landscapes and designs.

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating art work from Roger Dean and the stories behind it.

[Parka · Rating 4 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

Dragon's Dream also happens to be the first publishing company started by Roger Dean and his brother. But here, Dragon's Dream is his third long awaited art book, published in 2008, after the success of Views (1975) and Magnetic Storm (1984) which sold cumulatively more than a million copies.

This hardcover book collects paintings of his worlds, albums, logos, stage designs (for Yes)m architectural concepts and even some costume designs. Some of the paintings come with layout sketches.

Most unique about his art is probably the striking colours, when used on backgrounds creates this other-worldly feel on places he create. His logos are very elaborately and creatively designed, again with striking colour combination which might not appeal to everyone. If you've studied colour theory, some of his choices will leave you baffled like I did.

He seems to like the idea of floating island. From what I've read, it's a 30 year obsession. It's as a recurring theme in many of his paintings, with the first one appearing of the Fragile album for Yes in 1971. You'll see plenty of those in this book. They are very surreal and for the simpler pieces, zen-like.

There's also a section on architectural designs commissioned by individuals, companies and institutions. He has designs for parks, houses, hotels and even villages. There's a preference for curves as most of his designs have dome-like appearance to them — plenty of use of arcs and circles.

It's a pretty inspirational book for those who like his style, recommended more for sci-fi and fantasy artists.