The Future of Fantasy Art

by Aly Fell, Duddlebug

A follow-up to the bestselling Fantasy Art Now, The Future of Fantasy Art is a graphic full-color collection of the newest and most exciting talent in fantasy art and illustration from around the world. Graphic artists Aly Fell and Duddlebug (aka Jonny Duddle) feature the best contemporary fantasy artists from across various media—from graphic novels to book covers to trading card sets to computer and video games—and their inspirations, techniques, and the stories behind their work.

Genres: Art, Fantasy

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Alastair Fell

Manchester UK based illustrator and concept artist. I have over 20 years experience in the animation and games industry, having previously worked as an animator at Cosgrove Hall Films (on Dangermouse, Count Duckula, The BFG and Discworld, and various other projects including specials for Chuck Jones, The BBC and ITV alongside many commercials and promos. I also doubled up as a character and model sheet artist whilst working in animation. In more recent years I have worked as a 3D animator and artist in the games industry for companies including, Core Design, Eurocom and TTFusion on projects such as Herdy Gerdy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Rock Band etc.

I am now a self employed illustrator, and my clients include Simon and Schuster, Ilex Press, Asylum Press, DAW Books, Llewellyn Publishing and Harper Collins. My work has featured in Spectrum, Fantasy Art Collections, Ballistic Publishing, Erotic Fantasy Art, Advanced Photoshop and ImagineFX. I am the co-author/editor (with Duddlebug) of Erotic Fantasy Art Now, and Fantasy Art Now 2.

In 2016 Dark Horse Comics published 'The Shadow Glass', my six part comic book set in the Elizabethan era. The collected edition is now available from comic shops and Dark Horse themselves.

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the exact same book as Fantasy Art Now Volume 2, which is a recipe for confusion. Is this part of a series? Is this book actually a second instalment, following after Fantasy Art Now? Anyway, whichever the case, I actually enjoyed this book more than Fantasy Art Now. Art, especially this kind, should set a mood, and this book is a bit more succesful, in my opinion, than was the other.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok high praise indeed but for this book it's worth it. I will admit I have read and owned a few fantasy art work books but this one really stands out. One of the reasons I think is that many a compilation book which is really what this is, has some reprints of earlier works or something reused from another book but no this book somehow manages to pack its pages with work I have never seen before, and not only that but good work as well.
Another feature is how the book is broken down.it is separated in to seconds like warriors, battles and landscapes and even though you can see the theme of each section you can see the range of variety. There are many artists here I have never heard of and who I will certainly be looking at in the future,

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

The future of fantasy art is in good hands if we're to go by that's inside this book.

Authors Aly Fell and Duddlebug has done a terrific job at selecting the images. The quality of art is top notch. The art is printed gloriously huge, some across two pages. The book is organised by fantasy art subjects namely, warriors, ladies, beasts, faeries and fairy tales, landscapes, battles and fights, magic, orcs, goblins and other folk.

Artists from all over the world are selected. The variety of style is great across different mediums. Many of them are already established artists like Brom, Alex Horley, Jason Chan, Francis Tsai, Dan Dos Santos and many more. There are a lot of new talent featured and many are worth a lookout for. Jon Sullivan's dragons are really cool — he did one on the cover. Ralph Horsley's are insanely detailed. Raymond Swanland has a nice painterly style that's better seen than described.

Each piece comes with a nice short commentary from the artist. Because there are so many artists, each only has a few illustrations featured. The good thing is the artists' websites are provided alongside the caption for further exploration.

Each artist only has a few illustrations featured giving a glimpse of their true talent. You can explore more of their art, like I did, with the websites provided on every page as well as on the artist directory at the back. Very nice.

Highly recommended to all fantasy art lovers and artists.

[Kamakana · Rating 2 out of 5]

popular art = art for the side of vans

[Homosapiens · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an okay book, a book with images.. That's it.

The nice thing is that they give you links to visit, if you want to know more about the artists.

But THAT'S IT!