Drawing and Painting Fantasy Landscapes and Cityscapes
After looking at the role of matte artists and having reviewed Emily Churchill’s work, both essentially photography based, I have looked at Rob Alexanders book Drawing and Painting Fantasy Landscapes and Cityscapes (Alexander, 2010).
Rob Alexander applies traditional techniques to landscape and architectural paintings, and shows how soft, delicate watercolours and rich oil paints, he says he “blends the best offerings of man and nature”.
Rob writes: “A love of story telling, the rhythm of light and shadow as they dance across a scene and a strong sense of atmosphere breath life into these worlds both fantastical and contemporary.” He provides easy-to-follow instructions for rendering a while range of worlds, cities and landscapes. There’s lots of advice about perspective, architectural geomety, colour, mood, materials, software. After reading and reviewing the book I feel more able to produce realistic elements by hand.
The book is specifically aimed at artists who are interested in graphic novels, comic book illustration and is a practical guide to painting fantasy landscapes.
Reference
Alexander, R. (2010) Drawing and Painting Fantasy Landscapes and Cityscapes. New York: Barron’s Educational Series
