Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop

If you use a tablet(like a Wacom Intuos 4), this book is great. It has lots of conceptual advise that you can find in other books but what makes it surpass them is that it has sections where artists describe some of their digital techniques and even explain their process including their brush presets. This makes a huge difference as just seeing 6 pictures of increasing detail doesn't help you as much as focused descriptions of what is being done and exact settings used in the programs. Reading this book feels like having someone there explaining their techniques in part to the easy language they use. This isn't a novel, it is a strait to the bone explanation is an effective format. The price is also quite reasonable as I've spent more on other books that helped me far less. I still open it from time to time when working on projects and the only reason I don't give it the full 5 stars is because if you don't have a tablet much of what is done in this book won't be applicable. Then again that is also true of the programs like photoshop in general and if someone is serious enough about digital art to need these kinds of books then they should have one.

Good Step by step illustration examples and some general 'how to' stuff that is worthy of print. I've seen quite a few books like this out there - this is one of the best 'how to' books of its nature currently. Maybe because they're talking about the digital medium - but hey - Computers are the way much of the art you see today for games and movies are generated. Been that way for me for the past 10 years anyway. A good companion to Martin McKenna's other book - the SCifi digital painting book. Both of these are good little reads with competent people delivering good infomration in each them. Think what i like best is the step by step work actually shows progress and real tips - not just 1,2,3 and BAM the artist is done and it looks good through their sheer talent with no real insight for the reader. McKenna really lets things unfold so you can see them - which is really nice - oh not in all the examples but in enough