Olympia: Warrior Athletes of Ancient Greece

A word about the illustrations in this book: As someone with a background in cartoon and illustration, art history, (and the son of an art dealer), I was extremely impressed by Mr.Kennett's illustrations. The pen drawings blow me away. His mastery of pen rendering, human and animal anatomy, composition, "camera" angles, balancing whites, greys and blacks, the way he varies--almost seems to be experimenting with varying rendering and textural effects--from drawing to drawing, is astonishing. Also, while the drawings have a "modern" feel to them, they capture the romance and atmosphere of older time illustrators such as NC Wyeth, or Howard Pyle. Pen drawings with a technical fountain pen or similar instrument can look skillful, but sterile. These don't. Also, many current illustrators and artists who draw in a realistic or quasi realistic style, though their work is admirable, look very obviously like their work is traced over or very closely based on photographs. These most certainly don't. This guy can really draw. Wonderful stuff.