Soft as Steel: The Fantasy Art of Julie Bell

SPECIFICS: Page Count: 128 Number of images: 84 Small images: 24 Half page images: 11 Full page images: 41 2-page spreads: 8 BW images: 7 TEXT: 2 page introduction 2 page foreword Scattered text about the chapter's topic and the artist Long comments on the paintings ART: 18 images: 5 stars 43 images: 4 stars 17 images: 3 stars 5 images: 2 stars 1 image: 1 star Overall: 4 stars This is a review of the first 107 pages. Pages 108 to 128 are comprised of 2 chapters. One is a private gallery with mainly portraits (19 small images), the other is about figure studies and it has 23 images, most of which are black and white sketches.

Julie is an inspiration for all artists! The book shows some of her best work. It also reveals a little of what goes on in that beautiful head of her's. Outstanding artist and human! Love the woman and her art!

Julie is my favorite fantasy artist so it was nice to have a book specifically with her work in it. The book covers a range of Julie's art (not just that wonderful metal she does) up until the late 90s. I have the Boris and Julie Ultimate Collection so a lot of the works in this book are images that I already have, but there are enough ones I had not seen before to make it worthwhile. The text in this book is interesting and enjoyable helping me know the reasons and ideas behind the paintings and more about Julie herself. Another great book for my collection.

This is the 2nd book i got hold after "Hard Curves". Fans of Julie Bell's fantasy art get to keep her prints in a single book. That's luxury! Profusely illustrated and a sure treat for fantasy illustration. Near flawless fantasy art collection in oil captured on prints. Perfect interpretation of human anatomy through her oil painting techniques. Definitely a must for fantasy art collector. One pity is some prints are printing over 2 pages and over time the paperback give way in the saddle and the prints gets torn out. Would have been better if it's a hardbound.

This book combines comments from Julie with a variety of her work from oil paintings to pencil sketches. Especially exciting is seeing some of her trading card art in a larger format. The only problem is the binding. It can be hard to view double page spreads, as part of it is obscured in the binding. This is a great, inexpensive way to get your hands on some of Julie's art.