Drawing Dark Fantasy (Dover Art Instruction, #1)

by Steve Beaumont

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Drawing Dark Fantasy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Drawing Dark Fantasy is a fantastic sourcebook for any artist that wants to start drawing more fantastical creatures and elements. It covers everything from the basics to the more advanced points. While it all shows one artists’ style, it’s clear that the intent is to teach a new artist the foundations, so that they may go off and improve their own personal style.
The first half of the book is the most practical chunk of the guide, covering materials, figure drawing (something too frequently overlooked, if you ask me), perspective, lighting, and coloring. These guides alone make the book worth its weight in gold.
The second half of the book is split into eight different exercises. Here the artist, Steve Beaumont, covers different elements of fantasy, combining all the techniques taught earlier into large masterpieces. We get to see him go from concept art, to rough sketch, and so on, until the final piece is revealed. I think these are great instructions for showing how a piece of work is developed.
I adore Steve Beaumont’s style, and love his use of pencils and lines in particular. It was so much fun being able to see different pieces of work in all the stages of progress – that’s not something you get to see every day. I think this guide would be exceptionally useful to any budding artist out there, either as a drawing guide or a resource book.

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