Dragon Art Inspiration, Impact & Technique in Fantasy Art
Available for pre-order from Amazon
Competition - winner receives free copy of Dragon Art
I found this book a pleasure to read and pour over. It's filled with beautifully painted dragons, and lots of them. The book itself is a sturdy hardback, well bound, and with strong thick paper that will stand up to continual use, and the quality of the reproductions of the artists' paintings is fantastic.
The art is of a consistently high standard and the types of dragon depicted are as varied as the artists who create them. From terrifying monsters to spiritual guardians, there's something for every dragon lover and the mix of traditional and digital methods makes for interesting viewing. I personally would have liked to see more in the way of constructional drawings by the artists showing how they come up with their own dragon designs but the book is about inspiration and impact and the process samples showing how digital artists create their work are more than satisfying for the curious type.
After opening with a fascinating foreward by John Howe which sets the stage, the written aspect follows an interesting journey through the various dragon mythologies from around the world and goes on to talk about featured and well known fantasy artists and their respective inspirations and influences. It was great to see a lot of my own influences as a dragon artist being mentioned by others, such as H R Giger's Alien and Tolkien's Smaug.
Also fascinating to me was reading about the ongoing debate about whether digital art is equal to traditional. As an aspiring illustrator working traditionally, it's a topic that affects me and while I don't see it as an issue - digital is just another tool in an artist's arsenal - I completely understand the misgivings some people have about it. Dragon Art covered the debate from both sides and overall I found it an unblinkered and enlightening read.
I would highly recommend this book for the quality of the artwork alone as it would be a valuable addition to any dragon artist's bookshelf. But for the history and background of the mythology it's invaluable and definitely worth investing in. Top marks for this one.
And as a new release Flame Tree Publishing are offering a free copy of Dragon Art to the winner of their competition listed on Facebook. Follow the red links above for information and guides on how to enter and good luck!
The Rock Pool (Anthology)
by Niall McMahon
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Seven Tales of Horror and Science Fiction in ebook formatt for Kindle.
A great collection of well written, thought provoking stories from a talented writer. If you have the Kindle and you like your stories creepy, poignant, epic and intelligent in equal measure, this is definitely for you. Follow the link above and download a copy. At less than a pound/dollar, it's a bargain and a half.
Murky Depths is rocking the speculative fiction world with its confounding mix of art and literature in a graphic-novel-style package. Within the glossy laminated cover are top quality speculative fiction stories with sprinklings of horror and fantasy that push the boundaries of science fiction. Each story is complimented with its own unique artwork. Cutting edge graphic stories, articles across the genres, interviews, and mixed disciplines add authority, humour and maybe a little controversy.
08 October 2010
This magazine is one of my favourites to read and submit to. I've got every issue from the promo on, and I'm currently working my way through issue 13. The stories are always great, and like the extract I copied over from the website says, top quality. Murky Depths also recently won the BSFA award for best magazine 2010. A well deserved prize in my opinion. I don't think there's a publication out there doing anything remotely similar. What I like about them is that they're dedicated to giving new writers and artists a chance to shine along with showcasing recognised names. And it's the mix of prose fiction with its own illustration per story, poetry and graphic shorts that make it unique and so much fun to read. Definitely not boring. I could go into describing the style of the work in each issue but if I did that, I'd be here to kingdom come and no doubt others out there have written much better reviews than me. I just wanted to give the guys at Murky Depths a shout out and let them know that they're doing a fantastic job.
If you like your fiction and your art dark and disturbing and a big bit bizarre, this magazine is definitely for you. Check out the links above to the website and BSFA site, and maybe consider subscribing for a few issues. You wont regret it. I didn't and I've renewed my subscription a couple of times already.
Harley Dragon
by Candra Hope
02 October 2010
I was contacted recently by a client looking for a dragon to be painted onto their Harley Davidson Road King motorbike. They had the idea but needed someone to do the drawing of it. Thats where I came in. We did a lot of talking and idea exchanging and eventually came up with a set of four images showing different parts of the dragon that would be painted onto different sections of the bike. The head would appear on the front fender while the whiskers would flow back along the sides of the bike's gas tank. Then a final picture of the dragon's tail would appear on the rear fender.
Sweet Spot
A novel by Linton Robinson
If anybody wondered why star journalist Mundo Carrasco would stop investigating Mazatlan's drug lords and politicos in order to run the shady new puppet mayor's press relations, then they had never been to bed with the scorching, amoral, monumental Mijares. Mazatlan's huge, blaring Carnival became the greatest time Mundo had lived since his days as a local baseball hero: access to the real power and closeted skeletons, a political future of his own, and...mostly...the perfect flesh of Mijares. Then the mayor beats up his wife, the city government starts to unravel into scandal and panic, and they start killing people--with Mundo right up there on their list. Tumbling through the tumult of Carnival, mob violence, narco suites and wretched bulldozed hovels, musical mayhem, his own corruption, and three women who want to reclaim his soul for his own good and their own purposes, Mundo is either sorting himself out or getting totally mixed up...if he comes out of it with his damaged scruples and bruised hide intact.
August 2010; I loved this book. A riveting read from start to finish and the kind of story that grabs you, draws you in, and sticks with you. I particularly loved the conversation between Mundo and his father. That really absorbed me and I also loved being given so many thoughtful insights into Mundo's life and worldview. Several times while reading I'd stop to have a think about the themes and ideas floating around. Good stuff.
The setting was colourfully realised and all the characters came across as real indivdual people and I'm glad Mundo ended up with the rightish girl even if he couldnt appreciate her the way he should. A great and complex read all round. I'm glad I bought this one and I'd defintely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast paced and convoluted plot mixed with a beautiful seeting, wonderfully real people and sharply accurate philosophising on this crazy world we all live in.
Everyday Madness
A novel by Matthew Malone.
Written shortly after the author experienced a nervous breakdown (partly, he claims, due to the experiences portrayed in this novel), Everyday Madness has been dubbed a "Mostly True Story." It straddles the lines between fiction and reality, leaving the reader asking, "Could this possibly be real?"
August 2010; This story blew me away. I can't remeber the last time I read anything so honest or brutal. Definitely not for the fainthearted. There are so many things I could say about this book but I'd be here for hours and end up ruining it for the next reader who comes along. I'll just call it a Catcher in the Rye for adults and leave it at that.
Buy it, give a donation, download it, whatever. But read it. You wont be disappointed.
Dark Hoard
A unique dark fiction anthology edited by Nick Button
©2010 To Stand With Angels
A novel by C J Gabriel
For seven years she's fought her demons, but now a stranger has arrived and the real battle is about to begin…
I want to take you on a journey...
Come with me to a place that exists in the past, but thrives in the imagination.
I will show you the Old West as you have never seen it before.
It is a place where outlaws freely roam the Territory, terrorizing the innocent and preying on the weak... where lonesome bounty hunters scour town, moutain, and desert, not for wanted criminals, but for the unspeakable horrors that stalk in the moonlight... a place where you never can be sure if the townsfolk are mere mortals, or demons with the faces of men...where beautiful saloon girls are created deceptions; spell-weavers with blood on their hands and Death in their mouths... and vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters are not all-powerful beings, but mere servants to the Evil that controls the vast Plains.
It is an Old West where the human race's only hope for survival rests on three unwitting Elementals, a jaded bounty hunter, one family who holds the key to Evil's undoing , and a young child who is destined to one day rise against a mighty Foe...
May 2010: I havent had a chance to read much of this yet. Waiting till I have enough pennies to buy the print version. Its available as an ebook for anyone who likes to read on the computer and the snippets I have read are fantastic. If you like your horror with a twist of gothic romance, then this is definitely for you. For a novel, its written in a very visual way which for me is great, being a visual artist. The author has managed to create a rich and detailed world and some interesting characters. More comments on the story later...
©2010 Fallen Earring
A blognovel by Duane Pescice
prologue
As in the old saw about the kingdom and the nail, things often depend on chains of circumstance. The more tenuous the link, the more tangential the connection, the more likely that something interesting can happen. Often the smallest event, the tiniest detail, can cause the largest change as the ripples spread outward.
Science theorizes about parallel worlds, about a multiverse, where each daily event can spawn whole new continua in a bewildering panoply of possibilities. Perhaps it is so. Maybe that's where the missing sock or that pen you had a minute ago end up at.
It's possible that, one night in the early 1970s, an earring fell to the floor. A young man, overwhelmed by drink and the pills he took to help him sleep, rolled over in bed to look at it, retched, and spewed the contents of a bottle of red wine onto the carpet. He went back to sleep and lived through that night.
May 2010: Read the first instalment of this so far and its very good. An interesting premise and a great sense of quiet humour in the tone. I dont want to say too much about this for fear of spoiling the fun so if anyone is interested in a novel set in an alternative world where the possibilities are worlds away from what they are here, follow the link above and enjoy.