Tsai - 100 ways to create fantasy figures

If youre reading this book, you have probably had at least some interest in creating fantasy art, either professionally or just for pleasure in your spare time. I am fortunate enough to be able to make a living creating artwork for the entertainment industry, and because of this I often find myself being asked questions about it. How do you get a job as a fantasy artist? What kind of pens do you use? Is it OK to use reference material? How do you know what colours to use? And so on My path to my current career was fairly lengthy and roundabout; I didnt take the traditional art-school route, and in fact never really learned the fundamentals of illustration in any rigorous, orderly way. It was not the easiest or best way to become a working fantasy artist, and I had to study every day to fill in the gaps in my art education. After a number of years working as a concept artist in the computer games industry and as a freelance illustrator for books, comics, films and television, I have assembled a few nuggets of knowledge and some workflow routines that seem to have a certain degree of success. It is these that I want to share with you in this book.

It has never been a better time to be a fantasy artist. As I look around my studio library, I can see many examples of books and films that are fantasy related, or at least somehow influenced by this kind of imagery. Role-playing games have long been a primary source, but with all the recent advances in filmmaking technology, movies are now able to convincingly portray the kinds of worlds and beings familiar to fans of the fantasy genre. Successful films often spawn computer games and, increasingly, material can flow the other way too. This only benefits the traditional role-playing game and book markets, all of which results in more opportunities for skilled illustrators.

This book had a long genesis, which began back when I found that students and amateur artists (and even a few professionals) were asking me certain questions time and time again. I thought it might be useful to put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions on my website. The more I worked on it the longer and more involved it became, because there was just so much material to cover. With some of the topics, it was hard to convey the information without an accompanying illustration to make the point, and it quickly grew beyond that of a simple FAQ. So I set it aside.

A few years ago, I started writing some short articles about different aspects of concept art and illustration for fantasy and science fiction art magazine ImagineFX. A few of the points I originally had in my FAQ showed up in these articles, but I was usually at the end of my allotted word count before I could convey enough information. It was an interesting dilemma I could present my points in a fairly focused way that was limited in scope; or I could cover a wide variety of topics in a somewhat superficial way. So, when I was presented with the opportunity to create this book, I thought it would be a great way to impart some of the tips from the original FAQ, hopefully in a manner that is both broad in scope but also specific enough to provide some useful, practical advice based on my experience.

The preliminary sketch in most illustration jobs needs to show the art director your intentions as far as pose and composition go, and also give some idea of colour and tonal value without being too detailed or finished.

For an illustrator, tools consist of the actual equipment used to create the artwork. Until recently, these consisted solely of some variation of pencils, ink, paint and paper or canvas. However, in the past few years digital technology has advanced to the point where it can be difficult to tell the difference between art created traditionally and that made on the computer. In addition, peripheral equipment such as scanners and drawing tablets have continued to blur the boundaries between digital and traditional techniques and media.