The Explorer's Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures by Emily Fiegenschuh

This is a fun and good looking book with the narrator being an exploring creature called Paki who leads you through the various creatures on display. One thing i like about this book is the endless possibilities for creating truly wondrous beasts, with the right reference material only your imagination will hold you back.

From the start the author takes you through the necessary basics like materials, reference of animals, and animal anatomy. Then goes on to the more meaty subjects of perspective, foreshortening, human proportions, and also looks at pencil rendering variations and colour theory.

A nice touch is the Do's and Don'ts which are dotted through the book so not only are you getting tips on what to do there is also what not to do. The section on giving creatures personality is particularly nice as it's something not often seen.

We then get into the examples and Paki takes you through various mythical creatures in a step by step look at building the shapes and details needed. One thing it does not go into is the colouring of the subjects which is left entirely up to the reader, probably as if included the painting section would make the book twice as big. In fact the only one where painting is detailed is the last example of the Lantern Bat. My favourite was the Minotaur as there was a lot of detailing going on with the armour etc.

The author draws on her (clearly) vast portfolio and knowledge of the subjects she has lovingly created to give this book a good deal of depth, and hopefully the reader will take away as much information and help as is given.


You can find this book at Amazon