Thomas Kryton (bio)

"Garbage Man"
John Wallin

The four artists and authors each have a section of the book offering first an overview of their thoughts on Digital Art and a brief autobiography, followed by a series of selected works, and a tutorial section with most giving two tutorials and Robert Chang giving four, and each section is ended with an invited artists section.

Their introduction sections are an interesting personal insight into how most have come into the field of Digital Art and their thoughts surrounding techniques and other aspects of the state of the media.

Each artist presents a series of their own works with a brief statement about each piece, whether it's the subject matter, client or compositional choices.

The tutorials sections each artist gives differ from standard tutorials. Rather than a step by step procedural road map each describes their color and compositional choices, working methods, software choices, and thinking. If you're looking for a step by step manual this is not it, however, if you're looking for inspiration and insight into how these individuals plan and create their works you won't be disappointed. The software choices and digital mediums they use include; Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and Alias Maya, with medium ranging from charcoal to oil.

In the invited artists sections a range of different digital artists' works are showcased from a variety of genres and styles. Accompanying each piece is a brief paragraph explaining what has drawn the author to it and why it has been included in the book.

"Promise Promotional Image"
Robert Chang

Overall the book deals with creating digital art from scratch rather than photo manipulation and features works that appear if they've been created with anything from an airbrush to traditional media such as oil or acrylic. The appealing aspect of this book is the almost conversational tone each artist uses to discuss their work and processes allowing the reader a view of why their design choices are made. Not to neglect the obvious, but the almost two hundred pages of eye candy in itself is sure to inspire you to experiment and will give you cause to reconsider your own work.

Lastly, one pleasant surprise came when I opened the package from Ballistic Publishing. I had ordered the soft cover version rather than the pricier hard cover. The soft cover version comes with a matching card sleeve that when I opened my package I originally mistook for the hard cover version, which should protect the contents of the book for some time to come.

Digital Paint Graphic and Web Design