OK, this is a niche market I don’t even pretend to understand. I know that fantasy art is big and that there’s a branch of it that prefers fairies to Amazons, but it leaves me cold, frozen in fact.
However, if dragons float your particular boat and you fancy having a go at painting them, this is as good a place to start as anywhere – probably better than most, in fact. Paul packs a lot into 48 pages including several different types of dragons, backgrounds, some cutesy kids and a fair amount of step-by-step demonstrations. The colours he uses are about as garish as the cover illustration but, hey, dragons are fictional beasts (oh yes they are), so I guess they can be whatever colour they like.
You’ll have guessed by now that this isn’t my sort of book and I’m sorry if I’m offending anyone’s sensibilities, but I’m having to judge it from something of a disadvantage. Nevertheless, it’s well done and presented and if friendly, rather than threatening, dragons are what you want, I’m confident this is the book for you. It’s even got gold endpapers, so what more can I say? Oh, and it’s a hardback, so it’s pretty seriously good value for money.
First published 2006
£8.99
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