This is the month to be spoilt for
choice with art books from Paper Tiger with three to choose
from although I suspect those with slender budgets will spread
buying them over a few months rather than get them all at
once. Even so, they are all gems and you’re going to find
it hard to choose which one to buy first.
I often say that you can rarely look at an artbook
and not find a picture you didn’t like although usually these
days, it’s more a case of finding some I didn’t like that
is becoming much rarer.
Case in point is JP Targete who shows versatility
in all the art mediums and is at home in SF as he is with
fantasy. What is rare about this book is that Targete shows
some of his earlier work while at school as well as art he
drew purely to indulge himself.
Although in the commercial world, it can’t always
be easy to find time to just paint or draw solely for the
artist’s own pleasure showing what can be done unfettered
by editorial command, one can only hope it inspires more freedom
for the artist to do what he or she thinks is right for the
picture than be told by an art director who only vaguely knows
what they want.
[No disrespect to art directors who can paint
but why hire someone with experience and not let them loose??
It isn’t like you don’t see the thumbnail sketches.]
Targete’s range covers figures and animals to
spacecraft and monsters. Like all SF/fantasy artists, versatility
in everything tends to be a call-sign today. What distinguishes
the artists is in their treatment of the design to make the
strongest impression which in turn helps pump up book sales
as the first hook into whether you should/would buy the book.
As the books were released Stateside, we haven’t
really got much to compare to other than a book like this
but on the other hand, we also see the art sans the title
condiments so probably, at least from a British perspective,
we’re seeing them with a far more clearer eye than our American
compatriots.
There really is something for everyone in this
book and just the kind of book you want to settle down after
a hard day to loose yourself in the art.
