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Fantasy Workshop: A Practical Guide by Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell with text by Nigel Suckling
01/04/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Thunder's Mouth Press. 128 page softcover. Price: $27.95 (US). ISBN: 1-56025-486-6. Buy Fantasy Workshop: A Practical Guide in the USA - or Buy Fantasy Workshop: A Practical Guide in the UK  check out website: www.avalonpub.com
For those who read my review of 'Boris Vallejo And Julie Bell: The Ultimate Collection' a couple months ago, I endeavoured to see which of the Vallejo books on the checklist were still available. Life was made even easier when one of them had been released by one of the publishers we receive books from and it was a stock item. Something to bear in mind if you're looking around for books and you want a first hand copy. They are still out there. My thanks to Thunder's Mouth Press for allowing me to have a review copy of a book that was formerly released three years ago by Paper Tiger and then by them in America. Considering the Paper Tiger edition isn't available then for you art fans who collect Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell's work, then finding this out here must surely be of interest.
I should point out though that this book is more centred on how they do their paintings than purely as an artbook. If you own Vallejo's 'Fantasy Art Techniques' book then think of that as the primer and this gets down to the really nitty-gritty for those who want to learn how they work.
The most immediate thing is how labour intensive they are at the layout stage to ensure they please their clients than to be just let loose to do what they think is right. My instinct says that is a very professional approach but it's a shame no book publisher has turned around and said that after all this time that they trust their judgement to do something appropriate. Well, not outside of the calendars anyway.
So for each painting in this book, of which there are several, you can follow the stages that it took to reach the final picture. This involves sketches, playing around with costumes and backgrounds and blocking in the colours before working on the pieces you finally see. Blocking in the colours on the figures is more a case of delineating shades and light in acrylic wash. It's a shame we don't see examples of the photos they use for their reference but with a lightbox, no doubt some of you will experiment. Likewise, although the text reveals how small a scale they actually paint, there is no studio photo to back this up. Pictures do speak louder than words although we do see other aspects of their studio. Consider the time they take in stippling and blending the colours into each painting, it'll be interesting to see how much the novice painter would use this book as a means to merely to copy learn or as an example of technique. If you are using it for the former, be prepared to learn a lot of patience and experience before mastering. For those of us who know how to paint, it does make for a delightful comparison of technique. In practice, and this applies to any art technique book, you take what you need to make your own art style work and add to your own repertoire. If nothing else, this will prevent you turning into Vallejo/Bell clones.
How much the Vallejo/Bell fans who just admire the finished pieces will make of this book is purely speculation. I haven't seen most of these pieces of art elsewhere so can surely be classed as something for everyone.
GF Willmetts
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