Fantasy Mapping (Wesley Jones)

In Fantasy Mapping, artist Wesley Jones' goal is to cover every aspect of the titled topic, to include:

- world building,

- geography, 

- tools & materials,

- map components, 

- styling, lettering & colouring,

- composition, and

- finished maps.

This book is a mixed bag. Some of the tips were aspects I hadn't considered; I appreciated that. And I liked that about half of the book was the final chapter, where he gave many examples of finished maps (complete with world-building backstory) in different styles. On the other hand, a lot of the book seemed too basic; tips like ""there are many different software programs available for digital art . . . each program has its strengths, so it is okay to use multiple programs to get good results." Fine and good, but that left me wanting more. And while some art tutorials were there, they were glossed over. That may be appropriate for the topic at hand, but I felt this could be been better.

Rating: C+

The Hobbit Sketchbook (Alan Lee)

In The Hobbit Sketchbook, artist Alan Lee displays and explains "hundreds of his sketches and early conceptual pieces that reveal how the project [The Hobbit films] progressed from idea to finished art." 

In February, I reviewed The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook. My comments there apply here—I love Alan Lee's art and am delighted that his evocative, lyrical style was reflected in the films. And I never cease to be amazed at how much work goes into such movies . . . to think how many sketches were produced to create a few-second scene is mind-boggling. I enjoyed the commentary to that effect in addition to the pictures.

Rating: A

Redeeming Vision (Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt)

Redeeming Vision is exactly what its subtitle states: "a Christian guide to looking at and learning from art." Here, Weichbrodt teaches us "how to look" in part one by providing tools and techniques for approaching art. She then applies it in parts two and three with walking us through example artworks and showing how we can use each to "love the Lord your God" and "love your neighbor as yourself." An outline follows.

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Part One: How to Look

• The toolbox: how we look closely; our tools for visual analysis, "which is a crucial part of engaging with artworks." Here, she covers:
• formal elements (line, shape, form, color, value, space, texture)
• formal principles (unity, balance, movement, rhythm, emphasis, contrast)
• style (representational to abstract, along this spectrum: naturalism-idealism-stylization-abstraction)
• The archive: how we interpret, which includes historical context of an artwork. This is "a way of understanding how we make meaning. Our archive is our mental collection of other things we have seen . . . that help us make sense of new images and well as new experiences and people."
• The frame: an artwork's physical context, "which can play a significant role in our experience of the artwork."

Part Two: Love the Lord Your God

Here, she considers "three different responses to artworks that can cultivate our commitment to God [by comfessing our idols], awe at his transcendence, and gratitude for his presence." She demonstrates that "we can learn from a whole range of visual langauges, from representational to nonobjective art."

• Confessing our idols
• Wondering at God's transcendence (abstract art)
• Delighting in God's presence (representational art)

Part Three: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Here, she demonstrates that artwork can help us grow in love for our neighbor by developing the areas listed below.

• Growing in Curiosity: portraiture
• Sharing our space: landscape
• Allowing for complexity: art of the everyday
• Learning to lament: the art of history
• Redeeming vision

Ultimately, the goal is to be "willing to be changed by what we see, acknowledging the power of artworks as cultural liturgies and seeking to purposefully build new liturgies that reiterate the story we are truly a part of: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration."

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This is an excellent resource and wonderful introduction to art that I have been seeking for some time. Not only is her part one outstanding, giving the vocabulary to better describe what we see, but her parts two and three are thought-provoking and helpful, guiding us to be more aware and analytical in our approach. Ultimately, she achieves her goal of equipping us to have 'redeeming vision.' Highly recommended.

I conclude with one comment: her analysis assumes a deep intentionality in each artwork: in other words, she looks at many facets of a piece assuming the artist was quite intentional about each, in both form and message. Is that true? It may be. I hope it is. Sometimes, though, I scratched my head and asked "is that the only interpretation? Could the artist have meant something very different or been unaware of that angle? And if so, is that, in and of itself, meaningful?" I don't always know the answers . . . but I'm thankful this book has given me the tools to both see better and ask better questions.

Rating: A

The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook (Alan Lee)

Artist Alan Lee spent six years producing 2500 drawings to bring to life the 400 sets and myriad characters that would be involved in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. In The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook, he shares his insights into the movie-making process as well as copious amounts of the sketches he made during it. Two examples are below.

This book is fun. Peter Jackson (director) said Lee's art had a lyricism about it that he wanted to capture in the films; I think he succeeded, and I'm glad he did. I've long been a fan of both Alan and John Howe (the other LOTR artist); their works evoke a memory of something lost, a longing for restoration, and often have an impression of depth to them. I was surprised how many of Lee's drawings were precisely portrayed in the films: they took his sketches and used CG (or the props department) to bring them to life. His work, combined with Tolkien's story and Jackson's "understanding of the text, and of the possibilities of cinema," has made for an amazing experience indeed. Well done all around.

I had hoped this book would feature more finished watercolors (Lee's specialty and my favorite); most of the work is sketches in various stages of completion. But it is a sketchbook, so I shouldn't have expected otherwise.

Rating: A

Images in the Margins (Margot McIlwain Nishimura)

This "book is intended to evoke the rich and varied world of the Middle Ages as seen through the lens of manuscript illumination." This is a book of marginalia, "a modern term that refers to words or images in the margins of a page . . . [which were] especially common in English, French, and Italian manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." In "the margins of illuminated manuscripts lie a world of inviting images equally at odds with the solemnity of their settings . . . you will find a surprisingly fresh array of the fantastic, the real, and the ridiculous among the images in the margins." You will find a mixture of sacred and profane surprising to modern readers—yet humans are no stranger to bizarre, hilarious, and often irreverent pictures. In just 75 pages, this book walks the reader through a brief history of marginalia, looking at topics, placement, and meaning (where known) of these delightfully weird images.

not in the book (image from here), but gives you an idea of what marginalia is

In 2015, I read the first book in this series: Beasts Factual & Fantastic. Like that volume, Images in the Margins is done well, intriguing, and too short. Personally, I enjoy absurd humor, and marginalia is right up my alley when done to that effect. I like the more serious depictions, too, and wonder what might have been behind the chosen scenes. Some are symbolic and instructive, others appear to be inside jokes, and still others may have been the modern equivalent of playfully poking fun at friends, society, or life in general; a visual satire, perhaps. Whatever the reason, there is a 'tale within a tale' in old manuscripts, and I enjoy studying such scenes whenever I come across them.

Rating: A-

Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien)

This books collects pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien "which were published in a series of six calendars from 1973 to 1979, with a gap in 1975," plus a few others by the prolific author and amateur artist. The focus, as you'd expect, is on the events and locales concerning Middle Earth. Often, his original art is on the left-hand side of the page and a colorized version (done later by another artist) is on the right. A paragraph explaining the picture accompanies each print. A volume very similar to this was published in 1979, with republished versions (with mild updates/changes) coming in 1992 and 2021, respectively. I have the 2021 version.

I enjoyed this short volume. With only 48 prints (many of which are presented twice, as described above), you'll get through it fast, but it is a tantalizing glimpse into what the author envisioned when he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. While it is clear that art is not his forte, I was nevertheless impressed with the skill he did possess in this area. (Below is his view of Smaug, for example.) I also appreciated how subsequent artists (and Peter Jackson) held to the essence of what Tolkien envisioned when they produced the movies. If you're a Tolkien fan, you'll enjoy this.

Rating: A-

Echoes of Eden (Jerram Barrs)

In Echoes of Eden, Jerram Barrs provides some "reflections on Christianity, literature, and the arts." After background material on "God and humans as creative artists," he looks to build an understanding of what it means to practice, approach, and appreciate/judge art as a Christian. He discussed 'echoes of Eden' (see below) and the concludes by looking at 5 artists (and their key works): C.S. Lewis (Narnia), J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), Shakespeare (Macbeth), and Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice).

In 1 Timothy 4:1-5, "Paul insists that . . . all the gifts of creation-are good and holy, for God himself has declared them to be so." "Man and woman, God's image bearers, are made to be sub-creators following after their Creator." Thus "We may describe a Christian undersatnding of the arts in the following way: Our work in any field of the arts will be imitative. We will be thinking God's thoughts after him." So "Christian artists need to regard themselves as creatures of God, using gifts given by God, delighting in the world made by God, needing the help of other artists, doing their work to the glory of God, and devoting their labors to the enrichment of the lives of others." 

It's important to note that artists serve not themselves, but "serve the needs of other people and to bring some help, enrichment, consolation, and encouragement to their lives." Through the gifts of an artist, "We may experience more of the wonder of God's world as we read and so enter into someone else's perspective on this world. This is true in all the arts . . . [artists see] something of the world that we do not see, and so as we look or listen or read, we are enriched by each artist's vision." "In the enjoyment of others' creativity, I enter into a vision and richness beyond my own: 'familiar things made new, and new things made familiar,' to paraphrase Samuel Johnson." C.S. Lewis would agree, and argues that art can include delving into fantasy/fictional worlds: "The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by 'the veil of familiarity.'"

We should learn to recognize the value in art from all, as "God has given his creative gifts to believers and unbelievers alike." As John Calvin eloquently put it, "The human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or doncemn truth wherever it appears."

Ultimately, Barrs argues that "All great art will echo these three elements of Eden: (1) Eden in its original glory, (2) Eden that is lost to us, and (3) the promise that Eden will be restored." He repeats this several times using different words:

• "as a principle that the themes of all great art . . . are the world and human life as they came from the hand of God; the world and human life as they now are subject to sorrow, sin, and death; and the world and human life as we long for and look forward to their restoration."
• "all great art contains elements of the true story: the story of the good creation, the fallen world, and the longing for redemption."
• "What we are calling echoes of Eden is like this, for as soon as we experience a memory of the glory of Eden, there is also a sense of deep sadness intermingled with the glory, for any true echo will have both the beauty that was ours and the sorrow of its loss."
• "the three fundamental themes . . . [are] the beauty of creation, the appalling reality of evil, and the universal human longing for redemption and a better world."

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I enjoyed this book. I was pleased to see my approach/thoughts on the matter (the "content consumption" posts I did in October) largely align with Barrs. I gained from his insights and am thankful for them. The most value is found in the first half, where he does a good job explaining core concepts on how we should value and approach art. The second half, where he evaluates five authors, is also of value, but felt less structured and more conversational/meandering. And the book ends abruptly; I wish he had included a final chapter to wrap everything together. Overall, though, it is a good read.

Rating: A-

Mein Rheingau (H.P. Mayer)

 

Author and photographer H.P. Mayer traveled the Rheingau (a wine-growing area between Frankfurt and Koblenz) "by gyrocopter, canoe, steamboat, bicycle or simply on foot" to create Mein Rheingau, "a pictorial journey through the Rheingau with some typical and also some very rare motifs." 

This short book (with descriptions in both German and English) is wonderful for those who live in this region. The pictures are decent but won't win any awards. The chosen locations are (as the author said) both typical and unusual, which was a nice mix. The aerial perspectives were nice. I enjoy owning this and perusing the images as I fondly recall our years here, but I'm not sure non-locals would enjoy it as much.

Rating (for locals): B

Concepts and Legends (James Wyatt)

Concepts and Legends is another Magic: the Gathering book showcasing the art of the game. But here, the focus is more on conceptual art used to build out the world of a given set. (There is some finished art, but not much.) At a high level, the book covers:

• Planes (the worlds of Magic, like Dominaria, Ravnica, and Innistrad)
• Races (the sapient creatures, like catfolk, merfolk, vampires, goblins, and elves)
• Creatures (all other creatures, like angels, sphinxes, demons, dragons, and hydras)
• Characters (focusing on planeswalkers)

Unlike the last Magic book I covered (see previous post), this book is much larger, improving the presentation. The writing is surprisingly good, too. This work covers the story behind Magic as well, serving as a useful introduction and a reminder that this is more than just a game- it is an immersive world with a story arc that has spanned 25 years. Finally, it displays just how much work goes into world building for the game, producing tons of concept art to help make a given set consistent in appearance across hundreds of artists. Overall, I was impressed. As with other offerings, though, I wish it had been longer.

Rating: A-

Learning to Look at Paintings (Mary Acton)

Ever look at a famous, revered work of art and say "I don't get it"?  Me too.  I need to learn how to look at paintings . . . and Mary Acton's book is a good introduction.  Using plenty of examples, she dedicates chapters to:
- composition ("the artist's method of organising a subject, of deciding what to put in and what to leave out in order to make an effective picture").  Here, she looks at lines like horizontals and verticals, harmony and balance, curves and diagonals, and more.
- space ("the creation of the illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface").  Things like linear perspective, geometrical space, aerial perspective, distortion, and disorientation.
- form ("the feeling of volume in a painting")
- tone ("the contrast between light and shade in a painting")
- color (primary and complementary colors, how colors contrast (degree of brightness, etc.))
- subject matter (learning the historical/cultural background and the original physical setting/frame of a picture to more fully understand and appreciate its messages)
- drawing and its purposes (it's not just about sketching for painting prep)
- looking at prints (lithographs and related styles)

Her goal is to give readers the basic understanding and vocabulary to analyze art.

This book is valuable; it gave me some fresh insights and things to look for.  Some things hadn't occurred to me- like the importance of the brushstrokes and surface itself (it may be deliberately layered or rough; impossible to convey in a print), the original setting (could have been a church, and part of a larger series of pictures), and other things.  On the downside, by necessity all examples are reproductions (can't work artistic surfaces into a book) and most are black and white (keeps costs down, but makes it harder to understand her analysis).  I learned a bit, but some art (especially modern/abstract) still baffles me.

Rating: B+

The Goldsmith's Treasure (Zdenko Basic)

The Goldsmith's Treasure is a Croatian tale, a 400-year-old story of love and loss.  This edition is illustrated by Zdenko Basic and inspired by the work of August Senoa, a nineteenth-century Croatian novelist.  Dora is a beautiful girl, loved by many but pursued by two- a malicious barber, and the son of the neighboring town's cruel leader.  When she's drawn to the latter, the former contrives to bring ruin upon all.

artwork example

I was drawn to this by the artwork, which is haunting and excellent.  The book has several asides about Zagreb (the city where the tale takes place), which were interesting.  The translation lacks in places- a few words were notably off- but it's a good story overall.

Rating: A-

The Art in Magic

A few weeks ago, there was an article from a dedicated Magic player reflecting on a piece of card art that particularly grabbed him.  It made me think of my own enjoyment of the art in Magic.

Magic is great for many reasons,and the card art is (to me) a bigger part of the game than I consciously realize.  The art is, after all, what people first notice.  Your immediate reaction to it may play a sizable role in determining whether you play the game or not.  And for me, on more than one occasion I've included a card in a deck (or even centered deck construction around a card) because of its art.  Greg Staples' Lord of Atlantis and Hypnotic Specter (below) comes to mind.

Lord of Atlantis

Hypnotic Specter

In reflecting on this subject, too many cards and artists come to mind to be comprehensive.  In general, I enjoy the art of Terese Nielsen and Rebecca Guay, both of whom have done many Magic cards over the years.  Their respective styles are distinctive and instantly recognizable.  The aforementioned Greg Staples is also fun; I could go on.  But what really gets me, more than anything, are the land cards.

Magic decks are generally 40% land cards- you'll see them more than anything else as you play.  Basic land cards (plains, island, swamp, mountain, forest) are the most plentiful and easily acquired cards in the game.  Hundreds of versions of these have been produced.  And, I confess, I will pursue specific releases based on their art.  I like lands by John Avon, Jung Park, Michael Kormack, Jonas De Ro, Raoul Vitale, Rob Alexander, James Paick, Yeong-Hao Han, Quinton Hoover, Doug Shuler, Adam Paquette . . . I could go on.  Below are my favorite versions of each of the five basic land types.

Plains

Forest

Island

Mountain

Swamp

Other Thoughts
Magic is a fantasy card game with deliberate fantasy themes.  That said, there are a few cards dear to me for the reminders they evoke of real places.  For example, Birds of Paradise, with the cathedral in the background, reminds me of Europe:

I was recently shocked to see a Magic card with terrain I had visited:

I'll prove it to you:

taken by the author

What is this?  Did Wizards know the artist had used a real-life location?  Of course they did; it was part of a series called Euro lands.  So cool . . . I had no idea.  This link has those Euro lands and many other examples of basic lands and how they've changed over the years.

This post is already too long. . . I'll conclude with this thought: art is beautiful, and matters in games as well as life.

Henry Gastineau

I blog about art far too little.  A fond memory from my time in England was the scenic countryside, dotted with evocative ruins.  Those scenes are captured beautifully in nineteenth-century artwork, be it paintings by people like JMW Turner or engravings by today's subject, Henry Gastineau.

I know nothing about Gastineau save that I love his work, and his scene of Raglan Castle (in south Wales) hung in my home for several years before it fell victim to one of my minimalist kicks.  A google image search (and another) gives you an idea of his capability and the beauty of his images.  A scanned book on Wales gives you more of the same.  And regardless of artist, who doesn't love Raglan Castle?  A nice selection of images here makes me want to hop on a plane . . .

The style of these nineteenth century engravings captivate me like no other portrayal of these magnificent structures.  Perhaps it's because so many ruins today have been 'restored' and cleaned up, denying them (to a degree) the overgrown and ancient quality reflected in these pictures.  Whatever it is, I enjoy them, and I hope you do, too.

Castles (Alan Lee & David Day)

Alan Lee is an amazing artist (introduced in this post).  He is the reason I acquired Castles.

Castles is an art book covering the structures of myth (Norse mythology, giants, faeries), romance (King Arthur, Charlemagne, the Rhine Castles), and fantasy (from literature, fairy tales, and modern works like Gormenghast and Lord of the Rings).  Interspersed with Lee's masterful pencil drawings and watercolors is text by David Day providing the background of a given picture.  This is a one- or two-sitting 'read,' and I highly recommend it for the evocative, haunting, and beautiful artwork alone.  Examples follow.

Rating: A