Goblin Week 2020 _World of the Dark Crystal_ Brian Froud Master Studies

I have, if I do say so myself, an impressive collection of art books.  One of my favorite things I used to do was take one, pour over it, and draw from the illustrations in my own Sketchbooks.  My version of a Master Study, a very important learning method for any artist.  Any time I copy from a professional, the results always eventually end up more "me" anyway, but I still learn a lot from mimicking my favorites. 

I've never really thought to share such studies but A. I got a copy of the gorgeous concept art book The World of the Dark Crystal, which I never thought I'd get to own.  It's been reissued to celebrate "The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance" series which, goodness, is a genuine miracle.  Like, go watch it right now instead of reading this.  Anyway, the book is a fantastic collection of Brian Froud's concept art for the film and loads of world-building notes. 

And B. it is Goblin Week, my dudes!  And so, here are some Brian Froud-y gobliny "Dark Crystal" critters.  Drawing these little guys was so much fun and it makes me want to draw more studies like these (eyes the "Labyrinth" concept art book on the shelf).

You'll notice a note on the first page.  The Sketchbook I'm currently using is a Design Ideation LS PAINT.  And it is... fine.  It just doesn't take watercolor paint very well at all and the pages are thin enough to bleed through.  It was very nice for these pencil drawings though.  Note the pages are actually a creamy white paper; the rusty background on these images seemed to suit these little goblins better.











And now for some bonus sillyness:

Let's Read _Recreating an Age of Reptiles_

Mark Witton's Recreating an Age of Reptiles (or "Rec-A-Rep" to its friends) is first and foremost an art book.  If you want to learn about dinosaurs or art techniques, you'll have to look elsewhere.  That said, it is the kind of art book I savor: gorgeous art, introduced and explained by the artist.

It seems like a simple, obvious thing, but I really don't have many art books in my collection like this (the magnificent 1995 volume The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe has a very similar format and oh, what would I give for an updated version).  Here, Witton gives us the grand circle tour of his paleoart, all along telling us what is speculation and what is based on solid evidence.  Pterosaurs are the stars, of course, but we get a lovely tour of the Triassic, unusual depictions of sauropods and ceratopsians, and even us lousy synapsids get our own little chapter.  This really is a beautiful book and an essential addition to your paleoart library.

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Art of the Day!

A Merry Moleskein Marshtomp.  (Don't ruin his mood and tell him Janphibianuary was kind of a flop.)