Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures (Dover Art Instruction)

As a freelance illustrator that occasionally has the opportunity to dabble in the fantastic I found this book an absolute vital addition to my collection of reference materials. Many may think this is another art book. It is that, but yet it is so much more. It is a delight for the eyes (which is breath-taking in and of itself) but even more importantly it opens your mind and imagination to the possibilities of inspiration that surrounds you every day. Who knew a bone could be a spaceship (other than Stanley Kubrick and Mark Nelson)? Drawing ability is of course critical but learning to let your mind roam down endless corridors of questions and answers is possibly an even harder skill to master. This is a book of full of who's that, what if's and so then's. It helps to guide you in how to look for the next step in the logical (and sometimes fanciful) progression of a world and the creatures that live there and alternately shape and in turn are molded by its environment. Never settling for a mere patina of creation this book endeavors to give you an insight on how to breathe life to deep, tangible and fully realized worlds and their denizens. Take a deep breath and dive into new worlds that you never knew existed until you dreamed them!

Mark is a Veteran in the game of world building, and this book shows!! His work as an instructor really shows in relation to how easy it is to absorb the knowledge! His phrasing is incredibly digestible If you're interested in renovating your world with more character, complete thoughts, and starting from the base, he has words of wisdom for beginners and advanced designers alike! I have been devouring this book front to back more than once already! It doubles as an art book since the quality of the prints is absolutely stunning! Seeing the pencils, Inks, and then the finals is a real delight that helps break down the process-- but the thought behind why specific designs and story-telling are where Mark really shines! There's so much story-telling in every piece! Even just the drawings of his trees and rocks have so much movement and energy you'll be excited to get to work yourself! I love it, and I'm certain that you will love it too!

As the others have said, Mark Nelson's "Fantasy World-Building" is gorgeous little book. It's filled to the brim with exciting and imaginitive artwork. Mark Nelson has had a long and storied career, and with the caliber of work shown here it's easy to see why. You can turn to nearly any page and find something worth examining. However, when it comes to the writing it can be a bit hit or miss. The book's writing is clear throughout, but some of the subjects feel like they were only talked about because they needed to be mentioned. This isn't the case for all the chapters. There is some good depth to be found here, but that just makes the weaker ones all the more jarring. Compared to other world-building books this the only point where I feel this book doesn't push the envelope.

Oh, what fun. This has a lot of information on how to go about this. I read the whole thing. Infromation dense, really.

“Fantasy World Building” is a highly motivating and inspiring guide for ANY visual artist, whether the art you make falls within the "Fantasy" realm or is something entirely different. The tools to create your OWN imagery that is original, plausible and tells the story only you can share are presented with an informative and positive "anything is possible" vibe. The author outlines his own drawing process, discusses mediums, and asks questions to prompt your own line of discovery, in a spirit of adventure and playfulness. It gives you SO much to think about and explore, but is not overwhelming because the lessons are in manageable, bite-sized chunks. This book will serve as a great go-to guide to refer to again and again, and at the same time is a treasure trove of mind-blowing ART, text aside! You're left impressed, encouraged, and feeling like "I can DO this!" I recommend you have a sketchbook and pencil right alongside you as you dive into the endless possibilities within.

Not everyone who loves to draw fantasy art has the privilege of learning from an amazing artist and art professor. Mark A Nelson spent most of his career teaching illustration, drawing, and print-making at the college level.This book is a unique combination of instruction book and art gallery of Nelson's imaginative work. The book is formatted to be the size of a magazine, and is 152 pages of art and commentary. I hope the publisher, Dover, knows what they have in this book and this artist, and expand the series to publish more instruction books by Mark A. Nelson. But what a great debut effort.

This is a great book, it’s full of lots of great examples of creatures, worlds and lots of creative details. It does not have a beginners art step,by step, but instead he tells us why he draws what and why he does. He leaves the creativity of the illustrations to us and instead, shows us why the background story is important...The art is also awesomely done! I’d buy any book by Mark!

I bought this book with high hopes. The title and cover looked great and the book sounded like it was exactly what I needed. However, after getting and reading through the book, what I found was: 1 - The art is fantastic. I really, really like the artist's art and find it inspiring 2 - The world building aspect is barely there at all. It's the second point that is bringing down the rating on this book. The book itself is well laid out, the printing is nice, and, as was pointed out, the art is fantastic. However, the book doesn't really 'teach' you about world-building. Instead, you get to see the artist's art and a few of his thoughts. But there's no real help to actual 'world-building'. Overall, I am mixed on this book. Great art, poor presentation of the actual topic. This book could have been so much more than it is.

The book inspired me a lot and had very interesting information to learn

A book geared toward drawing and designers (physical and digital). Few descriptions and many images, but it doesn't address worldbuilding in the way I expected.

Travail pour dessins

Le doy cinco estrellas para intentar compensar la cruel estrella solitaria del tal "Angel" Es adecuado llamar "guía" a un libro como este: es dudoso que un sólo libro pueda hacer que de tu cabeza salga mucho más de lo que ya se encuentra en ella. O, en otras palabras: "de donde no hay, no se puede sacar". Lo que sí consigue este libro es ser una fuente de inspiración, impulsar a que el "futuro" artista en busca de un apoyo, coja el lápiz y continúe dibujando a partir de donde el autor ha finalizado el trazo. En ese sentido, esta obra es similar a los también bastante recomendables -aunque sí de calidad irregular, al tratarse de un mix de artistas, y algunos más bien tirando a "amateur"- "Sketching from the Imagination" de la editorial "3D Total". La diferencia con estos, es que aquí el autor es un profesional con un nivel de calidad elevado y homogéneo. ¿Clichés? ¿Pero acaso no toda la literatura humana no es otra cosa que un continuo refrito del mismo par de historias canónicas, donde sólo se cambian algo las proporciones de los ingredientes y se remueve el caldero con brío para que el mismo plato de siempre parezca algo nuevo al paladar? El dibujo, en lo esencial, lo mismo. De modo que si lo tuyo es dibujar "Espada y Brujería" o "Fantasía" en general, este es un excelente trabajo de referencia y, repito, de inspiración. Tiempo habrá, una vez que la mente y la propia mano empiecen a funcionar por si solas, de buscar y -con suerte- encontrar un estilo propio y -si se tercia- innovador. Es absurdo pretender que algo que cuesta cuatro duros vaya a convertirte en el nuevo gran maestro creativo del género. Pero sí te puede dar un empujón en la dirección correcta: de ahí lo de "guide"...

Es un excelente libro, aunque definitivamente debes de tener ya camino andado dentro de tu preparación como artista conceptual. Para principiantes puede ser algo un poco abrumador.