We live in the internet age where training is just a click away. But despite this we continually return to books. Even when learning could be gained online, educational book sales brought in £6.4 billion in the UK in 2020. Consumer book sales fared even better, rising seven per cent to £2.1 billion last year.
Clearly the printed word hasn’t lost its appeal, and for artists in particular, many have returned to the page. “Always,” states concept artist and director Kan Muftic (ifxm.ag/kan-m) as we ask if he still relies on art books for advice. “A book is an object with a physical and mental presence in my life,” adds the artist, whose own book Figure Drawing for Concept Artists has proved popular.
Kan reveals that “The beautiful books of Marcos Mateu-Mestre” got him through lockdown. The love of a physical art book was instilled in him at an early age: his parents had a collection of Sergio Toppi books that inspired him growing up.
You can track a person’s life through their book collection, and see the influences in their work. Kan himself has grown beyond the fantasy and comic art of his childhood and now directs for TV: his animated short Kiss Me First is on Netflix. Reading film theory has not only aided him in making the leap to film, but helped his art, too. “Learning about camera lenses in various filmmaking books completely changed the way I create images,” he tells us.
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Denne historien er fra October 2021-utgaven av ImagineFX.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Jan Wessbecher
Dominic Carter talks to the visual artist about creating his own comic and why sketchbooks are great for creative experiments
Kyounghwan Kim
The Korean character concept artist speaks to Dominic Carter about staying open to ideas and the value of drawing regularly
Slawek Fedorczuk
Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist about what keeps him motivated and the advantages of using physical sketchbooks.
Raquel M. Varela
Raquel is inspired by magic, fantasy and fairy tales. She loves designing female characters from distant worlds. \"My greatest reference is Loish's art, thanks to her I learned to draw the movement and fluidity I like to convey.\"
Estrela Lourenço
Estrela is a children's book author and illustrator. Her work is influenced by her background in character animation and storyboards for clients such as Cartoon Network, and she channels comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.
Daria Widermanska
Daria, also known as Anako, has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Inspired by Disney and classic anime, she loves creating new characters and often finds that a single sketch can spark a unique story.
Allen Douglas
Allen has been painting professionally since 1994 for the publishing and gaming industries. Inspired by folklore, he distorts the size, relationships and environments of animals, and calls his paintings 'unusual wildlife'.
Thaddeus Robeck
Thaddeus has been drawing from the moment he could hold a pencil, but it was the 2020 lockdowns that gave him the time to focus on honing his skills.
DRAW FASCINATING SYMBOLIC ARTWORK
Learn how JULIÁN DE LA MOTA creates a composition from his imagination with a focus on crafting figures, volumetric modelling, and light and shadow
First Impressions
The artist talks about his journey into the mythological world
