Larry Elmore is an old friend to the fantasy community, both gaming and fiction. His artwork is well known to all but the most neophyte. Those looking for a new Sketchbook from this revered master will have no further than Back to the Drawing Board. This will be a short review because of the nature of the product.
Back to the Drawing Board is a pen and ink collection of recent material that as the back of the book puts it, “beautiful women, heroic men, and dangerous monsters.” and he doesn't fail to deliver.
Now his preference for fantasy is clear when it comes to women. Scantily clad, robust women who take no lip from the enemy. They can be sorcerers, fighters, clerics or just out and out adventurers but they aren't there to be protected and defended.
Now for those who like the clash of steel, there are illustrations of proud knights posing and clashing with one another. The one taken from Sovereign Stone is a particularly powerful piece with knights of light and dark hacking away at one another with swords or a picture of 'classics' of fantasy. By that, I mean six characters, three to a page, that look to be, and I could be mistaken here, Merlin (or Gandalf), Conan, Drizzt, Elric, King Arthur and Robin Hood. Very nice picture with a lot of quite power behind it. I'd love to see this done as a painting.
The interesting aspect of the sketchbook to me is the look inside the artist's mind as he provides brief commentaries on several of the drawings. This includes what it was done in, pen, pencil, as well as what type of paper it was done on. It provides a nice 'human' element to the otherwise textless art.
Something else I enjoyed was the different aspects of the illustrations. You could quickly tell the differences between pen and pencil drawings. Some of the drawings he showcased the use of Photoshop's ability to add gray tones quickly into ink drawings. It's very impressive the differences that he's able to create in tone and feel and having the original next to the touched up version is a nice bonus.
There are many examples of Elmore's art on the web. This brings it to your home and gives you a sneak peak into the creator's mind. Now some people don't like Elmore's art and for them, they won't have to debate about the merits of buying this art book because it's all Elmore and it's all his style.
For my vote, if you like fantasy art, Elmore has got you covered.
Review Summary