Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

John increased his extensive fan base working alongside Alan Lee as Conceptual Designer of The Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy.

This is John Howe's first ever practical art book, presenting a wide selection of his work, practical demonstrations and a foreword by Terry Gilliam.

Here's how I do it, and why': this is the premise behind John Howe's very first practical exploration of his artistic inspirations, approaches and techniques. Perfect for practical artists and fans of John Howe's work, this book provides step-by- step demonstrations, sketches and outstanding finished paintings, some of which were designed specifically for this book. The book covers a wide range of subjects essential to any aspiring fantasy artist, including materials and the creative process, as well as drawing and painting humans, beasts, landscapes and architecture. Readers will also find further inspiration and guidance on presenting work in various forms including film work, book covers and advertising.

Average Customer Rating:

Great Book	Customer Rating:
This is a very lovely book for showing how a professional artist goes about his business. I appreciate the lack of product endorsement. Howe can get rather verbose and sometimes repetitive, but this book is filled with great inspiration in text and pictures.

Creativity Inspiring	Customer Rating:
This is a great book and those I've shown my book to agree with me. Amazing talent and very well illustrated. The workshops show amazing creativity.

Howe Too!

Customer Rating:

I'm always interested in any collection of John Howe's work and this book does not dissapoint in that regard, it is chock full of illustrations and examples of his approach and techniques. The addition of his insight and advice just makes this a terrific volume with no failings. In addition to being very useful as an instructional book, it's also inspirational. It's worth every penny of it's very reasonable price.

Excellent Book from one of the great fantasy artists

Customer Rating:

John Howe is the artist I credit for making me interested in fantasy illustration, and will always be one of my favorites. It should come as no surprise that the artwork in this book is amazing, and the information presented is also quite insightful. It is not an art how too book, so much as it is a general treatise of John Howe's way of thinking about his work, and going about his creative process. He actually expresses pretty clearly his dislike of anything that feels like a how too process, or is so forumulaic that it can be presented as if there is only one set way to do it. One of the best additions to my art library.

Not your usual how-to book

Customer Rating:

This is a wonderful book. I am a big fan of Mr. Howe's work and much of the advice in this book is familiar from John's forum but it's a good chance to see how he works step by step, as well as how he organizes his studio and prepares for illustration jobs. While there are only a few "walkthroughs" featuring new art, the book is full of interesting tidbits of information about the creation of other paintings. There are lots of tips even I who has been painting for many years didn't think of before. John Howe makes a point to encourage readers to find their own unique style and way of painting, unlike many how to books which only show one way of doing things. I particularly love that his sense of humor shows. He honest about illustration and admits that he isn't perfect and procrastinates as much as possible before every job.