Exotique 3
Edited by Daniel Wade and Paul Hellard
(cover to Exotic 3, ‘Umbrella Sky’ by Marta Dahlig; the title comes from the old Sinatra song “The Summer Rain”)
Regular readers of the blog will have heard me extol the qualities of Australian-based publisher Ballistic’s beautiful CGI digital arts books before and this, the third volume in their Exotique series continues the trend, right from the ravishing cover (see above) taken from Polish artist Marta Dahlig’s ‘Umbrella Sky’ art originally created for ImagineFX magazine (pay a visit to the CG Society’s site where Marta gives a fascinating walk through of how she created this image). Marta’s art sets the tone for Exotique 3 – the beautifully rendered pale skin (right down to visible veins and freckles) give a realistic level of detail to the work (it is one of many where you find yourself thinking, is this really CGI? Isn’t it a re-touched picture of a real model, or maybe airbrush art?). At first you think you’re looking at a ¾ length portrait scene, then you realise there are goldfish floating by around the model; welcome to that lovely point where reality and fantasy overlap…
(‘Dunhuang flying apsarasa’ by Jack Qiang, China; seriously how amazing is this piece, with the incredible detail and colour)
Over 2, 200 entries were submitted for consideration for this third collection of character art, with the editors having to narrow those entries down to a final cut of 197 artists and with those artists coming from 45 different countries it means the Exotique series and the competition to be featured in it are really drawing on the global CG art community, which can only be a good thing. That’s another aspect of this entire range that I admire – in conjunction with the CG Society Ballistic encourage competition and debate about CG art and the techniques used to create them, raising the profile of the genre as they do so – its obviously working as we’ve found our customers love these beautiful art books and I suspect that the fact the publishers are enthusiastic about the medium is a factor in that; I think fans can always tell when the creators are making something they really care about.
(‘Satan’ by Per Øyvind Haagensen, Norway; for some reason this image makes me think of what you might get if Clive Barker and Clint Langley had a horror baby together…)
The range of character art on offer in Exotique 3 draws on all sorts of subjects and works created for various purposes, from computer games to adverts, TV and other mediums, so we have a pretty diverse portfolio of illustrations to enjoy, some drawing, as you might expect for this kind of work, on fantasy (strange creatures, muscled warriors, lithe women with swords and smiles), some very realistic-looking, others drawing (no pun intended) on a much more cartoony style, some funny, some very serious, some playful, some drawing on older artistic styles from comics to Impressionist to 40s-style pin-up gals, some just downright sexy, all fascinating. As with the other titles in the Ballistics range the reproduction quality is excellent; you’ll find yourself flicking back and forth through this to look again and again at the luscious art celebrated in these pages which should appeal to both fans of fantastical art and fellow CG artists as well.
(the wonderfully 40s style pinups reminiscent of Vargas and his peers – ‘Submarine Girl’ and ‘Air Girl’ for Battlestations: Midway (Eidos Games), Henning Ludvigsen, Norway)
June 5th, 2009 at 5:41 am
I seriously want permission from the artist of Satan to get this tattoo’d, as it may have copyrights. I plan not to replicate it for sale o any other devious purposes. how may i get ahold of this person or get permission