Dracopedia The Bestiary: An Artist's Guide to Creating Mythical Creatures

This book includes the Alphyn, Buraq, Chimera, Dragon Turtle, Enfield, Freybug, Griffin, Hippogriff, Imp, Jorogumo, Kraken, Leviathan, Manticore, Naga, Owlurus, Pegasus, Questing Beast, Roc, Shedu, Tarasque, Unicorn, Vampire, Waterhorse, Xenobeast, Yeti and Zburator. Wow!This book is all about inspiration and gorgeous illustration. As stated in the title, this is "An Artist's Guide to Creating Mythical Creatures", and the author gives the reader an idea about how he goes about creating his images of some of the rarest of mythological creatures. This book is more about concept and design, and is not a step-by-step instruction manual of how to draw. For each creature depicted in the book the author begins by giving a brief history and description. The next phase is the rough skeletal sketch, followed by pencil details and finally painting and finishing. For every creature the artist does several beautiful sketches which include a profile design and often an aerial view.It is hard to describe just how beautiful the drawings in this book are. The author's interpretations for some of these beasts are entirely original. You may have heard of some of these creatures, may have seen them on heraldry, but the demonstration drawings of the Alphyn (dragon, wolf, lion) and Enfield (raptor, fox) will bring theses hybrids to life in your imagination. Some other favorites are the fantastic amphibious Waterhorse, the winged lion Shedu and the legendary Questing Beast. Any lover of fantasy art should be very happy to include this book in their collection. (There is also a fold out poster with all the creatures included in the back of the book.)

Much like Mr. O'Connor's other Dracopedia books, this is filled with wonderful images from one of the fantasy genera's great artists. The step-by-steps and anatomical notes sprinkled throughout show the author's skill and love of his craft. It features 26 different creatures ranging from the familiar (the pegasus, the griffin) to those more obscure (the terasque, the freybug). Each entry has a short write up explaining the historical place of these creatures followed by a series of snap-shots of the process of creating each beast's artwork.My only real gripe is one that couldn't be helped given the scale of this book's topic. Unlike the previous two works, this book doesn't present the subject matter as a journal with scientific names given for the species and various examples of the dragons' behavior given. In particular I miss the taxonomic names and rationalization of the creatures place in the evolutionary cycle. Still, the scope of this book would have made that same level of detail both a massive amount of work for the author and cost prohibitive to the buyer (due to the sheer size of the book needed for 26 species displaying that level material).I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fantasy creatures. Along with his previous two Mr O'Connor has given us a series of fantastic coffee table books for the discerning geek.

Willam O'Connar's Dracopedia series finally has its own bestiary filled with mythology's rariest of beasts. From the Kraken to the Leviathan to the strange Questing Beast to the unheard-of Zburator, this book holds them all. This book gives you a little insight of each beast then shows you have to design, draw, etc..., it. Personal favorite is the vampire, only because O'Connar did great research on the original creature rather going with the humanized vampires of today's fiction, which after awhile bores me. I was surprised that the Owlbear (Owlursus) was added, and I've never heard of the Xenobeast and the Zburator so, that was a great surprise of learning something new. The only one negative I have about this book is that, unlike his other Dracopedia books; was that he gave us only the history not any additional infomation like behavior, habitat, etc..., of each beast. Don't know if he hadn't had free time to add infomation or did the layout of the book on purposed but, atleast it was worth pre-ordering. I recommend this book for all.

The book provides a nice little bit of information about the creatures, and I plan to use some of them in my writing projects.While I am a traditional artist, this book will help me with some idea of how to illustrate them in my stories.

I love this book. With it, I now have three out of the four available. Amazing art for study and inspirational viewing, including the lore, and to top it off it comes in a hardback cover! *swoon*It's got a wonderful variety of creatures, which you can expand nicely by picking up the other books as well, though nothing too obscure. I would recommend this book and its siblings to anyone interested in mythological creatures, especially those interested in drawing them.Thanks!

I own a ton of art books for use as reference material, be it art history, digital art tutorials, color theory, ect for my art. You name the category, I'll have something from it. But I love this book, the art is amazing, the lore is fun and it is extremely inspiring. O'Connor really outdid himself. Even if you're not an artist and are interested in fictitious animals this is a great book and very polished. I highly recommend it.

IMO, this book is the best in the series, from both objective and subjective standpoints. Physically, it's very well put together and made of good quality materials. The content is (more) diverse and well arranged, and the external and internal presentations are aesthetically cohesive. Also, his drawing style kicked major butt this time around. I'm a big fan of bestiaries, and highly recommend this one.

Good