Forging Dragons By John Howe

John Howe is a fantasy art legend in my mind and one that has created several paintings and art pieces for such iconic imagery of The lord of the rings aswell as several other fantasy worlds and realms.

And forging dragons is his book which delves deep into the dragon design, more like a process of the way he works giving notes and advice on certain techniques and thoughts of each project within his book. With detailed illustrations and sketches throughout he attempts to evoke the atmosphere of diverse dragons and provide a history of sorts to the dragons mythology with extracts from some other sources which serve as examples for which John can illustrate how he tackles a certain dragon in a different way.

One of the most fascinating things about Johns art is that it is easy to get caught up in seeing his artwork being processed and feeling the desire to draw along with him as you are reading. I find this true a lot with some of the other top fantasy artists, that I just want to get started straight away and almost skip past reading the book, but then I realize I have to read on.

Watch this short video with John giving a little personal introduction to the book Forging Dragons



The exploration of dragons as myth is the fantasy stuff of dreams and it is the imagination of drawing dragons that appeals to many especially from an artist who seems to do it almost effortlessly.

John Howe is an artist to study if you are interested in the intricacies of watercolour painting as he is a master of watercolour, as I once read a book about the process he used for a Lord Of The Rings Gandalf painting for which he built up lots of glaze layers or washes and created a misty fog effect before creating more detailed shades of paintwork at the foreground with Gandalf being the off centre focal point and here is that painting.

See some more of John Howes Work on Lord Of The Rings Concept Paintings

Popular John Howe LOTR Paintings
More John Howe Lord Of The Rings Paintings





Waterstones John Howe - Forging Dragons Synopsis and Review

Top 3 Fantasy Art Drawing Resource Books That I Recommend

When it comes to learning to draw the concepts of fantasy art, I tend to have pretty much learned and self taught myself, but over the years I have opted to find other resources that could present new ideas and ways of drawing fanasy art that I may not have thought of.

Fantasy Art Drawing books are one of them essential resources, and there are a great choice of drawing books out there, but for fantasy art you need to dig a little bit deeper for finding some good ones to really learn from and be guided by, so here are 3 books that I have read and followed in my pursuit of drawing more fantasy art content. Of course you could find allsorts of drawing tutorials on the internet, but nothing beats a good book!


John Howes Fantasy Workshop

John Howes work is forever entwined with Tolkien and the lord of the rings many scenes and characters of middle earth and here we have a book that adds to that way of working on fantasy art projects, filled with step by step drawing demonstartions and right through to painted pieces, this a a great book also for the art it shows throughout, being a John Howe fan I have seen many of his pieces of artwork on the internet and in other books.

To see examples of how someone works is one of the best ways of learning the craft and particularly from professionals of fantasy art, this book is a must for those who want to learn how to produce artwork that looks as good, also there are tips on how to present your work for film and other projects.

John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop

Hell Beasts: How to Draw Grotesque Fantasy Creatures

This is one of my favourite as it is filled with the sort of content that I love to draw, hell beasts and demons and other dark creatures, the books author has mnay valid credits to his name and they include the work of creating creatures for card games and other games of that nature, Wizards of the coast spring to mind as one of the top card game collectibles in America, but also many board games like Dungeons and Dragons with which his artwork and creature creations have been his biggest input into that industry.

Hell Beasts: How to Draw Grotesque Fantasy Creatures

Drawing and Painting Fantasy Landscapes and Cityscapes

A good book to create fantasy worlds for your characters and creatures to inhabit, this book is a great find for the fantasy artist with it's look at different types of fantasy worlds and the tried and tested version of middle earth or a fantasy world with myth and dragons, there is also a look at what computer software can do to enhance your art with looking at specific tools and what effects you can achieve.

This is an inspiring book if you want to create better looking scenery for dramatic effect aswell as to learn how to master the many versions of any fantasy world you can think of.

Drawing and Painting Fantasy Landscapes and Cityscapes