Hooked on fantasy art?

[noodles]

Below is my translation of the Preface to a fantasy art book. Unfortunately, English happens not to be my native language. I'd kill to have someone proofread it and correct those errors that sound strange or uncomfortable to an American ear. Thank you.




Preface

Fantasy +


When I was thinking about the title of this series, the question posed by many people years ago came to mind: When will the fantasy move on?

The fantasy, it seems to me, should be understood more as an outcome of the cultural and spiritual context in the broad sense of the word than just as a technical term in the narrow sense. Indeed, it is when we stop waxing nostalgic about its past that fantasy in small letters will go on forever and ever. FANTASY, then, will endure as it should in capital letters for eternity and everlastingness.

Illustration, in essence, is an art form to express one’s fantasies in a most efficient and justifiable way. As luck would have it, you may not have the carving tools or clay at hand to make a sculpture, nor engines or teammates to play a game with, nor enough funds to make a film. That said, you did have desk corners and page edges to scribble on in your childhood. Each and every person can decide on both the themes for their drawings and the medium for creating their artworks. And, as such, more and more art forms today cater for virtually anything that a fantasy-filled heart desires.

On the other hand, illustration is also an art form featuring a more popular artistic language. To highlight this graphic art from among those classic painting and modern art forms, a more exact definition might be “commercial illustration,” and thereby does more justice to the inclusion of such diverse categories as book illustration, poster illustration, cartoon illustration, game animation, concept design, and matt painting. Viewed from the perspective of the medium of expression, the traditional hand-painting techniques and the emerging CG technologies, however, are gradually blending and complementing each other. They exist, I hasten to add, to enhance but not to replace one other.

Frank Frazetta is now 80 years old, his prestige and achievements adding more significance to the fantasy art in 2008—or rather, he is as old as the art itself. During the past decades, Frazetta has become a living totem for his colleagues, and his creations have had such a strong influence on succeeding generations that dozens of distinctive artists from around the world collaborated to present The Frazetta Issue that features Frazetta inspired images as part of the tribute to his 80th birthday. The fantasy art, after all, never stops. It stops for no man, nor for any particular medium of expression. While a huge number of equally brilliant artists are paying tribute to this timeless hero, they themselves have become “Frazettas” in the eyes of all fantasy art fans: such household legends as Boris Vallejo, Luis Royo, and Alan Lee; Donato Giancola, Todd Lockwood, and Tom Kidd, who continue each year to keep up the glory of the hand painting art; Gerald Brom, the late Zdzislaw Beksinski, and Phil Hill, sinking into oblivion while embracing their own aficionados; Craig Mullins, Ryan Church, and Steven Stahlberg, standing on the very pinnacle of the new digital art the moment they started their fantasy careers; Justin Sweet, Jon Foster, and Andrew Jones, the best examples of this generation, each a combination of the heir to art traditions and the CG explorer; James Jean, Daniel Dociu, and Aleksi Briclot, who have kindled a fire of creative passion in their contemporaries, and at the same time never absent from the major art awards of recent years. Yes, this industry is moving forward, always.

The Fantasy+ trilogy, then, may well lose its “positive” connotation if the “+” herein represents nothing more than a sort of continuation or addition. When the capitalized FANTASY has come to symbolize the spirit, as I suggested earlier, what we are trying to find in this book, naturally enough, is the traces of development and progress.

And it follows that what you see here are not a couple of albums of paintings, which undoubtedly fail to express our themes in a more perfect way, although such albums might be easier to create. We spared no efforts to get in touch with some of the most representative authors, with whom we exchanged ideas about the current commercial illustration art. Our dialogs focused upon their work and life changes in recent years, their comments and opinions on this industry today, and the fantasies in their minds. And that is why we have had some control over the ratio between texts and artworks, with each volume containing at least 200 carefully selected illustrations. In so doing, the relationship between fantasy and progress is defined in terms of individual artists, and this approach, I hope, will facilitate the sharing of our confidence and ideas.

Best Artworks of Chinese CG Artists, as far as I can see, leaves no doubt about its quality and the desirable attributes of standing by itself. Although various absurdities abound in the commercial illustration sector in China today, the painting lovers themselves have clean fantasies, whose commitment touched me so deeply that I had to set aside my prepared remarks against those prevalent malpractices. What you see in these artists are internationalized images with more clearly defined contours and levels of achievement, and hence my speech focuses more often on the artworks themselves and the colorful profiles of the fantasy masters.

Best Hand-Painted Illustrations reflects my hope that it familiarizes the readers with those fantasy masters who still prefer to spread the canvas and mix the paints, only to find themselves playing to the current tastes in this fast spinning commercial world. Striking the two keynotes of “paying tribute” and “essential totem”, they are nevertheless seen walking far away from those earliest fantasy illustration themes where muscle and violence are interwoven. Unfolding before our eyes, therefore, is aesthetics more multi-dimensional, and progress more artistic.

Best Artworks of CG Artists features the most effective and state-of-the-art interpretation of digital technology’s impact on art. Tied so closely to the present-day film and game industries, this multi-dimensional artistic form provides the most efficient means for directors and game designers to realize their fantasies. It is fair to say that the burgeoning CG will introduce more people into the world of art. And, with the artists having a larger number of clients to serve, we will experience the best service the present-day commercial illustration industry has to offer.

We expect that the Fantasy+ trilogy stands for something. Something you hope for. Something you can trust. Together, these fantasies and you will grow.