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Summary: I wrote this book to share my techniques with others.
Review: My goal with this book is to give people a better understanding of the methods I use to create the images I paint. I don't expect everyone to suddenly become photo-realist painters or illustrators. I hope that people would take these techniques and mix them with their own creative juices to express their own art. The way I see it, I can't imagine everyone going out and buying a set of watercolors or oil paints, but many people do own Photoshop. Photoshop has become a crucial tool in many business environments. Many scanners come with the program bundled. We are bombarded by images on the web, in junk mail, magazines and so on, that are being being created in Photoshop. People have the tools, I hope to show them the way to use them creatively. Use them for work but most importantly, use them for creative expression.
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Summary: "Must" reading for all Adobe users.
Review: Perusing the pages of this elegant book is a doublepleasure. First you find yourself browsing through a paper gallery filled with the extraordinary work of author-artist Bert Monroy. Secondly, you get a hands-on seminar about how to use Adobe's superb software, Photoshop and Illustrator, to create dazzling digital art.Monroy's vivid images grab you with bright colors, sharp details, and realistic scenes of storefronts, city intersections, deep blue nightscapes, and everyday objects like fruit, marbles, pencils, locks. It seems remarkable that these could be made without scanning a photograph. Monroy's art is the computer-generated equivalent of an international movement called photorealism (or superrealism) which began around the time of the counterculture (late 1960s and early 1970s) and featured paintings with precise rendering of their subjects, all created with photographic clarity. Monroy explains the philosophy behind this trompe l'oeil: "This is a book of techniques for tricking the eye. That's what photorealism is all about: making the viewer believe that the image is -- or has its genesis -- in a photograph even though the subject (the image) never existed until you conceived it." The final section of the book is a sampling of Monroy's work, from the present time to the thrilling moments when he first discovered the Macintosh computer back in 1984 -- pioneer days when the computer could generate no colors, only black, white, and grays. With images as gorgeous as these -- in this section and throughout the book -- it's easy to get carried away and simply enjoy the pictures. Of course, the book has been written not only to visually engage us, but to teach us how to create scores of exquisite effects that simulate real photographs. In each chapter, Monroy shows us an example of his art then describes how he makes the imaginary look so real. Monroy begins by reviewing some basics of Photoshop and Illustrator. Soon he reveals his methods of going from idea to sketch to shapes. Then he treats us to a lucid chapter about the theory and practice of perspective. In following chapters he demonstrates how to use the Adobe software to create lighting effects, shading, textures, and images that resemble wood, metal, leaves, stone, beans, glass. There's magic here, the kind of magic that keeps us in a state of wonder even after we lean how the tricks are done. Bert Monroy: Photorealistic Techniques with Photoshop & Illustrator is about the place where the slickest splendors of Technology converge with the most venerable principles of Art. Artists and art students will find here a dazzling cornucopia of techniques, hard-won secrets, and crafty wisdom. For those of us, less talented, who draw cows like Mondrian rectangles, this book won't transform us into artists with a capital A. Yet its scores of ingenious techniques, its personal revelations by the author, and its inspiring examples -- all will add panache to our productions, and help to make us the best near-artists that we can be...
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Summary: Great Art, little substance
Review: Sure, it looks great, but it will find a home on your coffee table before you actually use it to make you more proficient in Photoshop or Illustrator. The Illustrator portions are specifically weak. Interesting "how I did this" book, if you're in to that sort of thing. But don't expect to be creating art like this guy, who has been using software like this for years to create photo-realistic scenes.
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Summary: Don't expect to do this yourself
Review: Sure, this book has amazing images in it, but don't expect to create anything like them yourself, until YOU put in fifteen years of work. Very depressing from that point of view.
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Summary: Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy is latest edition of this
Review: This is a truly great book but Monroy has made a new book called "Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy" which is essentially an updated version of this book. I bet it would be a better buy.
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Summary: Avoid this book
Review: Truly, truly awful book. Mr. Monroy should be ashamed. If you know the first thing about art or photoshop you do not need this book. I sincerely regretted buying it .
Rating:
Summary: Avoid this book
Review: Truly, truly awful book. Mr. Monroy should be ashamed. If you know the first thing about art or photoshop you do not need this book. I sincerely regretted buying it .
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