Review: The Realism Challenge: Drawing and Painting Secrets from a Modern Master of Hyperrealism by Mark CrilleyABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Crilley was raised in Detroit, Michigan. After graduating from Kalamazoo College, he traveled to Taiwan and Japan, where he taught English for nearly five years. It was during his stay in Japan that he created Akiko. In 1998, Mark Crilley was named to Entertainment Weekly’s “It List” of the 100 most creative people in entertainment.
Being a subscriber to Crilley's YouTube series of drawing tutorials, I was looking forward to reading his new book reviewed here. I was not disappointed. From a simple torn piece of paper to an etched glass decanter to "the ultimate realism challenge" at the end of the book, Crilley proves worthy of the subtitle's appellation.
There are a total of Thirty challenges Crilley presents for one to try and emulate. While a book of this sort will sometimes come off as repetitive, Crilley manages to mostly avoid this by adding new bits of information or technique as he goes along. Of course not every challenge will be to everyone's tastes but with 30 to choose from, there are more than enough to engage one's imagination and give it a try.
This book could certainly prove daunting to the beginner artist in that it can be intimidating at the assumption that one can dive right in, with minimal instruction, and reproduce the projects herein. Crilley does emphasis patience and practice but I'm not sure there is enough instruction going on here. Everything is spelled out step-by-step but only finished examples are shown. The book itself would have benefitted by allowing the reader to see the process itself from time to time.
All in all, Crilley's book is certainly worth the time to read and try one's own hand at the challenges. It will give one a new appreciation for this time-honored tradition of art and also of Crilley's talent.
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