Who the #### is Alice?

Today, while browsing in my local comic shop I came across a gorgeous artbook of the upcoming videogame Alice: Madness Returns.

I am something of a collector of fantasy art books so I didn’t hesitate to pick it up, particularly as I really enjoyed the previous game in the series (American McGee’s Alice).

Browsing through it when I got home I found it really inspirational for all things Malifaux. I’ve had a plan bubbling away at the back of my mind to make up some terrain of my own for the game and this book really stoked the imagination.

I’d really love to put together a twisted Tim Burton / Alice style Victorian city.

It would be an ambitious undertaking, which makes me nervous, so I’d have to go for a compromise between aesthetics and effort.

Realistically, it is probably one of those vapourware projects that will never happen. But I’ve had a bit more sticking power lately – as this blog and my Dystopian Wars progress will attest to – so I’m not writing it off entirely.

Anyway, Alice. Stunning artbook. Check out this review for more details on the book and plenty of lovely preview images.

On the subject of such tomes, I actually find them to be a really useful resource as a miniature painter, and often browse through my collection to get inspiration for colour schemes, basing ideas, etc. As well as technical suggestions for highlighting, painting non-metallic metals, and so on.

If you’re interested to learn more, then I’d recommend the Spectrum series as a good place to start. They bring out an anthology every year which is chock full of amazing genre art.

Other series of interest would be the Exposé and Exotique series by Ballistic Publishing. They are lovely books, but have an unreasonably high price tag. If you can get a good price then they’re definitely worth a look.

Then, as with the Alice book I started this post with, there are books on computer game and concept art. A particular favourite is a concept book entitled The Skilfull Huntsman. This was a really interesting journey through the entire concept art process and features some stunning work.

Finally, another book which may be of interest to the Malifaux players is the art book for an old Playstation 2 and Xbox game called Darkwatch. I picked this one up ages ago (long before Malifaux came around), and the art style and genre share many similarities.

It’s definitely got the steampunk gothic weird west thing going on…

~ by Max Von Deadlock on May 19, 2011.