THE FANTASTIC ART OF ROY G. KRENKEL - Craig Yoe

I am the person for whom this book is intended.  I have been a fan of Roy Krenkel's art work since the 1970's. As a high school student, I thought I was destined for a career in art and my preferred medium was pen and ink and while I loved Frank Frazetta's work, it was Roy Krenkel's art that really spoke to me. 

For the most part, this is a coffee-table style art book. It reprints a number of Krenkel's work, letting the reader/viewer enjoy the style of his B&W fantasy art.

There's nothing explosive here.  There's nothing that will really 'wow' or awe the general reader, but fans of Krenkel's work (we're aging out, but we're still around) will love getting their hands on this. More importantly, however, this book will hopefully find its way into the hands of new fans - those who aren't familiar with the great fanzine Amra (for which Krenkel did a lot of illustrations) or Krenkel's work and come to realize what an amazing talent he was.

I've tried to take a hard look at these illustrations to understand what it is I like so much about them. It is true that I'm a fan of B&W, pen & ink, and pencil art anyway, and that's the bulk of Krenkel's work, but there's more to it than that. 

While a lot of the works included here have a real sketch-like, almost unfinished quality about them, Krenkel has an uncanny ability to create energy in these simple works. You can practically feel the movement as if the sketch were capturing an active moment. In fact, these sketch-like works tend to have more energy about them than the more 'finished' looking pieces. 

Take a look at these screen shots of some of the sketches:

Even though the subjects aren't particularly active, the pieces are energetic.  Compared to more finished pieces:
 

For me, this is absolutely exciting. I truly hope more people, especially young artists, will find and study this work.

The book has a foreword by Sara Frazetta and preface by Michael WM Kaluta - two people who know art.

Looking for a good book? I'm thrilled that the artwork of Krenkel is being kept alive and shared in coffee-table style books like this, The Fantastic Art of Roy G. Krenkel, by Craig Yoe.  Anyone with an appreciation of fantasy art, B&W art, or even Krenkel's art will want to check this out.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

The Fantastic Art of Roy G. Krenkel

author: Craig Yoe

publisher: Dark Horse Books

ISBN: 9781506745305

hardcover, 256 pages

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