Wizard Eye: The Art of Frostgrave review

I tend to write reviews sparingly but was so pleasantly surprised by this book that I wanted to share some thoughts on it.

I own a lot of large hard back coffee table style art books… so much so that as I type this I realise I should get them all on the insurance. They’re usually expensive. Classical, fantasy and sci-fi stuff.

Frostgrave Wizard Eye falls into the very reasonable cost category as far as art books go.

It’s heavy duty, hardback and larger than your usual Frostgrave gaming books. 

Coming in at 256 pages, it’s great value.

With the larger format I felt like I was seeing some of the artwork for the first time, despite owning most of the Frostgrave gaming books. Details I hadn’t noticed before popped out, the narrative of the scenes played out more dynamically and overall it felt like a de-facto background and lore volume for the world of Frostgrave. 

Don’t underestimate the impact of seeing the artwork laid out in full, instead of hidden within the spine of a smaller book.

The commentary on every single picture was a treat: you get insights from the creator of Frostgrave and the artists. The writing was also very much to my liking, succinct but enriching. It read very much like a transcript of a “making of” special feature documentary, and the brevity of the commentary was entertaining and insightful. 

 

Hearing about the creative process from both the game designer and artist actually felt like a jumping off point. It’s quintessential Frostgrave - just enough to inspire and guide you, with nothing that restricts you.

This is a tiny selection of the content. I always enjoy seeing the sketches and thumbnail concepts - perfect for miniature conversion ideas.

I spent an entire Sunday afternoon going through this book and it’s left me seriously inspired to create more Frostgrave terrain and miniatures...