"Art of" books: the case for them, and my recommendations
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I have five "Art of" books and I wish I had about a hundred more. So far I have: The Art of Moana, The Art of Howl's Moving Castle, The World of Edward Gorey, The Art of Loish, and one on Pablo Picasso. Sometimes the library will have some cool ones. I checked out one about the Far Side recently.
I agree, they are so inspiring and great for creative deposits.
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If I had all of the money in the world I would spend it on art books and fresh produce. It would be the best life.
I feel like there are always SO many art books out there that I want to own. And lately it seems like any movie that comes out comes with an art book, so there are always plenty of new ones coming down the pipe! Thanks for the suggestions Jake.
I happen to also be a big fan of sketchbook style art books, everyone should check out The Skillful Huntsman for a sweet example of what I mean. I love it when artists I follow just release sketchbooks or concept art collections from their personal projects. So amazing to leaf through.
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@Jake-Parker "Designing Secret of Kells" is a really great one too
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Secret-Kells-Tomm-Moore/dp/0992916305 -
This collection is always on the grow. My favorites are
The Art of Rise of the Guardians
The Art of Ratatouille
The Art of How to Train your Dragon 2 (lots of Nico Marlet´s awesomeness)
The Art of Alice: Madness Returns
The Art of the Boxtrolls
The Art of Dreamworks AnimationThe latter has one major flaw in that it does not credit the images, but contains lots of art from films that have no "Art of" book by themselves.
I also highly recommend the Disney Archive Series, with production art from all Disney´s 2D films. -
@Kevin-Longueil I want this one so bad, but it cost 100 USD if I order it from here....I have occasionally spent this much for a book, but it takes some thinking over ....
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@smceccarelli $50 for shipping! if there was any way i could ship one to you to save a bit i would have no problem doing that! I cannot seem to find one locally online for you at the moment though..not even Powell's books - i'll keep my eyes peeled though
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@Kevin-Longueil I found one by the mythical StuartNG books (and where else?). If you do not know this shop, you should check it out:
It is an internet reseller based in California that specialises in art books and comics and has literally everything you could ever dream of in this field.
I have ordered from him several times, but the shipments costs are very high from the US, plus I often have to pay a customs fee. On more than one occasion, books were sent back or just lost at customs, so I have become very weary of ordering anything from the US.
When I travel to the US, I can ask him to time the shipment so that it reaches me at the hotel - or just wait for a used copy to come to Amazon at a reasonable price. -
Oh I love them all, they are so inspiring! love Collecting them. Tangled
Ratatouille
art of Rio
Zootopia
Art of Loish
Kung fu Panda
The Book of Life! my favorite!
Art of Frozen is the last one I bought.Next on the wish list is The Pirates and Boxtrolls
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I also have many "art of" book! Love to use them as reference of simply look through them! My favorite is Art of Wreck-it-Ralph! I HAVE to buy Zootopia and ratatouille!!
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One of my favourite art books is 'the Art of Kubo and the Two Strings'. Pages filled with art with the artists name underneath, descriptions of characters and their characteristics.
They also have amazing spreads on thumbnail storyboards to really set scenes.I also love (although not an art of book) The Skillful Huntsman. Really amazing ideas these guys had, and they show you so many techniques of character design and how to start simple e.g. Using the silhouette approach. There backgrounds and scenes as well are amongst the most amazing I've seen, the detail, mood, and tone are fascinating and help create so much atmosphere.
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I have some art books I keep looking at every so often, here are a few- Sorry I know some have been mentioned already:
Spectrum Fantastic art books (I used to collect these when I was first getting into doing digital art around 2004)
the art of Dreamworks Animation (amazing stuff)
Harry Potter page to screen
the art of Rise of the Tombraider (I wish I had the first art book as well but it was limited numbers or something and now it's crazy expensive to get a copy)
The skillful huntsman
The art of Alice Madness Returns
The Chesley Awards (art to drool over)
An old AOI Images annual from the 80's I found in a second hand bookstore (amazing quality of Illustration back then).
Art history books- I love the Pre Raphaelites and Alphonse Mucha.
I have too many books now, I need a bigger house. -
An out of print book that can be purchased used is "The Art of Will Eisner". If you have an interest in comics, graphic novels, composition in any genre of art it is well worth a look.
Will pretty much created the graphic novel and today the comic industry's Oscar award equivalent is "The Eisner Award".
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Here are a couple of "Art of" books that I like that haven't been mentioned yet.
Art of Journey
Monster Hunter Illustrations (1 and 2)
Okami Official Complete Works
