What are your favorite "Art of ...." books?

Kenneth Michael

I have 3 "art of" books - 2 Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive (Vol 2 & 3) and Overwatch.

I really didn't play Overwatch that much but the whole design behind it was inspiring.

The two FF ones I have are nice, but I wish they were more comprehensive. I think they don't actually have that much in the art dept. and more focus on game elements.

danielerossi

@burvantill said in What are your favorite "Art of ...." books?:

Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life was a gift when I was in high school.

It has been years since I last opened my copy. I should have a look over the weekend.

The only art-of book I have is The Art of Peanuts. If they count, I also have the Chuck Jones autobiographies, The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss, and Exploring Calvin and Hobbes.

burvantill

@danielerossi I like everything you said. Lol.
I don’t have those books but I wish I did.
Peanuts totally count, Calvin and Hobbes are awesome and I’m more that a little intrigued by the “secret art” of Dr Suess.

sigross

@Gary-Wilkinson After reading this post I got out and re-read my all-time favorite art book, The Book of Alien. It's got a range of multiple art styles to cover the three colliding worlds in Alien - human, space jockey and of course the Alien. Artists I love in there are Chris Foss, Moebius and Ron Cobb. Proper world builders. When I was younger I was well into HR Giger. Now I've mellowed out more, I find it too violent to look at. Tastes change. The spaceships in it are boss. Subs in Space.

alien book.jpg

idid

Art of Wall-E is my favorite so far.
Other Ghibli studio collections are awesome, too.

I also enjoyed Art of Over the Garden Wall

Hope that helps.

Jeremy Ross

Hi @Gary-Wilkinson, just received a copy of Spider-Man Into the Spider Verse Art Book and it’s AMAZING!

danielerossi

@burvantill It’s all his artworks related and unrelated to his books. There’s also a small gallery that has been travelling around North America. Maybe one will be in your area once the pandemic is over.

Annaaronson

@Gary-Wilkinson I really love "Walt Disney Animation Studios Archive Series." and the "They Drew as They Pleased" series also from Disney. If you're looking for children's books inspiration any of the Pixar, especially Monsters Inc. books are amazing

Heather Boyd

Hi again! Another question: has anyone bought a used the art of book from amazon? I am interested in the quality. The art of Walle used is $100 and the art of the Croods used is $100ish vs new which is $385 way outside of my budget.
Thanks guys as always.

EliaMurrayArt

So I just went through my bookshelf and another art book I can not recommend enough is The Bird King an Artist’s Notebook by Shaun Tan. This one is just incredible. It isn’t so much about any finished work but it shows the doodles, scribbles, color tests, comp, thoughts of Shaun Tan and it is just stunning.

I like seeing unfinished work even more than finished work sometimes and this book definitely feeds that need.

burvantill

@danielerossi oooh. Thanx for the tip. I will keep my eyes open for it.