The best use of "the art of " books?
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Hi everyone,
I am going to get my very first "the art of " book within a couple of days and was wondering what could be the best way to utilize this book? How do you guys make the most of books of this kind?The Book I am getting is "The Art of Spirited Away"
Looking forward to hearing from you guys! Also if the instructors (@Jake-Parker @Will-Terry @Lee-White Marco Bucci) could add some input it would be great since I am very new to buying art books.
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The main thing I can think of, is to read the book and not just have it looking pretty on your bookshelf
I speak as someone with a reasonable collection of art books, and I have read large chunks of all of them, but I don't have nearly as much time to read them as I would like to. If you find a piece you really like, you could do a master copy of it, or try recreating some of the sketches yourself...the way the artist draws will embed itself in your mind better that way.Personally I normally read them to analyse the styles a bit...you can look at the composition, the colour palettes, the values, etc...ask yourself what makes these pieces effective....But also it is nice just to see amazing art and read the story behind the films you like. I find that interesting regardless of whether it helps my own art....and then the art is usually so 'wow' that it spurs me on to try and reach higher levels myself.
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I have a large collection....not sure there is a "best way" to use them - how do you "use" an art book of any type?
I read them cover-to-cover at least once, put little post-it markers on the art Ilike most, use them as source of inspiration, reference, style ideas, reality check on the level of skills out there, source of amazement, try to understand why a certain version of the character was chosen over all others, cry over the amazing art and ideas that were not used in the films....
I do master copies quite a lot - a few hours a week normally - so I use them occasionally for that too. I never do full identical copies (I did only once in my life - the time vs learning does not pan out for me) - I copy drawings or do quick color thumbnail sketches. -
@smceccarelli Oh lol, by "Use" I meant "Utilise" Thanks a lot for the comment.
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@Dulcie said in The best use of "the art of " books?:
read them to analyse the styles a bit...you can look at the composition, the colour palettes, the values, etc...ask yourself what makes these pieces effective....But also it is nice just to see amazing art and read the story behind the films you like. I find that interesting regardless of whether it helps my own art....and then the art is usually so 'wow' that it spurs me on to try and reach high
Thanks for the comment! I do have a bad habit of making my books look pretty on my bookshelf
Anyway, I am a bit excited since we don't really have many books like that around my parts of the world so I am flying the book from the USA.
