Art book recommendations?

Joseph Silverman

Hey, i'm looking to supplement my anemic collection of art based books, and i thought i'd ask for suggestions.

I'm not asking strictly for videogame artbooks or even for art books in general, just pretty much anything related. Either inspiration or education -- what are your guys' top picks?

So far i'm looking at the Massive Black art book and The Skillful Huntsman.

JohnnyRaptor

This could be a handy and inspiring thread.
I'll drop any book by carlos huante is a great source of inspiration, for shape and color.

Unleashed

out of all of mine, "art of finding nemo" stands out

Jeremy Lindstrom

The art of open season was pretty awesome as well.

Paul Pepera

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Art-EVE-Asgeir-Jon-Asgeirsson/dp/1588467481/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233777720&sr=8-1]The Art of EVE[/ame] is a good book, nicely printed and pretty large size; though it has mostly spaceship art. There are some nice renders of the source models too, something I wish more art and 'making of' books had.

MagicSugar

-- Seen the Star Wars Cross Section books?

Good for vehicle and level design insipirations.

Link: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Star-Revenge-Incredible-Cross-Sections/dp/1405308265/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233777840&sr=1-3[/ame]


-- Recent Wayne Barlowe books for sculpting/detailing ideas.

Link: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Demon-Wayne-Barlowe/dp/0765348659/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233777959&sr=1-2[/ame]

Marine

for quality and quantity, you'd have a hard time topping katsuya teradas rakugaking, 1000 pages long

MoP

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Shadowline-Art-Iain-McCaig/dp/1933784245"]Shadowline - The Art of Iain McCaig[/ame]. Definitely.

moose

I just picked up [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Cinematic-Art-World-Warcraft-Wrath/dp/1933784814/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233780063&sr=8-1]The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King [/ame] - i was expecting a cheesy book, and when really its pretty fucking amazing. lots of paintings, silhouette sketches, landscapes, and some prints in vellum envelopes. well worth it. also has some insight into redering techniques, composting techniques, and even has texture flats for some of the zombie heads.

its printed on really heavy paper, and has silver pages dispersed throughout. Some nice fold out paintings, etc. I was very surprised!

one other i like for inspiration:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Street-Sketchbook-Journals-International-Graffiti/dp/0811861384/ref=pd_bbs_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233780599&sr=8-10] Street Sketchbook[/ame]

Illusions

SupRore wrote: »

So far i'm looking at the Massive Black

I haven't looked through the whole thing carefully, as it just arrived in the mail yesterday, but its got a good mix of different styles of concept art, production art, 2D, 3D, etc. Flip through it on Ballistic's site if you haven't already...

Xenobond

Final Fantasy XI World Concept
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-World-Concept-Japanese/dp/4087793052[/ame]

Monster Hunter Illustrations
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-lz-49-en-70-2m7y.html

Unleashed

eraserhead - The gears of war art book(that came with the strategy guide) has alot of the high poly source models. I do like the eve one but I wish it had more of the original character concepts.

Paul Pepera

Unleashed wrote: »

eraserhead - The gears of war art book(that came with the strategy guide) has alot of the high poly source models.

Yes I know, it's a beautiful art book; I wish more art of books paid respect to the modelers like that book did.

Cybroxide

Sunrise Art Works Cowboy Bebop, if you can find it has a lot really nice mechanical and character drawings, its all black and white line work but its great reference, some pictures are a little small.

http://store.crosstoy.com/cowbebsun.html

gavku

Sup - both those books are great. The Art of Kung Fu Panda is cool too.

FAT_CAP

For the character artists out there - Out of the Forests: The Art of Paul Bonner [ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Forests-Art-Paul-Bonner/dp/1845767055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233827270&sr=1-1[/ame]
is absolutely gorgeous and packed with details.

Also any of the Spectrum:Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art bookes are great at covering a wide variety of styles and finding artists that you might not have stumbled upon otherwise
[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectrum-14-Contemporary-Fantastic-Paperback/dp/1599290073/ref=pd_sim_b_2[/ame]

Thriller Theater

For human anatomy best ones in my collection are:

Stephen Rogers Peck - Atlas of the Human Anatomy for the Artist (Basic anatomy from bones and muscles to veins etc.)

George Bridgeman - Complete Guide to Drawing from life (More how different muscles and bones work and are connected etc. Also covers a great deal of basic anatomy.)

Target_Renegade

I second moose's Street Sketchbook, lots of interesting ideas and formats to look at. Picked it up from the library only this week.

Richard Kain

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284[/ame]

The Animator's Survival Kit. My little brother got me a copy of this for Christmas. It has been immensely useful for inspiration and guidance.

Thriller Theater

Richard Kain wrote: »

http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284

The Animator's Survival Kit. My little brother got me a copy of this for Christmas. It has been immensely useful for inspiration and guidance.

Yeah this book is really a must have for all animators.

Luxury

The Skillful Huntsman - I highly recommend this book. I freaking love it.

I own the entire Ballistic series. Hella expensive. Skip the Exotique's, but the Expose's and the d'Artistes are both really good. Massive Black book is ok. The first half is great, but the second half focuses on their internal projects and is basically just filler.

hobodactyl

I agree with Luxury, the Massive Black book wasn't quite what I'd hoped, I guess I shoulda looked at the flip-through a bit more. It's not bad, but not really as inspiring as I'd hoped.

Honestly the most inspirational art books I've ever read are John Howe's art books:
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/John-Howe-Fantasy-Art-Workshop/dp/1600610102[/ame]
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Forging-Dragons-Inspirations-Approaches-Techniques/dp/1600613233/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_img?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1600610102&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=02BZRRZ9VRTC2T9RAMSY[/ame]

These are the some of the only art books I've found where I feel it's actually the artist writing, and he's letting you into his head. They're also the only art books I've read cover to cover Not to mention that buying both of them is less than many other art books alone.

JasonLavoie

I just recently ordered 2 books that I'm REALLY looking forward too:

Art of Midway: Before Pixels and Polygons - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Art-Midway-Before-Pixels-Polygons/dp/1933492198/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233880743&sr=8-1[/ame]

Extreme Finales - Ashley Wood- [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Finales-Ashley-Wood/dp/1600104193/ref=pd_sim_b_5[/ame]


I'm really looking forward to Ashley Wood's collection, I splurged a bit and went with his full collection, which I know will be worth it.

BoBo_the_seal

I just want to echo FAT_CAP, Paul Bonner's book is amazing.

J. C. Leyendecker is a must have too. http://budsartbooks.com/prod.cfm/pc/JCLH/cid/2

- BoBo

Rens

Im getting " the art of halo 3" in today (or so i hope), realy excited

the final fantasy art book looks realy sweet xeno, guess i have to get that too.


for human anatomy im fan of " anatomy for the artist by sarah simblet"

Heathmeister

The Art of Kung Fu Panda is pretty nice...

I have all the World of Warcraft art books, and a few others...

The Massive Black one is a nice pick up as well.. but it seems to be a let down to some, but for me it was nice and has a soft spot with me... cause those are my boys

Mark Dygert

BoBo_the_seal wrote: »

I just want to echo FAT_CAP, Paul Bonner's book is amazing.

J. C. Leyendecker is a must have too. http://budsartbooks.com/prod.cfm/pc/JCLH/cid/2

- BoBo

Holy crap, I've gotta pick that up. I ran across his stuff when I was digging up ref for my TF2 map. I liked his work so much I named the ship and the map after him. Very inspirational stuff and was an amazing artist. 256 pages with 600 pieces... drool...

I also suggest picking up [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Human-Figure-John-H-Vanderpoel/dp/0486204324"]The Human Figure[/ame] by John H. Vanderpoel who taught Leyendecker and was a pretty much the guy that enabled him to take off.

And yea the animators survival guide is a great fast read that helps just about everyone that ever reads it.

I also suggest [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Staring-Facial-Modeling-Animation/dp/0782141293"]Stop Staring[/ame]. It's all in Maya-ese but can easily be ported to any other 3d app.

Also Barns & Noble keeps issuing really cheap books that are chalked full of great inspiration for environment artists (5-$15) on Famous Palaces, Ancient Lost Cities, Royal Palaces The problem is they do limited runs, and you have an easier time finding them (dirt cheap) in the bargain bin, in the store then you do online.

I also suggest these for enviro art inspiration:
Paris Then and Now
Rome Then and Now
Antonio gaudi

Matabus

Thanks everyone! This thread is awesome. I have a pretty sizeable collection myself but pretty much all of them have been mentioned already. I just added 6 books to it tho! Hooray!

danr

Hallelujah Anyway by patrick woodroffe

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Hallelujah-Anyway-Patrick-Woodroffe/dp/0905895886/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233936338&sr=8-2[/ame]

[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hallelujah-Anyway-Patrick-Woodroffe/dp/0905895878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233936596&sr=8-1[/ame]

long out of print but still quite easy to find

a dizzying array of techniques - the etchings are *mental, and the 2D/sculpture mixes are something else entirely - and largely free of the Roger Dean prog-rock bollocks that blighted the rest of his stuff

Andvari

I would like to suggest "Creating the Art of the Game" by Matthew Omernick, it's a very inspiring book with lots of tips.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Art-Game-Riders-Games/dp/0735714096/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234504977&sr=1-1[/ame]

The books of Eadweard Muybridge "The Human Figure in Motion" and "Animals in Motion" are a great resource for animators, with tons of photographs of walking / running and other movement cycles of animals and humans ( the photographs were taken back on 1880s but they're still an invaluable resource )

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=muybridge&x=0&y=0




Another great book for animators is "Osamu Tezuka School of animation" it has two volumes, one for humans and another for animals with lots of easy to follow hand drawn stuff . It not as good as Animators Survival Kit but it's a nice addition to any collection

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=osamu+tezuka+school+of+animation&x=0&y=0

Steve Schulze

The Art of Capcom is actually a really handy book. Good source for character design, strong colour theory and interesting heroic poses

wasker

Sorry for necroing the thread but I couldn't find a more recent art book thread here on pc. I got these two bad boys in my mail and I can't recommend them enough;

http://parkablogs.com/content/book-review-kim-jung-gi-2007-2011-sketch-collection

Two super inspiring artbooks, one of them is ~1000 pages and the other around 700, all of them packed with awesome art.

Joseph Silverman

Woah! Will get.

STRIKER

wasker wrote: »

Sorry for necroing the thread but I couldn't find a more recent art book thread here on pc. I got these two bad boys in my mail and I can't recommend them enough;

http://parkablogs.com/content/book-review-kim-jung-gi-2007-2011-sketch-collection

Two super inspiring artbooks, one of them is ~1000 pages and the other around 700, all of them packed with awesome art.

just got these in the mail today...........let me tell you something. you go get dat shit...get dat shit NAOOOO! fkn increeeeeeeeeeeeeeedible

MagicSugar

Kim Jung-Gi is the Korean Marko Djurdjevic in terms of draftsmanship and I believe Kim teaches drawing too.

I have both sketchbooks too. Just a warning, the 2011 contains a fair bit of fucking, sucking, bestiality, hot-chick-carved-for-sushi sketches. Nothin too gross out but if you may be careful who you show it too once you got it.

Kim's freehand fisheye perspective drawings are amazing. If you watch his youtube videos you may think he's a savant or something but I think he just became good from years of practice.

System

Wow, those books look incredible, I just watched the video on Parkablogs, dude is crazy skilled!

How/where did you guys buy the books? I can't seem to figure it out... only link I found had the first book for $355, that can't be right... can it?

EDIT: Nevermind, I see the email address on the review.

katana

I really like The Art of Robots

And the Surf's Up book was also great and well packaged.

ErichWK

$47 for shipping??? I'm at work 10-7 so i am never home to sign for the package..man..i want those books so bad. Seems like a pain in the ass to order.

OniLolz

It's a simple art book, but I love Monster Hunter Illustrations Vol. 2

MagicSugar

ErichWK wrote: »

I'm at work 10-7 so i am never home to sign for the package.

You're not allowed to receive personal mail at your business address? (I'm assuming you're in a studio and not in a warehouse )

gaganjain

parkablogs.com is best.....:)

Karmageddon

Kolonie The Forgotten Empire
Mechanika - Creating the Art of Science Fiction with Doug Chiang
Abakan 2288 - Kallamity's World of Mecha Design Part One
The Artist and the Built Environment - Donald Stoltenberg


Not pictured~
video game books - art of Bayonetta, Darksiders

Also it's probably not much interest in polycount but the fashion book Savage Beauty by Alexander McQueen is really amazing.

ErichWK

MagicSugar wrote: »

You're not allowed to receive personal mail at your business address? (I'm assuming you're in a studio and not in a warehouse )

. . . . You just blew my god damn mind.