Your favourite artbooks
polycounter lvl 11
Hi all,
just wanted to hear/talk a bit about your favourite artbooks, since I think they are great as an additional source of inspiration - atleast for me it feels much better to actually flip through a book of art than to look at artwork on your screen.
And it's always nice to discover new art
So what are your favourite artbooks/sketchbooks you would recommend and why do you like them?7
Here is my personal top 5 from the books I own:
- Kim Jung Gi Sketchbook. This guy is just insane and inspiration overload. Really glad to have one of these books, someday I have to get the other ones too. Quite expensive tho, but totally worth it
- Bioshock Infinite Artbook. I really liked the game and the unique designs. Also the artbook shows not only finished artwork, but a lot of brainstorming ideas and sketches, which is really nice.
- Tomb Raider Artbook (of the 2013 game). Just nice character and environment designs. Have to get the one for the new game someday.
- Mass Effect Artbook. Actually shows the development of a whole universe and a lot of background information.
- Blizzard Artbooks in general are really high quality. And feature the blizzard artstyle, which I like a lot.
just wanted to hear/talk a bit about your favourite artbooks, since I think they are great as an additional source of inspiration - atleast for me it feels much better to actually flip through a book of art than to look at artwork on your screen.
And it's always nice to discover new art
So what are your favourite artbooks/sketchbooks you would recommend and why do you like them?7
Here is my personal top 5 from the books I own:
- Kim Jung Gi Sketchbook. This guy is just insane and inspiration overload. Really glad to have one of these books, someday I have to get the other ones too. Quite expensive tho, but totally worth it
- Bioshock Infinite Artbook. I really liked the game and the unique designs. Also the artbook shows not only finished artwork, but a lot of brainstorming ideas and sketches, which is really nice.
- Tomb Raider Artbook (of the 2013 game). Just nice character and environment designs. Have to get the one for the new game someday.
- Mass Effect Artbook. Actually shows the development of a whole universe and a lot of background information.
- Blizzard Artbooks in general are really high quality. And feature the blizzard artstyle, which I like a lot.
Replies
I'm adding that to my wishlist immediately, holy hell.
As for me, I do not have the luxury of getting art books very often, but I had a friend who owned the Mass Effect Universe art book, that was beautiful. The Borderlands 2 artbook is also amazing (and I regret not buying it when I found it for $50, I didn't realize it was limited run at the time).
I really love the "The Sky: Art of Final Fantasy" collection, I believe there's three books in the series, I own book two. It's huge, and incredible. Beautiful illustrations from cover to cover. Very inspiring stuff.
Also not for a game, but the Art Of Book of Life art book is really nice to read through, some really nice work in there.
On the good side :
- My number one recommendation would be Alice Madness Returns artbook, without hesitations. Very well balanced and lots of good comments in addition of the amazing artworks. They also show content that is not present in the final game. The design process on Alice is really interesting. Clearly my favorite artbook.
- Thief (2014) would be my second choice if you liked the environments of the game. Lots of details on the weapons, lot of concept for the environments and the furniture. I found it well balanced. I really liked the mood of the game and the artbook cover it pretty well.
- Wolfenstein New order is also interesting. Their cover the content of the game per level (in the story order). Their also cover the propaganda art related to the Nazis. There are also big illustrations of the characters of the game (along some nice renders).
- Remember Me cover the characters (including NPC) and the environments. Often along the illustrations are comments from the artist about the background of the image or the intentions. I found some concept a bit too sketchy, but some other are really beautiful and share a nice mood. You really feel the rainy look they wanted to share in the final game.
I am not sure if they still print these, but you can still pick them up on ebay.
Halo4 art book
darksiders 1 and 2 art books
assasins creed black flag art book
district 9 art book
old shirow comics like appleseed are inspirational to me.
https://www.ballisticpublishing.com/books/oddworld/
Goblins of The Labyrinth is a book of Brian Froud's concepts for the movie and is as good as that would suggest
http://www.amazon.com/The-Goblins-Labyrinth-Brian-Froud/dp/0810970554
I've got a few of Froud's books in my collection and they're all great for weird, Muppety creatures.
Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You
http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Spiderwicks-Fantastical-Spiderwick-Chronicles/dp/0689859414/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453557009&sr=1-1&keywords=arthur+spiderwick's+field+guide+to+the+fantastical+world+around+you
Based on a children's novel series which I'm not familiar with (there was a movie which was not good) this is a bestiary with gorgeous art by Tony DiTerlizzi.
Art of Warhammer 40,000 is a collection of illustrations and concepts from the games, supplements and White Dwarf magazine. There's now a Warhammer edition too which I've been meaning to track down.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Warhammer-40-000-Novels/dp/1844162842/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453557460&sr=1-1&keywords=art+of+warhammer+40k
Udon's Art of Capcom
Even if you're not big on Street Fighter (which makes up most of this art book) it's worth having this book in your collection. They're masters of strong iconic character design. It's worth the price of purchase as a reference for colour theory alone
http://www.amazon.com/Udons-Art-Capcom-Udon-Studios/dp/1897376995/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453557562&sr=1-4&keywords=art+of+capcom
Anything by Ballistic publishing or Digital Art Masters, are printed gold.
The How to train your dragon artbooks are also gold. The second book shows some of the breakdowns of the environment art which are brilliant.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Star-Wars-Awakens/dp/1419717804
Lot of love put into those pages And the detail makes it easy to work on most of the stuff within them. They're huge too and they show collectors love by making special revisions of the books.
Also syd mead or syd mead inspired books.
Also, Destiny's was quite nice, showed lots of variation/iteration, not just final, made-the-cut content
Also, the Ghibli film "The Wind Rises" (which was an absolutely beautiful film) has a fantastic artbook.
The Art of Blizzard Entertainment
Mass Effect Universe
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Elysium
Destiny
http://www.parkablogs.com/content/book-review-art-of-god-of-war-ascension
Yeah, when I bought it was $69.99, now it's only available from 3rd parties for $100+. All the blue canvas books have relatively small print runs, but they are badass I missed out on their book for The Order 1886, and they did one for Journey and Homeworld.
Their magazine and website were shuttered recently, not sure what it means for Blue canvas publishing, but I suspect we won't see any more books from them.
http://www.amazon.com/Codex-Seraphinianus-Luigi-Serafini/dp/0847842134
This is actually a really affordable reprinting, older copies go for $500
Dark Souls Design works I and II are fantastic. They're pretty pricey and rather small for what you get, but I love seeing the work behind the world.
I really like the Nuthin But Mech series (Book 1 http://www.amazon.com/Nuthin-But-Mech-Various-Artists/dp/1933492678 ) I love them because they feature so many different artists.
WETA release a series of books reating to the Hobbit called the Art and Design series. ( http://www.amazon.ca/Chronicles-Design-Hobbit-Unexpected-Journey/dp/0007487339/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=51Yh2YqvIEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=0C2SDM6PV85PZE2BDTF0 ) , which are great reference books for various sets, costumes and prop pieces. If only they'd done the same for LOTR!
and lastly, I really loved the art of Bioshock Infinite ( http://www.amazon.ca/Art-Bioshock-Infinite-Julian-Murdoch/dp/1595829946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454037815&sr=8-1&keywords=bioshock+infinite+art)
OH! I almost forgot! For Any Animator, I'd recommend the Illusion of Life (http://www.amazon.com/The-Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707)
Universal Principles of Design - I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to literally everyone. If you're involved in a creative industry you'll probably learn something in there somewhere.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Principles-Design-Revised-Updated/dp/1592535879/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456826820&sr=1-1&keywords=principles+of+design
Industrial Divinities
http://www.amazon.co.uk/x51FA-x96F2-x91CD-INDUSTRIAL-DIVINITIES/dp/4757727356/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456826879&sr=1-1&keywords=industrial+divinities
Syd Mead - Sentury II
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sentury-II-Syd-Mead/dp/0857681141/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456826907&sr=1-1&keywords=syd+mead
Complete Works of Tadao Ando
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tadao-Ando-Complete-Works-1975-2014/dp/3836553945
Architecture of Natural Light
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Architecture-Natural-Light-Henry-Plummer/dp/0500290369/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456826829&sr=1-1&keywords=architecture+of+natural+light
mine is not really an artbook, but I consider it one aha
Got it for christmas it's great I'd definitly recommend it to anyone looking for good references and interesting story about old and new guns without popping anything from the internet
Also Fire emblem Awakening artbook, haven't receive it yet but i can't wait \o/
and the Racinet complete costume history. that book is amazing. If you're like me you know easy it is to find environment picture book, but good costume one is really hard, this, this is the one! It's HUGEEEEE and it has another HUGEEEEEE book of explanation that goes with it. there's no really good picture that do it justice on google.
Some of my favorites are:
The Art of Journey - Journey art, the book is as beautiful as the game
Studio Ghibli Layout Designs - One of my favorite art books ever, has tons of layout designs and frames from Ghibli movies
Nausicaa Watercolor Impressions - more Ghibli, tons of watercolors used for the design/production of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
The Art of Mass Effect - I have both Mass Effect art books and I was lucky enough to pick up the one created for the very first game which is just stunning. Lots of really cool concept art and cut designs and levels and shows how they built the universe.
-Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition
Art of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
The Art of Blizzard Entertainment
Art of God of War 2 from Ballistic Publishing.
and for Scifi and hard surface stuff I would say the art of Mass Effect Universe.
- The Art & Design of Final Fantasy XV: Artbook of Final Fantasy XV obviously, the build quality is very high and it's quite big. It has a lot of illustrations, concept and 3D renderings of various characters, environments, weapons and props, the overall artworks quality is very high and i raccomend this book if you are an illustrator, concept artist, 3D characters artist or a prop artist, if you want to buy this for the environments you will be disappointed.
If you are a fan of FF it is a must buy.
https://www.candb.com/en/artwork/2364/the-art-and-design-of-final-fantasy-xv-square-enix.html
- A Sky Longing for Memories The Art of Makoto Shinkai: An absolutely gorgeous artbook based on 3 of the most famous Makoto Shinkai movies, 5 Centimetres per Second, The Places Promised in Our Early Days and Voices from a Distant Star.
The artbook is a huge collection of anime background art. If you are an environment artist or an illustrator interested in background it is a must buy even if you are not into animes because the light, colors, composition and the overall maniacal attention to details make all the artworks a great source of inspiration for every works.
https://www.parkablogs.com/content/book-review-sky-longing-memories-art-of-makoto-shinkai-english-edition
- Makoto Shinkai Art Works Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below Artbook: Another stunning artbook from Makoto Shinkai, again you won't find characters here, only backgrounds.
https://www.parkablogs.com/node/8592
- Everyday Scenes from a Parallel World: A collection of environments/background from 40 different artists, it has a mix of anime works and realistic artworks, very cheap to buy from amazon.
https://www.parkablogs.com/content/book-review-everyday-scenes-parallel-world
- Beautiful Scenes from a Fantasy World: A "sequel" of the artbook mentioned above ^ it showcases a lot of fantasy environments and landscapes, a good source of inspiration if you are into this stuff.
http://pie.co.jp/english/search/detail.php?ID=4966
I also have the Mass Effect Universe artbook and a Magic The Gathering artbook ( Amonkhet ), the Mass Effect one is good if you are looking for props and weapons inspiration or maybe characters. If you are looking for environments it is not very good.
I like sci-fi stuff currently have the Art of Star Wars Books / Chris Foss / John Harris sitting in the shelves. But looking to pick up some more...
@Waz "High Concept Art" Project 77 in my opinion looks pretty neat.
Also may have a '21st Century FOSS' 1979 paperback edition tucked away somewhere, was a 16yo when I'd first clapped eyes on his work in 1975, been a fan ever since.
Personally anything from Syd Mead. Enjoying the pics. I miss my library.