The term “Concept Art,” brings to mind a specific kind of imagery. …but isn’t that a problem…?
What if the struggle of learning Perspective Drawing simply isn’t worth it…?
How can an animated TV show be deeply autobiographical for it’s creator and still have huge, mainstream appeal?
Maybe what other people think of your art matters less than you think…
Today, in celebration of a New Year, The Oatley Academy Team shares their favorite books of 2017. …books that will almost certainly change your creative process.
Click through to listen…
Listen Here:
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Our Favorite Books Of 2017:
They Drew As They Pleased: The Hidden Art Of Disney’s Golden Age
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck
Steven Universe: Art & Origins
Awesome Links:
Sarah Mills | Maike Venhofen | Ejiwa (Edge) Ebenebe | Ânia Marcos | Chris Oatley
Music by Storybook Steve and Kangaralien
How About You?
Can you recommend a book that changed your creative process?
Tell us about it in the comments below!
Really appreciate you guys discussing these books- very insightful!! I especially related to ‘They drew as they pleased’ because I read ‘Before the animation begins’ and it had a similar tone to it- how concept art developed as a field in itself. It is so inspiring to see how the masters developed their skills, how their lives affected their art and how we can take that legacy forward. I’m definitely gonna be reading the others this year! Super excited 😀
Thank you for your kind words, Ramya! So glad you enjoy our book recommendations <3
I haven't read the book you mentioned, but sounds really interesting! Thank you for bringing it up 😀
I'm always fascinated by how each person's life affects their art in a unique way. Like it says in the 'They Drew As They Pleased' book: "If you want unique art, you'll find that it takes a unique person to produce it". (love this so much!)
Hug!!
Love all the books you guys recommended! Going to check them out for sure <3. Here's what inspired me this year.
Big magic: Creative living beyond fear – Elizabeth Gilbert.
“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”
“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.”
Magic of tidying up – Marie Kondo
It's a book on tidying your house but for me it also helped me tidy up distractions in my life so I can focus on art. I have a bad habit of saying yes to too many people and procrastinating. This inspired me to get rid of my wifi and donate anything I don't need. Now I have a dedicated art desk.
Better then before – Gretchen Rubin
I'm very familiar with the science of habits. This isn't very sciency but I find this approach useful. At least it inspired me to make changes and to know myself more.
Art of zootopia
This is like everything I dreamed of as a child makes me feel like a kid again <3.
Hi, Kitty! So great to hear from you 😀
Wow, thank you for all those wonderful recommendations! I love how “Magic Of Tidying Up” resonated with you… It’s incredible how a book on tidying your house can have such a huge impact on your life! Also, love that you’re donating the things you don’t need 🙂 That’s really inspiring.
You’re awesome!
This was great!
I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve heard your voices! I miss you!!
Edge, I definitely need to check out your book.
Chris, I haven’t been interested in Steven Universe before, I am now!
Thanks for sharing!!
A book that I’ve just started reading is Called To Create by Jordan Raynor. It is a biblical perspective on why a Christian feels the drive to create and how God is a creative being.
I’ve also started listening to The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. It’s been great to find a new fantasy world! Beware of the Fangs of Dang!
Hey Jennifer!
So happy to see you! <3 I'd love to hear what you think of the book; I absolutely loved it 😀
That's an interesting perspective! How are you finding Called To Create so far?
The Wingfeather Saga looks super cool :O (And the art it's bringing up on google is beautifulll) - Thanks for sharing that!
I had to put down Called to Create because I’ve swamped with work, but I really like it so far. I’m looking forward to reading what it says about why modern Christians (the church as a whole) don’t have a reputation for nurturing the arts.
Wooow. Great list and amazing books.
I would like to add other two books:
The Silver Way: Techniques, Tips, and Tutorials for Effective Character Design
and
Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo
Here are the two most influent book for me this year.
Now, I’ll search the books of OA list =D
Thank you – Love You All
Thank you, Marcio! 😀
In what ways did the books you mentioned influence you? I’m looking forward to knowing more <3
Love you dearly!
I think the best one for me was Steven Universe: Art & Origins because my main goal is to work in an animation studio next year and I’ve invested all my energy in it.
I love the art of Steven Universe, so it’ll be a big reference for me. Thank you for sharing this book recommendation. =D
Hope to show a new portfolio to OA friends as soon as possible
One book that has effected my process the most is:
Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers
by Marcos Mateu-Mestre
https://www.amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers/dp/1933492953
-Alex Ogle
http://www.alexogle.com
Hi, Alex!
So happy you mentioned ‘Framed Ink’. I love that book too! What do you like the most about it?
Thank you so much for sharing 😀
Really interesting book discussion folks!
I have to confess I flipped though the ‘hidden art of disney..’ & ‘Noble approach’, didn’t see a lot of pretty pictures so I put them down. Maybe I will take another look.
Edge! I read the ‘the subtle art of….” earlier this year. I’m glad you got something from. I unfortunately was not overly impressed, but it reminded me of a similar book that I did like ‘David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants’ by Malcolm Gladwell that i think you might enjoy.
Chris your brief mention of emotional geography caught my attention. Had never heard that term, but in my personal projects I always try to illustrate the environments so that they reflect the emotional state of the characters or story beat. Its difficult to accomplish that on a tv animation pipeline where all elements need to be reused as much as possible and as a result are designed with more of a generic camera angle & mood. Be interesting to see how Steven Universe handles it.
As for me, I think the last few years I’ve shifted away from art books. I have so many of them that I rarely look at. I’ve been more into historical reference book, or writings on history, philosophy, phycology, science .here are a few of my recent favorites (some are a bit depressing, but changed how I thought about the world):
*Emperors of all Maladies -by Siddhartha Mukherjee
*Imbeciles:the Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck -by Adam Cohen
*When breath becomes air -by Paul kalanithi
*Red flags – How to spot frenemies. underminers, and toxic people in your life -by Wendy. L Patrick
*Going Clear -by Lawrence Wright
*David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants’ -by Malcolm Gladwell
Oh wow – so many books! Thanks, Pat 🙂 It’s so inspiring how a book can change us for the better, isn’t it? Such power in a small item!
I’m really happy you enjoy this episode, thank you so much!
great selection of books from all you guys! diffidently need to get the steven universe book at some point since that my favorite cartoon show right now. i would be just not to see some good concept art fro the show, put to get insight on how the creative process works for a tv show.
my favorite books for this year would have to be:
“steal like an artist” by Austin kleon
basically the book is about how nothing in the art world is completely original and how it is okay to take big influences and steal ideas from other artists, but not in a way where it is a crude ripoff.
“Animals: real and imagined” by terry whitlatch
this book is basically for people who like creature design and creating their own animals. this book gave me great insight to how to create imaginary creatures that would function like real animals and a better understanding of animal anatomy.
Thank you so much, Kimberly! I’m so glad you enjoyed our recommendations 😀 I started watching Steven Universe very recently. What a wonderful show indeed!
And thank you for your book recommendations as well 🙂 I took a look at Terryl’s book and it’s indeed amazing. She’s so great!
Good to hear your voices again guys, it has been a while!
I have read and enjoyed “the art of not giving a penny” and it helped me, I think, to let go a little bit more often. I initially found that the swearing was not justified but got used to it and really appreciated to message overall. It helped me manage my perfectionism issue….I will definitely read it again soon.
Alex Ogle mentioned “Framed Ink” by Marcos Mateu Mestre which is great! I also enjoyed his “framed perspective” series, really valuable book about perspective and quite approachable. The last few pages of these books are almost the most interesting with tables presenting tonal, and dynamic/gesture study for each single piece presented in the book accompanied by comments from the author, really enlightening!
Recently, I have been reading and re-reading “The art of Dreamworks Animation”, a fascinating and beautiful collection of concept art/sketches and final art completed for each of the Dreamworks films. Even my 2year old boy is glued to it 😉
Thanks for all the love!
Peace.
Wonderful recommendations, Cesar. Thank you so much! 😀
So interesting that your 2-year-old boy loves “The Art Of Dreamworks Animations” so much. Why do you think he is drawn to that book in particular?
Thank you for the super kind comment! <3 <3 <3
Opening the art of dreamworks animation is like entering a world full of colorful characters (Madagascar, KungFu Panda, Puss in boots, etc.), monsters (Shrek, How to train your dragon, shark tale, etc…) and immersive environments so I believe it is for the same reasons I am drawn to it. He is just diving into the images and experiencing the emotions that they are throwing at him
Main difference between us is that he is not looking at visual flow, texture, relationship to the picture plane, element size, etc… 🙂
Hugzz
Love it!
Awesome recommendations guys! Wanna check ’em all.
Edge, this year was kinda the same for me. I share your feelings about not being good enough, and not being where you should be, I read an article by Mark Manson with the same title a long time ago and it helped, so I really want to read the book whenever I get a chance.
Ania, the lovely book you mentioned sounds like such a simple, yet profound book. Those are the kind of stories I would love to see more of. I don’t have much books to recommend, but this book reminded me of the children’s book articles from a site called Brain Pickings. Not all of them are about art, but they are still very nice reads. I’ll link you to one that I specifically liked, but all of the books they talk about are quite profound and emotionally honest.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/14/oliver-jeffers-the-heart-and-the-bottle/
Chris, damn, as a fan of Steven Universe, I gotta get my hands on it, cause I would love to see their process, but specially because you mentioned they write about how they got to be brutally honest and yet manage to have great success.
And well, a book that made me actually like the horror genre was “Through the Woods” by Emily Carroll. The way she tells the stories and leaves them up to interpretation is super rad.
Thank you, Gabriel!
The book you mentioned (The Heart And The Bottle) looks so lovely. Really appreciate it 😀 Hug!
Hi guys! This was such a nice podcast to listen to! I will check all the books you mentioned 🙂 I always love new reading suggestions. My favorite Art related book this year is probably Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist
by James Gurney. In this book James Gurney shows his work process when making an illustration, it is super insightful. The best part of the book for me was how he uses sculptures in his process of creating an illustration. It can help you to see what the best angle is and to see how the light and shadows can work.
I did read ‘the Art of not giving a F*ck’ and it was such an insightful book. The Steven Universe book looks very nice! It will definitely go on my wish list 🙂
Hi, Nienke <3 So good to hear from you!
Thank you for the book recommendation. Love James Gurney's books 😀 I have "Color And Light" and love it very much. So much great information!
Sincere thank you to everyone on this episode! You guys actually gave me a new appreciation for some books I already have, especially Sarah’s account of “They Drew As They Pleased” – I realised that I didn’t enjoy it that much before because my appreciation of conceptual art was so narrow, I was too focused on the “pretties” and not the weird, unbridled creativity coming to life on the page.
Also, anyone who found “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” to resonate with them should look up Stoicism – I found that it helps me approach life with more pragmatism and less anxiety.
The most impactful book I read in 2017 was probably “The Confidence Code” by Katty Kay & Claire Simpson. I often struggle with self-doubt and hide myself & my work away because of it, but this book was integral in me developing enough confidence to start putting myself out there. Something that stuck with me was that one of the last chapters discussed how women are too often told to display “male” indicators of confidence (eg aggression, assertiveness), how this backfires, and how women can portray confidence while still being true to themselves. There was a lot of really practical advice in there as well!
Hi Aleks,
That’s awesome! Thanks for saying so – honestly, when I first flipped through “They Drew As They Pleased” I was looking for pretties too. If not for having that “push it more” / “get weirder” design conversation with First Flight students so much, I probably would’ve passed on it at first!
“The Confidence Code” sounds super interesting… I’ll definitely have to pick it up. Thanks so much for the recommendation! ♥
Another great podcast episode from tbe oatley academy team. All of these reviews of the books mentioned were really intruiging to listen to.
The book I reccomend is How to make webcomics by Brad Guigar, Scott R. Kurtz , Dave Kellet and Kris Straub.
This book was amazing so much so yo the extent that it felt that you were sitting with the authors listening to every eord of advice.
The book changed my creative process to the extent that I have begun to enjoy and make the most of every comic project that I do even when I have to squeeze in sometime to create.