My favorite concept art books have two things in common:
1.) The work inside is so inspiring that every time I open one of them, I’m overtaken by a wave of pure, tingling fandom.
2.) They each contain a unique revelation of the actual filmmaking (or game-making) process.
By popular demand (and in no particular order) I’ve assembled a list of my Top 10 Essential Concept Art Books.
In this post I share my first five must-own tomes and tomorrow, I’ll share the rest. (I didn’t actually rank them because that would be impossible.)
…and I reserved the comments section for everyone to share their own recommendations.
So if you’re looking for an excuse to buy a new bookshelf, read on…
The Skillful Huntsman: Visual Development Of A Grimm Tale:
During his time teaching at Art Center, Scott Robertson helped to launch the careers of his now-famous students Mike Yamada, Khang Le and Felix Yoon.
Under Scott’s art direction, Mike, Khang and Felix developed an obscure Grimm Tale as if it was a sci-fi feature film with a George-Lucas-sized budget.
The final result was an entire “art of” book jam-packed with beautiful concept art and design techniques inspiring enough to cure you of creative block forever.
The Skillful Huntsman is the essential book for aspiring concept artists and pros who need to shake things up.
*Also check out Scott Robertson’s uhMAYzing new book titled, simply: How To Draw
Surf’s Up: The Art and Making Of A True Story:
Remember how, back in 2007, Hollywood released like forty-two penguin movies?
Well, they saved the best one for last.
Unfortunately, Surf’s Up was almost washed away by the likes of Happy Feet and March Of The Penguins but art (and story) saved it.
The Surf’s Up art department featured a line-up of some of the greatest animation-concept-art-all-stars EVER!
They’re like The Highwaymen of visual development: Serrano, Vignali, Mateu-Mestre, Lasaine (the list goes on)…
Surf’s Up: The Art and Making Of A True Story features some kaRAYzee-amazing composition, super-appealing character designs and some scintillating color keys.
Rarest of them all, you’ll find high-res Character VisDevs of the entire principal cast. This kind of character painting is often left out of animation art books in favor of sketches and more painterly concepts.
The Art Of Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones:
Be careful not to let any lingering prequel-hate sour some of the most delicious concept art you’ll ever see.
The Art Of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones catalyzed the pervasive concept art craze of today.
…and speaking of all-star art departments, headliners Terryl Whitlatch, Iain McCaig and Ryan Church defined the term “concept art” for future generations by pouring passion into every pixel and pencil line in this collection.
These days, every artist in the entertainment industry will tell you that strong draftsmanship is generally lacking in concept art portfolios.
Look and learn how these Jedi masters structure their designs. Emulate their extraordinary strength of drawing.
…but don’t become a clone.
The Art Of Mulan:
This is one of the best Disney “art of” books ever published.
First of all, it’s HUGE!
Second of all, Hans Bacher.
You’ll gain a new understanding of “visual language” as you unfurl this exhaustive exploration of the film’s primary design challenge: “Disney feature animation meets ancient China.”
On a personal note, this book features one of my favorite animation concept paintings EVER. Keep an eye out for a minimalistic image of silhouetted soldiers surrounded by pink trees – painted by my friend (and previous landlord) Sunny Apinchapong-Yang.
*Also check out my article about The Technique Trap where I linked to the Mulan Style Guide!
The Art Of Robots:
Didn’t see this one comin’, did ya?
The Art of Robots might actually be the most underrated book on this list.
As I mentioned at the end of the Surf’s Up blurb, most concept art books don’t show much more than the loose, early development work.
…but there’s a lot more to a production than just pre-production.
Pixar’s Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi began his career at Blue Sky Studios and this book is full of his beautiful pre-production paintings – as any fan of animation concept art would hope.
…but author Amid Amidi made the extraordinary decision to include ordinary production assets in this book.
Here you’ll find art director “texture call-outs,” high-res Character VisDevs (like in the Surf’s Up book), notes and work-in-progress 3D sets.
If you want to understand the real-world of animation concept art, this book is an amazing reference.
Continued in Part 2!
Learn More:
Open The Magic Box to learn tons of pro concept art techniques!
Concept Artist Chris Campbell (Riot Games) shares his Top 15 Non-Art Books That Every Artist Should Read.
What Are YOUR Favorite Concept Art Books?
I’ll post part 2 of my list tomorrow, but I’m eager to hear your thoughts…
What are YOUR favorite concept art books?
I love those choices you have up top. The only one I have is The Skillful Huntsman. I will have to pick (and this is hard to pick just one), Syd Mead’s Sentury II. His designs just stands the test of time. There’s a breath of fresh air every time I turn to it. Art books, so hard to collect them all! Especially when some are out of print!
Syd Mead is awesome! Great pick, Rebecca!
But you don’t have to pick just one! Who could?! 😉
I’ve built up a pretty extensive ‘Art of…’ library over the years and for me the stand outs are:
Art of Open Season (seriously…WOW)
Art of Mr Peabody and Sherman
Art of Rio 1&2
Art of Kung Fu Panda
Art of Hercules
Art of Monsters Vs Aliens
Art of Ponyo
Art of Turbo
Oh…and the Art of Deanna Marsigliese 🙂
Yeah, Open Season is fantastic. That one almost made the list but Surf’s Up was, for me, the undefeated champ when it comes to SPA. Great picks!
Art of Tangled, for sure. Amazing, beautiful concept art, in depth detail of the inner workings of the development cycle, and of course a tribute to an awesome film. 🙂
I was going to say The Art of Tangled as well. One of the prettiest books I’ve ever read. The Art of Rise of the Guardians would be my second recommendation after that. Also so gorgeous.
Yep! Tangled is insane. And Stephen, I’m eager to check out the ‘Rise Of The Guardians’ book.
It’s been in my queue (along with about three hundred others – Ha!) and I still haven’t ordered it. The concepts for that movie are totally rad.
The art of the Legend of Korra is beautiful! Especially the backgrounds :O
…a beautiful show in general. I haven’t seen the book but I think it’s in my queue. Gotta make that one a priority.
Love both the Airbender and Korra art books. I like the “in show” backgrounds of Korra better, but for my money, the Airbender one is a better concept art book. They had multiple seasons to pick through to find stuff, for one thing, and there are a lot more layout drawings and design philosophy.
I only have the Star Wars books from the list above. As Chris mentioned its impossible to rank any books in terms of their greatness, but for someone working in the vfx industry these few recently published books really inspire me –
Hobbit Desolation of Smaug
http://halcyonrealms.com/film/hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-art-design-book-review/
Art Of Elysium
http://halcyonrealms.com/film/elysium-the-art-of-the-film-book-review/
Art Of Pacific Rim
http://halcyonrealms.com/film/pacific-rim-art-book-review/
Looking forward to part II of your post. :]
#moviesoverflowingwithamazingdesign
For more realistic and not only “animation works” artbooks, I suggest:
– The Art of Darksiders (by Madureira)
– The Art of District 9
– The Art of “Howl’s Moving Castle”
– The Art of Alice Madness Returns.
I love these books because they’re really very rich and full of drawings, very useful if you have a lack of inspiration.
I also suggesta a couple of “generic” concept art” book:
– Shadowline (by Iain Mc Caig)
– World of Wonders (Aleksi Bricault)
– Massive Black Vol. 1.
Generic concept artbooks: they’re literally jawdropping stuff. You’ll find character design, mecha design, enviroinment design and from time to time some tips or fast “making of/tutorials”. I love them.
Thanks for all your suggestions. Have a nice day!
Cheers.
Claudia
Lots of stuff I don’t own in this list. *cha-ching cha-ching!*
yay! 😀
PS: I’ve just realized I made a tons of typos! I apologize! :p
Been meaning to get shadowline since around xmas, still havent gotten around to buing it! Heard its great as its a artbook and tutorialbook /story book in one 😀
One of my favourites is The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants. There’s some really fun creature/character designs in there and stunning environments. The creators of the game did a really good job of crafting the Oddworld “world”, even though it’s so bizarre and a bit silly, they were really able to breathe life into it. I love it.
I think Oddworld was one of the first concept art books, wasn’t it? Those character designs are still amazing.
I’m not sure, but the art in there is from 1994-2004. The first ‘art of’ book I ever got was a Warcraft one, with art from the original Warcraft 1 and 2. Some of the artwork in there is almost as old as I am!!
I’ve got Sentury II, that book is great. A true master designer at work there. I’m also going to get the Skilful Huntsman because its premise is such an awesome undertaking for anyone looking to make a portfolio of design work.
My recommendations for art of books that make my shelve creak are:
King Kong – because who doesn’t like the creature design of that film?
The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants – such in depth detail of the game making design process and decisions that went into the first 3 game.
Blast – Scott Robertson and a few other artists make cool spaceships in this book, nice to seek the amount of sketches each created.
Tron Legacy – Just a book full of Bio Digital jazz man…
Prometheus – Say what you will about the film, the art is something incredible.
Now, for me, the Terminator Salvation art of book was a bit of a game changer. It actually put me at a lot of mental ease because it revealed to me, in actuality, what a lot of concept art really looks like. Its full of rough sketches, with a lot of mashed up photos and matte paintings and its not full of the highly polished concept art you usually see. I think its a great book because of that.
I was hoping someone would say King Kong! #guiltypleasures
Right, RIGHT!? Such an awesome book. I actually think Peter Jackson and the Weta guys did a great job on that film.
Art of Monsters Inc.
Really interesting to see the process here, particularly as the story itself changes so many times. The boards drawn in pastel are some of the most gorgeous things I’ve seen.
Art of District 9
Weta + a director with a great eye for visuals. You can tell the artists loved the premise and the ability to run with it. Great scifi ideas beautifully realised.
Lord of the Rings (only have the first 2 dammit!)
Not just some magic drawing and paintings from the likes of Alan Lee, John Howe, Jeremy Bennet and Paul Lasaine, but also the models, costume design, sets and storyboards.
The World of Kong
I was a bit take-it-or-leave-it on the film, but the book is great. Stunning artwork that sets itself up as a guidebook to the location, detailing the creatures, the ecosystem (most of which never appears on film) and the environment.
Great call on the Skillful Huntsman, it’s one I keep going back to all the time.
Great books. You’ve also managed to create a list of some of my favorite movies ever.
I just love the Lord of the Rings sketchbook!
The Art of Ratatouille and The Art of Paranorman. Crazy works, I’m so in love with the work done on them, from the pastel sketches and concepts done in Ratatouille to the most little tinny detail on Paranorman, PERFECT!
The design in Paranorman is amazing. Loved Coraline too.
…and if I wasn’t careful, the Pixar art books would inundate this list.
Side note: Ratatouille is probably my favorite Pixar film.
It is mine too! 😉
Wow, I didn’t know some of them. My shelf is almost full, so maybe I will need a new shelf, indeed…
As for my inspirational sources, I can recommend:
– The Art of Darksiders 1+2
– The Art of God of War 3
– The Art of Gears of War 3
– Monster Hunter Illustrations (Book 1 and 2)
– Dragon’s Dogma Designworks
– Dark Souls Designworks
– The Art of Halo 4
– The Art of building worlds (Halo)
– The Art of Deadspace
– The Art of Resident Evil 5
– The Art of How to train your dragon
– The Art of The Last of Us
– The Art of The Hobbit 2
– The Art of Bioshock Infinite
Soon I will have some more books that somehow need to fit into my shelf. I should receive The Art of Titanfall soon and always look for more books to be inspired from. I definitely can recommend those from my list above, as there are many different styles, techniques and approaches to characters, objects, landscapes, sceneries, etc. to learn from. I hope it helps.
Have a good day everyone.
– David
Nice. I don’t own many game art books but I’ve seen a lot of them. The Gears Of War work is particularly noteworthy. I considered adding the art of Guild Wars 2 to this list but it’s super-rare and I’ve never actually seen it! So I decided to only include books I own or have spent a lot of time with…
Hi Chris,
indeed this book is very rare. My brother is looking for it since a couple of years until now. Still no success on our end. I’d say I mostly am after the books for game-projects, because I am very interested in the creation process and thoughts for many different characters and types, settings, as well as creatures and whatever else will be included. After I have all the books for games, I will go and see what I will find regarding “The art of”-books for movies. And those you mentioned look pretty inspiring too… oh man, my shelf, I hope it will survive the amount of new books…
The Monster Hunter books are GREAT for that style of character/creature design, and seeing how many variations you can make off essentially the same silhouettes.
I think my most valued and favorite art book would be The Art of Rise of the Guardians. An amazing film and the art and development fills me with inspiration. The movie is actually what pushed me to want to do character concept art!
Yeah. Fantastic concepts. I gotta get this one…
As a product designer who works with the characters you guys make, I am inspired by Art Nouveau applied: Stuff of Dreams: Matieres De Reves from the Paris Muse Des Arts Decoratifs by Penelope Hunter-Stiebel
OOOH. Gotta check this out. Thanks, Lyn!
Art of Kung Fu Panda (and the KFP2 one!)
Any time I’m doubting why I do this whole art shtick, it’s the KFP2 art book I open up to remind me what I’m aiming for 😀
Art of How to Train Your Dragon
Art of Wreck it Ralph
Art of Ratatouille
Art of Monsters Inc
Good ones.
And yeah, KFP is fantastic.
Great list, Chris! I have ‘The Skillful Huntsman’ and it does indeed rock. Definitely recommended! Picks from my shelf include:
1) World of Warcraft: The Art of the Trading Card Game – Brilliant insight into a wealth of different styles for Blizzard’s cards and characters
2) Massive Black Volume I – Amazing characters and concepts from people like Jason Chan, Nox, Wes Burt etc.
3) Elysium: The Art of Daarken – Beautiful compendium of work from one of my favourite illustrators
4) Several ‘The Art of’ books for games, including Mass Effect, Dead Space, Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite, God of War 2 and Assassin’s Creed 3. The Dead Space and Borderlands 2 ones are my faves.
5) Several more ‘The Art of’ books for movies, including Tangled, Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs 2, Frozen, Kung Fu Panda 2, Brave and Pacific Rim. I can attest as well that the Tangled one is gorgeous!
6) I got ‘Sketching From the Imagination’ for Christmas but haven’t looked at it properly yet. Looks great, though!
On the ‘to buy’ list: Art of Wreck-It-Ralph, How to Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians and the Brom book. I think I have an addiction!
Great stuff, Dan. I’m gonna have to get some of those game art books. And I’m super-jazzed for the Cloudy 2 book!
The Cloudy book is definitely worth it, Chris – it’s a beautiful hardback and the cover folds out to reveal an image of the gang at Swallow Falls, with all the Foodimals on it! I love Craig Kellman’s style.
Here’s some that I have that I really like:
Art of Kung Fu Panda
Art of How to Train Your Dragon
Art of Princess and the Frog
Art of Brave
Art of Tangled
Art of Frozen
I love those Art of Books!! Thanks for the new recommendations!
Yes! I love that you added Princess & The Frog, Shawna! Incredible art in that book…
My favorite “Art of” books include;
– Art of Wreck It Ralph: The design of this film just blew me away. The reason I love his book so much is just how much color and detail there is in it. One of my favorites to flip through, for sure!
-Art of Ratatouille: I think I am a little biased here because Ratatouille was/is my favorite pixar movie. I love the character design!
-Art of Paranorman: This book is pure inspiration. You can tell by looking through just how much care and love went into making this film. Love it!
-Okami: The Official Complete Works: This film has a wonderful historical Japanese theme to it. The art in both the game and this book are absolutely breathtaking. Lots of calligraphy and beautiful use of color!
-Deco Devolution: The Art of Bioshock 2 / The Art of Bioshock Infinite: I think the wonderful thing about Bioshock games and the art that goes into them is just how much the artists paid attention to historical attire and how much fun they had with it. Bioshock comes with a steampunk vibe to its design and it works really well!
Great list, Nicole! Haven’t seen the Bioshock books. I’ll check ’em out!
I love love love LOVE Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Design: http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Animation-Studios-Archive-Series/dp/1423134206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393942487&sr=8-1&keywords=Disney+Design
Every time I open the book, I die a little inside because I don’t think I’ll ever be that good… and then feel better because I realize that most of the art was done by people who have years and years of experience over me and maybe I’ll get there some day.
Also. My second favorite book: The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, http://www.amazon.com/The-ILLUSION-OF-LIFE-ANIMATION/dp/0786860707/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393942657&sr=8-1&keywords=Illustration+of+life
I know this one isn’t quite a ‘concept’ art book, but it has a lot of what drives character. And it has a lot of art. I think my favorite is the story of how the snake, Kaa, was developed for The Jungle Book.
I know I’ve mentioned both of these, or at least, you have Chris. I just can’t get over how awesome they are. This blog post is super timely too, my birthday is in a few weeks and now I have new books to add to my ‘must-have’ list! Thanks oats!
Yes, indeed. These are both truly essential.
I think every visual storyteller ever should have to write a book report about ‘Illusion Of Life.’ 😉
Oh man, my Amazon wish list has just exploded. I just ordered The Art of Ratatouille and will be getting more in the near future.
The only ones I own currently are:
The Art of Tangled: Amazing scope of design-work (people, buildings, plants, animals…you name it!) Plus, Glen Keane.
The Art of Princess and the Frog: So many lovely color palettes! I personally adore the deliciously creepy drawing of Dr. Facilier by Chris Appelhans.
The Art of Monsters Inc: Fun, loose, story-driven and Nicholas Marlet!
old copy of The Art of Walt Disney: I love the history just as much as the artwork, so it is a really informative resource to live-action and animation in the early Disney years.
Not really a concept art book per se, but I have the huge Kyoto Costume Insititute Fashion book (18th-20th century). A wonderful resource for character design and color. A single outfit can say so much about a person!
But yeah, I need to get more.
Great choices, Beka!
And I actually considered sharing a book about the history of costume but I think I’m going to save that one for a ‘Reference Books For Visual Storytellers’ post at some point…
Man, My book wish list is turning into this giant mountain of books I need to get, all because of you guys haha! I’m gonna have to have a serious talk to my wife to see where we’re gonna put a new bookshelf for all of this!
Chris, my favorite part of this post was your “kaRAYzee-amazing “! Can’t get and KaRAYzier than that hahehe!
Thanks as always!
Hahaha. Yeah, Elly. I couldn’t contain my fandom.
Even though your are reserving this for everyone’s art book recommendations, I got to at least say this is a great post! I gotta start collecting concept art books, but I am low on the spending cash. That will have to wait. Though I don’t have any recommendations since I don’t own any concept art books, I do collect old craftbooks and art books(how tos and such). I find looking through them quite fun and sometimes they helps inspires me. Also, some of the old how to draw books have some pretty nice artwork in them considering I have some pretty aged books. I’m part of the garage sale generation’s kin, hence where I often find my little treasures.
If you like Iain McCaig-he wrote his own book called shadowlines. You can still get out of print copies for a reasonable price.. And it is amazing. He wrote a story to go along with his concept art- it includes really beautiful mini books on drawing and is really a creative work of art as a whole. It is one of the best books on my shelf! (And I’m not even a huge star wars fan!)
I’d love to have a copy of this, Michelle! It’s been out of print for ages but they have it on Amazon over here in the UK for £39 at the moment. I’ll have to save up but I know it will be worth it!
Dan/Michelle –
I love this one too. Here are some pictures from inside the book –
http://halcyonrealms.com/art/the-art-of-iain-mccaig-shadowline/
I have a few but I love
The Art of Paranorman
just seeing how different first sketches are to the end product of the models I love it!
…and what beautiful sketches they are!
Hey Chris, have you seen these Disney Archive Series books? I’ve been dying to get this one about story and the one on layouts and backgrounds:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1423107233/
Do you recommend any of these books as well?
Oh yeah. They’re all amazing. You might even find one of them on the list tomorrow!
I only have the Art of Avatar and the recent Alice in Wonderland. I would love to own the Art of Frozen and the Art of Wreck it Ralph. Wouldn’t have thought to try the ones you recommended, but now I am very curious! Thank you so much for sharing!
Avatar THE LAST AIRBENDER. Not the Cameron movie. And this book is beautiful!
Yeah, I’ve gotta get the Airbender book!
Valkyria Chronicles design archive – massive book.
All do the Yoshitaka Amano books –
The Sky – art of Final Fantasy
Dawn: Worlds of Final Fantasy
The collected art of Vampire D
Any of the Ghibli film art books.
Art of Journey
So good to see Episode II in there. I got that book like 11 years ago, long before I could even draw. I still look at it every month. Really brought digital to the forefront of the design pipeline. Also made me aware of the term “concept artist” and made me into what I am today. That book will always be #1 for me personally.
A lot of these have been covered already, but breaking from the animation books on here, I would say that the essentials for an aspiring game concept artist are:
-Any/All of the 3 Star Wars Prequel Books (Episode 1 is a Chiang/McCaig showcase. Amazing.)
-Art of the Mass Effect Universe (which is essentially the art of 1 and 2 books+3)
-Halo:The Art of Building Worlds ( Again, a lot of condensed art from other vol.)
-Exodyssey (Steambot’s own IP project, A story told only with concept art)
-District 9
Art of Blizzard Entertainment (This, not the art of TCG, which is illo focused)
And, if you can find them because they were Collectors Edition (Amazon or Ebay them. A dinged up cover doesn’t make the art inside any less good):
-Art of Diablo III
-Deco Devolution: Art of Bioshock 2
I have many art of books, but would say these are particularly good over the rest because of the actual amount of real concept art vs just pretty pictures, and they focus on the entire world building aspect of concept art, from the lead character, to the set pieces down to the smallest light post prop. Also with a huge focus on iteration, not just the pretty polished “Press Release” Concept art or illustrations.
http://cptcrandall.tumblr.com/post/78553651923/the-bulk-of-my-art-book-collection-essentials-are
We’re definitely on the same page when it comes to what qualifies as a “concept art book.” And great recommendations too, Randall! Thanks!!
If I have to pick out any outstanding visually animated features that didn’t get enough attention from viewers, it’s for sure Robots and Surf’s up! From new ones also Epic movie did not receive much popularity despite how beautiful it was :,(
I still haven’t seen Epic but I’m really looking forward to it. The environment design is awesome and I have some talented friends who worked on it.
A friend of mine got me The Art of Pixar Short Films Volume 1 for my birthday and it’s easily my favorite resource of the ones I have. Partly because there’s just so many styles from the shorts but it’s also like seeing one of those progression memes for an entire company.
I completely forgot about this book until now. …and here I thought I owned all of the Pixar books. Thanks for the reminder, Allie!
The Art Of Blizzard Entertainment is my utmost favourite. I don’t own any others actually, but I’ve spent countless hours flicking through it. It features all of their key universes they’ve created over the years from the founding of the company until last year (no Lost Vikings or Rock ‘n’ roll racing, sorry folks!). It also features an introduction and cover painted by Brom including some of his Diablo 3 paintings too.
What’s great about it personally is seeing the crude sketches of Sam and Chris and others at Blizzard in the early days to what the powerhouses they are now. Inspiring to see such development over the years and always go to look at it when I’m feeling majorly bummed out or tired with the climb up the mountain!
I love the Blizzard Book. And yeah, Giant Orcs always put a smile on my face!
Dude! My favorite part of that book is the actually awful heavy metal drawings by Metzen (The Star Craft ones changed my life back in 98 or whatever it was). The reason I love those the most is because they really show the meat and bones of what concept art is. It is not always the top row of CGHub, but more often a bunch of notebook scribbles. Looking at that stuff keeps things in perspective.
you have some awesome choices, I actually have that skillful huntsman book too.
the favorite concept books I have now are:
The Art of how to train your dragon
The Art of rango
The Art of rise of the guardians
Great ones, Kimberly!
Dream Worlds by Hans Bacher is also a great resource for artists.
http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Worlds-Production-Design-Animation/dp/0240520939
Oh yeah. A fantastic book. I considered including it here but I don’t *really* consider it a concept art book. It’s actually more about visual storytelling.
Well… my wish list is getting fat, but mass ordering will have to wait till summer, can’t afford to get distracted during second semester :p
I was also wondering about your thoughts on art magazines? do you have any you would recommend?
I love our friends at ImagineFX and their amazing publication. The iPad version is especially great.
There’s so many when I think about it that have somehow inspired me to look into furthering my concept art. These are a few highlights…
-The “Weta” Series which I dubbed all the art books that detailed their pre-production and production of movies. Mainly, the The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Chronicle art books for me. They detail many of the early to final concepts for practically everything (from characters, costumes, weapons, to architecture). It was one of the first to inspire the goal of working in concept art.
-John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop, whose concept art work was used in Peter Jackson’s movies adaptations is further explored here. It shows more of his progression on all types of projects.
-Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess, which explores his beginnings to the present in his sketches and final artwork.
-The Art of Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki, which really drew me back to his films.
-The Art of How to Train Your Dragon by Tracey Miller-Zarneke and Cressida Cowell. A favorite Dreamworks film with its amazing characters and background designs.
-Disney That Never Was: The Stories and Art of Five Decades of Unproduced Animation Hardcover by Charles Solomon. Simply because I love to look back at the ideas that weren’t explored further for Disney. Needless to say, I also love viewing all The Art of Disney’s art books as well. Most recently, it has been Frozen.
-Cory Godbey’s compiled sketch books. I simply love his very flowing style of art and his “The Hidden People” and “Menageries” books are fun to reference the line work in.
I didn’t know Robots had an art book! I remember the movie’s visuals left more of an impact on me then the actual story, it’s great to know they managed to publish a very through book.
I don’t have much of a concept art book collection, but one near and dear to my heart is Disney Lost and Found. It collects concept art for scenes that were deleted from various films, as well as art for 2 films that were never made, Wild Life and My Peoples.
Wild Life uses a lot of unconventional shapes in the character design (I especially like Greg Killman and Jean Gillmore’s pieces) and there’s a lot of energy in the city designs and color palette.
My Peoples’ main cast are dolls made up of found objects, and I love looking at the designs and trying to figure out what objects they were composed of and how they might move as a result (There’s one made out of a wooden spoon and one is made out of a glove with what looks like a broken cup for a head). There’s some gorgeous landscapes of rural America in the 40s/50s and a charm to the artwork as a whole. It makes me sad that My Peoples was abandoned when the concept art shows a lot of promise for a gorgeous, thoughtful movie.
My all time favorite art book is “J.C. Leyendecker” by Cutler and Cutler. Chuck full of gorgeous Leyendeckerliness! I take it off the shelf more often than any of my other books.
Obsessed with it! It’s an incredible resource for not only color, but also fine details in clothing.
Wow. A lot of really great recommendations.
Idk, I kinda feel out of place. :/
1) Yoshitoshi aBe – An Omnipresence in Wired ~ Tons of character development artwork and sketches for Serial Experiments Lain. Truly amazing artwork by an artist who never uses a ruler. I have a collection of some of his sketchbooks which are really cool too.
2) Tatsuyuki Tanaka – Cannabis Works ~ Awesome!
3) Disgaea Character Collection ~ Lots of cool character development sketches and animation cycles.
4) Art and Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic ~ Cool game, this book has some of everything; lots of development art for the characters, environments, vehicles, creatures, etc.
5)Bubblegum Crisis – B Club Special ~ Cool stuff, tech and functional illustrations for weapons, vehicles, and mech suits
Hey chris,
Although it’s been previously mentioned I don’t think there was enough emphasis on the art of dead space. Every time I open it my mind is blown by how gritty and unnerving some of the images (yes images) are, they give me the creeps but it sticks out for me for the way the artists have dismantled the human body and welded it back together, at one point make a living form out of three or for body’s.
It’s such an eye opener for me, just wanted to share.
I don’t have a lot of art books (YET!), but of the ones I have my favourites are by John Bauer, Theodor Kittelsen and Justin Gerard
The Art of Tangled and The Art of Rise of the Guardians are my favorites. I also love all the color scripts in The Art of Pixar.
And I just purchased The Skillful Huntsman because I had gotten it via inter-library loan and LOVED it. I’m planning to do my own book of concept art like that for my senior project, so it is really helpful in that regard.
These are great suggestions! Thank you so much, Chris!
I’m trying my best to collect some good references.
Right now I have:
-Rise of the Guardians Art Book
-Wreck-It-Ralph
-Monster Hunter Book 2
-The Art of Gundam Wing
-Spirited Away Art book
I’m kind of an concept art book junkie. I art own:
The Art of Tangled (my very first concept art I bought, so wonderful)
The Art of Ratatouille (so much beautiful scenery- I love how they examined Paris; lots of nice pastel pieces)
The Art of Rise of the Guardians (this movie is so special to me and the art is just amazing)
The Art of Paranorman
The Art of Megamind
The Art of Frozen (SO. FREAKING. GORGEOUS.)
The Art of Monsters University (amazing lighting, good lord)
The Art of The Croods
The Art of The Princess and the Frog (sceneryyy)
The Art/Making of Aladdin (not a big fancy coffee table type book like the others, but has some amazing stuff and I got it for about 2 dollars used!)
Wow the Art of Mulan looks beautiful. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but not sure if it counts with these kind of books?? Definitely going to check these out, thanks Chris!
I have a lot on my wishlist but my favourite that I own so far is Ashley Wood’s Art of Metal Gear Solid. The style of the art is just awesome. Loads of action, cool characters, what else could you want?
I also love Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross. It is a collection of concept art for various DC Comics heroes. Loads of concepts and cover ideas for Superman and Batman stuff, and some for Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Green Arrow, Aquaman, etc.
I also like The Art of Remember Me… there aren’t many pages of character concepts but loads of lovely landscapes. Remember Me is a game set in Neo-Paris, so there are some sci-fi style landscapes and some scenes of France how we know/imagine it now.
I really like A Disney Sketchbook, and the art books for Mass Effect and The Last of Us. There is also a collection of artwork called Fantasy+ Best Artworks of Chinese CG Artists. Some of it is concept art, a lot of it isn’t, but it’s a very nice book.
Oh Chris how you taunt my dangerous romance with book collecting! I have fully filled up one bookshelf and am ready to expand to another (they’re literally piling up on the floor beside the shelf now). They’re just wonderful to sit and meditate with and to remind myself what kind of awesome varied work exists out there.
I really don’t know *how* the Mulan art book has escaped me. That movie has always been one of my favorites in Disney’s oeuvre and the bit I’ve seen of the style guide is just awe-inspiring!
To add to your gigantic book queue, the top two gems of my collection are:
Avatar: The Art of the Animated Series
This book has it all! From early concept sketches to fully developed designs to key frames to storyboards. The variation is staggering, just as the design team’s attention to detail in making each and every culture of the world unique is. I also quite enjoyed the sections in which the show creators talk about how they pitched the show and where the ideas came from. Great art is always nice, but a glimpse into that seemingly magical process of creation and pitching is priceless! I’d also recommend this over the Korra series’ books, if only because the characters are far more iconic and this was the series that started it all.
http://amzn.to/1iaOZrv
The Art of the Mass Effect Universe
Despite being a game that sucked me in, body and soul, the art book, much like the Avatar book, pays so much attention to how the design team made each and every race and world unique. There’s an overwhelming amount of work included, from environments to vehicles to character iterations. Total spoilers, though, if you haven’t played the game yet!
http://amzn.to/1gPo4fn
I shall look forward to the rest of your list!
PS.
I’m quite surprised to find that the books I listed actually have Kindle editions. The idea of being able to collect more books without taking up space is an enticing one! I don’t know if I could do without the lovely oversized printing of an art book on paper, though.
I have also thought about getting kindle editions as they are sometimes a bit cheaper too…
The only thing I would say is make sure you check the reviews for the kindle versions of these kinds of books! I’ve seen some very bad reviews for a few of them, e.g. The Art of Bioshock Infinite, where you cannot actually see the artwork because you are unable to zoom. The text is also apparently too small to read.
I would have to pick……
Masamune Shirow’s Intron Depot 2: Blades. I think that was the book that turned me onto digital art.
Yoshitoshi Abe’s An Omnipresence in Wired
The Art of Final Fantasy IX
The Art of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
And Paul Kidby’s The Art of Discworld
I have a good list coming here! I forgot how wonderful Art/Concept books could be.
The Art of Epic — I had preordered this book, and had received this weeks before it was actually released! It was a beautiful book, because that beheld the sort of concepts I adore and end up staring at the pictures for long hours on end.
The Art of Bioshock Infinite — which I liked, save they didn’t show as much concept for the environment as I’d wished, but more of their characters. Still, the one thing I love about these books is the insight to the process of the story.
The Art of Guild Wars 2 — There is something about this art style that captures me to no end. While I’ve never played the games, this art has probably pulled me into the beautiful world much, much more effectively…
The Art of the Croods — this movie was filled with colour and spizazz! So is the book.
If there is an art book that should be out there and isn’t, it should be one based off of the movie “The Secret of Kells”. That movie was GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS!!!
I agree that there should be a “Secret of Kells” art book! I’ve seen bits and pieces of the concept art on places like Tumblr, and I’d love to own a book of it. It’s one of my favorite animated films, especially when it comes to style, so why can’t we have a book?! 😀
I’m sure these have been mentioned somewhere but: the ones I love that are in my ‘way too small but slowly growing collection” are –
Art of Mass Effect – the fact that this book covers all three games, and shows the process of the character design evolution from each game, as well as how the races where designed inspires me EVERYTIME 🙂
Art of The Legend of Korra
Again I love the world development, the fact that they describe the thinking processes
Art of Tangled. The Personality in this book!!
It’s really hard to pick but I think one of my favorites has to The Art of Brave. One of the reasons is because that was the first time I was exposed to Carter Goodrich’s work and it blew me away. Plus, it’s really encouraging to see the beautiful graphite work like Steve Pilcher’s in there because graphite is the medium I lean towards most.
So many great books! This is one of my favorites, so much variance in styles and approaches:
http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Animation-Studios-Archive-Series/dp/1423134206
I love looking back over ideas and development, it so interesting to see the deconstruction of these films and games. I’ll always love the Lord of the Rings art books, as they were the one that even introduced me to concept art, before that I had no idea it was even a thing!!
I don’t think the Hyrule Historia has been mentioned, its so interesting. It tracks the Zelda artwork going all the way back to the very early games. It’s a fantastic collection of different art styles and a lot of the pieces have descriptions of what was trying to be achieved and also some of the translated notes left on from the artists which make for interesting reading.
I’m currently waiting on The Assassins Creed; Black Flag Art Book. After getting a small one in the special edition, I was very taken with the style, caved had to buy more!! I’d recommend even if you don’t like the games searching and checking out some of the artwork. It was a wonderful painterly feel and it’s a masterclass in creating atmospheres using colours and shapes instead of tons of details. One day, hopefully I’ll be able to make stuff like that myself!!
I’ve got a large shelf full of lots of these books. I’m a big fan of the animation books. One that I pull down most frequently is
The Art of Hotel Transylvania
I LOVE the stylized character designs contributed by director Genndy Tartarovsky himself! Always inspirational to me. Such a fun concept for the movie besides. Other favorites of mine (which have mostly already been mentioned):
The Tarzan Chronicles (Glen Keane, I miss seeing your stuff), The Art of Wreck it Ralph (I love that they included their candy reference photos, they look so good!, and I love the pencil sketches of the characters by Jin Kim), Harry Potter Page To Screen (Holy Cow! That one really arcs my bookshelf down an inch what with the hundreds of pages included), all the Art of Lord of the Rings books with the beautiful Alan Lee and John Howe sketches and design explanations, The Art of Open Season (Lush with inspiration, stylization and whimsy), ) and The Prince of Egypt, A New Vision in Animation (one of my favorite movies and beautiful paintings (most with traditional media). It’s amazing to have museums worth of art in our reach. I remember when I was growing up in the early 90’s and I simply didn’t see many books like this. I’m grateful to live in this age where we can see the works of these modern-day masters in fairly affordable books as well as being able to connect with other amazing artists on their blogs. It’s awesome!
Tarzan and POE were both on this list at some point. But I moved them both to one of the other lists I’ll publish in the future…
The Art of Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of the most in-depth art books I’ve seen, especially in the case of stopmotion films. I love their inclusion of not only scripts but doodles by the director. The whole book shares an overall color scheme with the film, as well, which seemed really clever to me.
Yep. It’s absolutely amazing. I actually had a draft of this blog post with that book on it but then I realized it would be better fit for a different list. Stay tuned!
This is one of my favorites, but I had totally forgotten about it (since I don’t own it). Glad you mentioned it, though!
I definitely need the “Mulan” book, as it has been one of my favorite Disney films from an animation, musical, and symbolic perspective. And while I loved both “Robots” and “Surf’s Up,” I sometimes forget about their greatness in the midst of all the rest of film history! Great films those were!
I would love to know of the concept art books for “Rise of the Guardians,” “Horton Hears a Who!” (Bluesky, 2008), and “The Little Mermaid” if not “Frozen” or “Brave.”
Skilful Huntsman is a brilliant book. Would have to say the following as my list of go-to books:
The Art of Steamboy
The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle
Framed Ink
Hokusai Manga
…and definitely the Disney Archive Series!
All of these give so much inspiration and motivation to just keep drawing, and to find your own voice within the work.
Ok, just added Mulan to my to-buy-list with Frozen, Brave and How to train your Dragon.
Right now I’m in love with “The art of Rise of the Guardians”.
The Skillful Huntsman is a wonderful book, with a lot of diversity, covering a lot of ground when it comes to world building. Being a huge fan of Syd Mead, I have a lot of his publications and he is nothing short of awesome!
Other favourites in my collection are:
Alien Race: Visual Development of an Intergalactic Adventure
Any Art of Star Wars book – I have a soft spot for Ralph Mcquarrie but Ryan Church creates fabulous, very moody and cinematic illustrations
The art of Kung Fu Panda
The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island
The art of Tangled
Exodyssey: Visual Development of an Epic Adventure by Steambot Studios – These guys work pretty much 100% digital, great speed paintings
One of my favourite concept art books has to be The World of the Dark Crystal: The Collector’s Edition. Brian Froud brings a true sense of wonder to the world he created for Dark Crystal and this publication is truly amazing!
Great picks.
McQuarrie is the Jedi Master.
I considered that Dark Crystal book for this list but then I thought of a different list more appropriate for it. Stay tuned!
I always return to the Complete Prints of Yoshitaka Amano. I like it because it has almost no text, and it takes his work out of context, so you’re not stuck swooning over which game or book the prints were made for. It also includes serial illustrations from his personal projects. Even though it has no information to lend the reader about the industry he worked in, it takes a real concise look at how he approached color and theme.
I’m gonna list ones that aren’t about games/movies/animation and ar emore artist-oriented or instructional. Otherwise I’d be typing an answer all morning long!
Rough Draft:
Collected demos and vis dev exploration by Victoria Ying & Mike Yamada. I love their personal stuff with ECA and knowing that they teach (and I can’t afford class), this insightful stuff.
How to Draw – Drawing & Sketching Objects & Environments from Your Imagination:
Scott Robertson is someone I admire immensely. Not so much because my style and sensibilities line up with his but quite the opposite – he’s a master of constructed, voluminous, believable forms and this book describes in painstaking depth how he goes about designing with real space in mind. A great resource, especially if you’re looking to design characters/vehicles/environments in a way where it can be viewed from any angle and still be solid & believable.
ANY artbook from Brett Bean!
ANY artbook from Stephen Silver!
ANY artbook from Justin Rodriguez!
ANY artbook from Elsa Chang!
ANY artbook from Tuna Bora!
ANY artbook from Chris Sanders!
ANY artbook from Britney Lee!
ANY artbook from Sean Galloway!
Creating Characters with Personality:
Tom Bandcroft is not only a wonderful guy who’s very willing to give his time to mentoring and stewardship, I think this book was one of the first required readings I had for illustration classes. It’s a great way to consider character design and comes with a series of assignments built in.
Framed Ink:
Maybe not as inspirational for character design, this book is FANTASTIC for storyboarding/comics/film/illustration composition. It’s also helped me think ‘faster’ about how to lay out ideas.
Force – Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators:
Just got this one but at a glance it reminds me of Vilpu’s gesture drawing books. Which is a very good thing – lots of lively gesture drawings.
You know – I lied. I’mma list my favorite game/movie books too!
– Art of UP
– Art of Wall-E (esp. the storyboard sections)
– Art of Kung Fu Panda (still need the second book)
– Art of Bolt
– Art of The Croods
– Art of Brave
– Art of Finding Nemo
– Art of Ratatouille
– Monster Hunter Illustrations (books 1 & 2)
– Megaman Zero Complete Official Works
And what the hey – I’ve come this far, let’s talk inspiring comics!
– Jeff Smith’s Bone
– All of the Flight books
– Reed Gunther (a very animated comic that’s part western, part pulp comic, part comedy)
– Mouse Guard
– I Kill Giants
I’m sure I’m missing things too, but this is as good a starting point as any!
A great list Chris. Of all the books I own my favorite is the Marvel’s Avengers Art book. The color transfer is exceptional and it has a real focus on the concept artists which is rare.
John Howe has a pretty good Art Of. . . book that sits on my shelf The first Hobbit art book is actually pretty decent as well. Definitely holds more than I thought it would. The skillfull huntsman is definitely one of my all-time favorite books ever. Thanks for bringing to my attention the Robots and Mulan ones which I did not realize existed. Added to my list.
Have you looked at the Meet the Robinsons art book? I’ve been wondering if it’s any good.
I love the Disney Archive Series, primarily Design and Layout.
Also, Art of Finding Nemo (mostly because I love that film so much), Art of Wreck-It-Ralph, the old Art of The Lion King, and, not so much an animation “Art of” book, but the book “Jim Henson: The Works” follows Jim Henson’s creative career, including a ton of doodles and designs.
I’ve only just started working on gathering concept art books, but the first one I’ve started with is Oxide 2x Magna Carta The War of Genesis by Hyung Tae Kim. I’ll definitely check out the rest of the books listed in the post and comments! 🙂
I can’t get enough of the “Making-of” books…or the “Making of” programs that used to be on broadcast television, and now are extras on disc. I like to put those on and let them run while I work.
A few more books worth mentioning:
“The Crafting of Narnia” is full of design work and other beautiful stuff from Weta Workshop for the first two Narnia movies.
A very oldie but very goodie if you can find it: “The Art of Animation” by Bob Thomas, published in 1958. Lavish tome full of the inner workings of the Disney Studio when “Sleeping Beauty” was in production.
“The Art of Walt Disney” by Robert D. Fields, published in 1942. (This is completely different from the book of the same title by Christopher Finch, first published in 1974.) I was lucky enough to come across this book in my youth…it’s a detailed behind-the-scenes look at production of Disney’s then-current films, such as “Bambi” and “Fantasia.”
I also find that the Miyazaki/studio Ghibli art books are AMAZING. I specifically picked up “The art of From Up the Poppy Hill” and the composition, colors, and nature scenes are simply breathtaking. It’s very inspiring to get a breath of traditional media into the world of concept art. I am very satisfied with this book and I recommend it whole heartedly
Can’t believe no one has mentioned,
-The Art and Making of “Monster House”
It is absolutely amazing and so well crafted. It’s a piece of art in it’s own right and it’s worth buying solely for the book design. Not the best film but one of the best, “art of”, books I have ever bought, and I have many.