Book Review: Monster Hunter Illustrations

April 9, 2009 by Parka

Monster Hunter is an action role-playing game for the PlayStation 2. The game was developed and published by Capcom.

The two art books I have here are titled Monster Hunter Illustrations, one for color illustrations, the other for black and white sketches. The Japanese title is モンスターハンターイラストレーションズ (カプコンオフィシャルブックス).

Starting with the colored illustrations book, it contains the concept art for the monsters, characters, armour and weapons. All the art are drawn in detail with Japanese captions. Some monsters even have their bone structure drawn. There are over 100 of drawings for the monsters.

For character designs, there are 300 variations, different and same characters in different armour. It's just so fun looking at the armour and weapon designs. They are clearly created with the emphasis of using materials found in that world. It's amazing the different kind of weapons that can be created with dragon bones, and still look good.

Finally, there are also cartoons drawings, promotional marketing art and game screenshots.

The other book contains black and white sketches. They are mainly on monsters and characters but rougher in details. This book is also thinner.

This book is most highly recommended to Monster Hunter fans, video game and fantasy artists.

Be sure to check out モンスターハンターCGアートワークス (Monster Hunter CG Artworks) as well.

You can find this book on Amazon.co.jp and YesAsia US.

If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more books for review.

Here's amazon.co.jp shipping rates for your reference.

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