Contest: What are your favourite art books from 2011?

Mine is easily Kim Jung-Gi's sketch collection. One of the best artbooks I ever purchased, and its massive. 600 + pages of gold.

My 3 favorite art books of 2011:
1. Amazing Everything - The Art of Scott C

Every time I look at this book I smile. Scott C's humorous paintings and simple style are instant joy harbingers. It's also a very nicely designed and printed book. Plus, I love the introduction he wrote - very inspiring.

2. Figure Drawing For All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis

So awesome to finally have a printed version of this book out, after staring at the PDF for years. A classic illustrator and a great teacher, this book is full of inspiring figure studies.

3. Spectrum 18

I am total geek for every issue of Spectrum. There's always so much art to dig in these books. And a great way to find new artists.

Thanks for your blog Parka. One of the best things in my RSS feed.

I would have to say my 3 favs are:

Drew Struzan: Oeuvre, I've seen his books (at the library) rented his DVD and well, besides the awesome art and composition, I love his personality. This is a soild book with great reproductions of just prue awesomeness! going to get a copy for my self (through links here, promise)

Overkill: Tomer Hanuka,
just reading that its over sized hard cover made it an instant buy. Loved the art for a while now and choice of colors.

Gorilla Artbook: rarely do anthologies entice me. even the Apple book deosn't keep my intrest like this one does.
___

Didnt know if these would count since they haven't been reviewed but:

Foo Midori's book of pictures: I was praying for an art book from this artist for about 10 years, and it was answered in this glorious large book. https://www.nattoli.net/entry/369/midori-foo-foo-midoris-book-of-pictur…

Xa colors by gueuzav: Its hard to get artist specific books that work in the MMO area (would love a panama man book) but luckly france just love making artbooks and its easy to get then some asian art books (espeically from korea). what can I say, I love colors
https://www.ankama-shop.com/en/h8-books/921-xa-colors

Here is my top 3:
1. The Bird King and Other Sketches. Shaun Tan's work is always unique and inspiring!
2. Everything Is Its Own Reward: An All Over Coffee Collection. Quiet, contemplative, and highly satisfying work.
3. Digital Painting Techniques Volume 3. Informative and useful (for artists/illustrators), plus it's full of great works.
Ashley Wood almost made it into the top 3, but he hasn't produced anything surpassing or on the level of Popbot in 2011 in my opinion, so there.

Good stuff, keep the blog going man!

1. The Art of Pixar - It's Pixar, Everybody knows it should be great.
2. The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2 - I agree that there's great art in this book, always been fascinated by the animal designs here. Very likeable environments too.
3. The Art of Puss in Boots - Just like The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2, This book has some great character designs. And a great movie too! Nice to see some behind-the-scene art of the movie.

Here are my favorite artbooks of 2011.

■Valkyria Chronicles: Design Archive-
This one is one i been waiting for a l~ong time, and udon finally releasing the book. After playing the game, i want to get to look at the art more closely. the cellshape style plus pencil lines effects for the game were amazing. Plus the artbook cover more than that. Looking forward to the 2nd and 3rd ver.

■Melange- This one came as surprise. i get it right after reading the review parka posted. Really love the style, and many cartoon ver of life drawing. The drawing clearly give personality to the character.

■The Art of Pixar- The Art of Pixar. The title says it all. As a big fan of Pixar, really love to see the storyboard arts, and them are in colors too. If you want to see Pixar's art page by page this is the book for you.

1. Drew Struzen: Oeuvre - One of those landmark books of the year in my opinion, and at an affordable price.

2. Halo: The Art of Building Worlds - Fan of Halo.

3. Rebus: James Jean - I like James Jean Covers for Fable, so it was a delight to see his more personal stuff.

Looking forward to another year new books, Hopes for some reprints.

1. Rebus by James Jean

James Jean has been one of my favorite artists for awhile now and I'd been looking forward to this book for awhile. lived up to and beyond my expectations.

2. Spectrum 18

Felt almost compulsory to put this in here, gets better every year.

3. Overkill by Tomer Hanuka

Love this guy's illustrations, I got this from a friend before ever hearing of him.

Thanks as always Parka.

1. The First in Line ( Mattias Adolfsson)

I love his illustrations. The detailed line work is amazing and they're
very inspirational and fun to look at.

2. The Bird King (Shaun Tan)

Amazing artwork, very original!

3. Amazing Everything: The Art of Scott C.

I especially enjoy his large, detailed works like the Zombie Fair!

Here goes my 3 picks...

1- The Art Of Kung Fu Panda 2
I loved the first movie, and loved the sequel too. Probably my favorite movie of the year.
The book is reeking with awesomeness in the form of tons of gorgeous art.
Baby Po is just so cuuuute!

2- The Ballad Of Rango
The biggest surprise of the year. The trailers for the movie did nothing for me and I'm not a Johnny Depp fan, but I went to see it anyway and was just blown away by how spectacular and weird it was! And the book is even better! Definitely the best animated movie character designs in a long time.

(sidenote: the binding for both books seems to be holding up fine for me so far, but I can indeed feel the 'weakness' you spoke of in your reviews and I'm being very careful anytime I look at them)

3- The Art of Alice: Madness Returns
Couldn't care less about the game but the art is just messed up creepshow insanity and I love it!

(I almost put The Art Of District 9 at #1 but then realized it came out late last December.
It thus ranks at 2 for 2010 just a notch above The Art of How To Train Your Dragon and below Aleksi Briclot: Worlds& Wonders.)

1 - Studio Ghibli Layout Designs:
A thick 422 page book filled with gorgeous layout drawings from all the Studio Ghibli short films and features, including 'From up on Poppy Hill'.

2 - White Cloud Worlds:
Fantastic art works from the artists and imagineers at New Zealands own WETA. A great showcase of talent.

3 - The Art of Epic Mickey:
An excellent mix of traditional Mickey Mouse with twisted concept art.
Hundreds of references to Disney history are crammed into the concepts, it's a lot of fun picking where the parts come from.

Here is my top 3:

1) The art of Cars 2
I'm a great fan of pixar and although I don't appreciated much the first cars I really have to say that the sequel is a fantastic movie considering both narration and concept art.
The artist studied very well all the characteristic of the countries that appeared on the movie, (italy, japan and england) rimodelling the visual features into a fantastic world of cars. This is what I really call creativity, pixar's artist are really genius.

2) Rebus James Jean
James Jean it's one of my favourite illustrators, his technique it's superb, and his compositions show his talent for visual art. Expressiveness, clarity of the sign, chromatic harmony, all this qualities are always found in all the books signed by this author. Both the content and the care for materials and book's design are of a masterful level.

3) the art of kung fu panda 2
I've talked very well about pixar, but I think that Dreamworks is doing great stuff. The Kung Fu panda series has nothing to envy to pixar from the graphical point of view. Perhaps has a different sense of humor, but always appreciated. The way of rapresenting an old tradional chinese with a touch of fantastic elements it's pure and reasoned fantasy, the characters are well characterized, and their movements are represented both physical and facial in so sublime way, in the book, as in all "the art of " series, can be found a lot of great inspiration, and is a great way to better understand the environment and many details otherwise lost, watching the movie only. Highly recommended (and I'm looking for the first one :P )

Here we go with my top 3 of the year:

• Ashley Wood's Art of Metal Gear Solid
  This rough style artwork is really awe-inspiring. There´s so much to look at, so much visual detail incorporated in totally loose lines.
  A unique mix of great comic, realistic and scifi work... a must have not only for fans of the series.
• Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Innovation
  A personal highlight for me. This book is a great overview of the work and style of the worlds most famous visual effects house and covers the entire history of ILM. It serves not only as a visual reference book, it´s also a good look behind the scenes with commentaries of the top members of the ILM crew. Plus, just looking at the pictures makes you want to check out the films again.
• Steampainting: Spark
  As a fan of Exodyssey (the first artbook of steambot studios) this was a no-brainer. It´s interesting to see the procress of how fast concept art and rough visualisation work can come together. Recommended for everyone who´s interested in getting ideas out as fast as possible.

Looking forward to a new year of parka-book-revies ;)

you are making me choose just 3? OK then:

1.Melange: because it's Dean Yeagle and i'v been waiting for a book of his work popping up in amazon for years. it's the ultimate pinup art book, and it's Dean Yeagle!

2.Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth: Alex Toth is the ultimate master of story telling
i'v seen the book it at my friends place, it opened my mind. this book gave me such great insight on the Toth work and story telling. and the work it self is beautiful. if i win this contest i by this book!

3. Portraits of the Prairie: The Land that Inspired Willa Cather: the second i saw the review i knew i had to have it. their is only one way to describe this book : BEAUTIFUL
definitely one of my favorite books

p.s for some reason my email isn't valid although i'v been folowing your site for allot of time
so the imposibility i win... my email is gadyariv@gmail.com

My 3 favorite art books this year:

1. Rebus since it has all of James Jean's illustrations in one book! I originally fell in love with his art style through Fables, but I love his modern work too which was worth every penny to purchase!

2. Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art because it contains the most well known artists' works that we might not be able to afford as a print, but able to keep in an art book~ It shows off a multitude of art styles and introduces me to some artists that I really should have been paying attention to a while ago.

3. The Art of Thor since it was one of my favorite movies of the summer and it's interesting to see all the concept art that put together such a good movie! All of the costumes were awesome too!

What about the Skyrim collector's artbook? You haven't reviewed that Parka, you previewed it, but no review.

1. Amazing Spider-Man by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane ( Omnibus Book ).
Because it's 856 pages of Todd McFarlane art. I dream to buy this book

2. Jeffrey Jones - A Life in Art.
An excellent art book

3. The Arthur Rackham Treasury: 86 Full-Color Illustrations.
I really like how Rachkham's art is somewhat creepy in some aspects, but also magical.

thx.

1) Art of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
- This book sits open next to me since the day i bought it. The care put into creating the world of skyrim is represented in fantastic detail. Showing 3d models, pencil sketches, and final renders. The book is crammed with content, most pages featuring 3 or more concepts.

2) Color and Light, by James Gurney
- Another book that stays close by. It's a handy guide that touches briefly on TONS of topics dealing with color and light(obviously!). The subjects are all briefly touched on but the writing is sharp and to the point, so you feel you are getting a wealth of knowledge from just a few pages.

3) Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey
- As a big fan of the movies, this book is such a pleasure! Not only does it touch the nerd interest by showing all the nitty-gritty of the production of the films, but it also is FULL of fantastic shots, concepts, and illustrations for all of the movies. Set designs, animatronics, creature designs, graphic design, etc... its got it all!

Hi Parka, another year, another 'what are your favourite art books'! (though I somehow missed 2010...)

Here's my list:

1) The First In Line
I like Mattias' funny drawings and watercolors. The fact that he's partially color-blinded makes his works even better in my opinion.

2) Kim Jung-Gi 2011 Sketch Collection
Massive sketchbook (most sketchbooks I have are around 48 pages, this one is almost 700!) with lots and lots of cool drawings and concepts.

3) Sex & Crime - The Book Cover Art of Benicio
Benicio has produced some very nice illustrations in Brazil and I really enjoy his pin-ups/Bond-style women (book can be found at https://referencepress.blogspot.com/ and https://www.brandstudiopress.com/).

Thanks once again for all the reviews and contests!
Cheers!

Hmmm My favorite for 2011 is...

1. The Art of Alice: Madness Returns
The game was okay but the art concept in this book makes me love the game. You can see the thought and process looking through this book, and the weird, creepy, and twisted art work makes it Awesome for it's price!
2. The Art of Pixar
Just thousands of color scripts in a single book. Who wouldn't love it?! I really love all the colors of they used for each movie and they even added the colors scripts of la luna!
3.The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2
The second art book of kung fu panda is up on par with the first book and I really love looking at the character designs and story boards. It was a great movies and this is a great art book :)

thank you for hosting this contest!

My 3 favourite books (and that i bought for this chrismass :D) are:

- Alive Character Design
I'm studying for being an illustrator, and I found this book very instructive.

-Tomer Hanuka's Overkill
Tomer Hanuka is one of my favourite illustrator ever. I love how it use a realistic drawing with a very imaginative color palete.

-Ken Niimura's ZERO
I love too Niimura's art, and i love this books because it shows the process he did in his illustrations, so it can be very useful for me.

(PS: I would buy Yuko Shimizu's book too, but I've no money at the moment xDD)

3 Artbook of my favourite:

The first ones is Rebus by James jean. Reading Rebus, you are not only find awesome artworks by James Jean, but somehow it feels like you were reading the mind of James Jean.

The second is Megaman Tribute. It's such a pleasure how you can find a wide variety in art style. Each artist has their own interpretation of Megaman, and through their style they tell us about megaman. What a great tribute book.

The third is The Art of Kungfu Panda 2. This artbook will show you how the animated movie: Kungfu Panda 2 is created. From concept drawings, sculpture, to the screen. You'll be entertained by beautiful images from start to end. Unfortunately, the binding is bad and some images comes in low-resolution.

My top 3 are:

#1: Halo: The Art of Building Worlds - After the disappointing Halo Encyclopedia that just showed captures of in-game models, it was refreshing to see developmental artwork for the Halo series. It was also nice to see developer commentary with the pieces.

#2: The Art of Alice: Madness Returns - I really enjoyed the twisted take on the classic fairy tale characters in this book. The design and presentation was top notch.

#3: Sucker Punch: The Art of the Film - While the movie was pretty mediocre, the artwork behind the movie was excellent. Highly recommend this one, especially now that there's stock available at reasonable prices.

Things on pre-order for next year:

#1: The Art of Mass Effect Universe

#2: The Art of Gears of War (from Ballistic!!!)

Here are my top 3 :

1 - The art of Pixar - Stunning book, not only highly inspirational but very usefull, it helped me a lot in the process of a short animation, specifically on the color layout and storyboards. Also, it's Pixar!

2- The Art of Tomer Hanuka - Amazing artist! Just simply gorgeous works, I simply love the way he uses colors, and line. His slightly macabre concepts give a twist of freshness that never fails to inspire me when doing illustration!

And finally but not least 3- Monster Hunter Illustrations - I had been waiting for the english version for quite some time and don't regret it, I'm not ashamed to admit that I play games mainly for the artists involved in it, and Monster Hunter series is no exception!

Wow, I´m excited to be in this competion for the first time :D

1. The first one has to be "Drew Struzan: Oeuvre" To have the works of this master in a one beautiful tome is really priceless..

2. "Overkill: The art of Tomer Hanuka". Delicious, disturbing and dreamy, I have loved Tomer Hanuka since I first saw him appear in Juxtapoz. His blend of bold colors, intricate drawing and intriguing subjects is a feast.

3. "Batman Hush Unwrapped Deluxe" was a mindblowing concept for anyone interested in looking at comics not only as a form of entertainment, but as a source for learning the art.
Jim Lee represents a golden era of comics reading for me and this book is front and center in my bookshelf.

The list could go on with titles like
Ashley Wood's Art of Metal Gear Solid
Femina and Fauna: The Art of Camilla d'Errico
Mélange by Dean Yeagle

But those top 3 where really outstanding.

Drew Struzan: Oeuvre. Finaly a comprenhensive book on Drew's work, with tons of beautiful images, and best of all it comes at a very affordable price.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth. It's great to finaly have a copy of this classic book in your hands, rather than having to read it from a pdf file on your computer. A must have for anyone serious about learing how to draw.

The Art of Pixar. If you want to learn about how to use color to describe a mood and tell a story, this is what you need. Usually in the "art of..." books only a few pages are dedicated to color scripts, with this book you will get plenty of material to learn from. And as this was not enough, along with the color scripts are included wonderful illustrations from Pixar's very talented artists.

1- The art of Alice Madness Returns
The concept art is fabulous! very creepy and beautiful at the same time.

2-Valkyria Chronicles: Design Archive
A complete book that covers all: characters, environment and props. A very good reference for artist.

3-Sucker Punch: the art of the film
The artworks are very nice, i prefer the part that show the environment, others characters like robot, zombie soldiers, etc. They are very lovely design.

1-The art of Kung Fu Panda 2
There is everything I possibly want to see in an artbook about the movie. Really Awesome.

2-The Ballad of Rango
Since I love the movie and also its design, I was really interested by this artbook.
It’s a pleasure to discover how everything was created, the characters, buildings…
It’s filled with lots of wonderful concept art.

3-Shigenori Soejima Artworks
Even if I only have the Japanese version (I can’t read the interview…) I choose it in the best 3 because I’m a fan of his character design work on video games.

Waiting to get Drew Struzan:oeuvre and Monster Hunter Illustrations in english.
Thanks for creating this blog!!

Excuse me for my errors, English is not my mother tongue.

1# Awful / Resilient: The Art of Alex Pardee
Because I love his art, his way to paint, the atmosphere and the characters he creates !

2# Gorilla Artbook
For the beautiful paintings. I have got several CFSL books and this is the one I prefer.

3# Alive Character Design: For Games, Animation and Film
A great book to learn how to create characters. Thank you Haitao Su !

First of all thanks for the contest and initiative :)
My choices:

#1 Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art: A Collection of the Most Inspiring Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Gaming Illustrators in the World
This one is an amazing compilation on Fantasy artist so it basically gives you a very good collection of the best of the best out there. I loved it.

#2 KOLONIE: the forgotten frontier
I loved the fact that they created a completely new world and made it so real. I mean the level of detail in some of the works of the book is simply amazing.

#3 ImagineFX Fantasy Creatures: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Digital Painting Techniques
Last but not least this great book showed me that art books can also have explanations and text to help understand better the work and how the artist came to make it. Extremely interesting.

My favourites:

1. Andrew Loomis - "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth" - Not really an artbook, but I'm very glad this essential book finally got reprinted. So much important information for artists, both new and experienced. I was lucky because I got the old version very cheap on ebay. Great resource.

2. Drew Struzan "Ouevre" - I have to admit (shamefully though) that I didn't really know who's a person behind all those classic posters until recently. Now I do and all the important works are sitting comfortably in one great book.

3. Various "Art of Alice: Madness Returns". While most artbooks I own are concentrated on characters and , ironically, I don't really dig the kind of emo/goth aestethics I really liked this book. Probably because I dig the creepy and the weird.

If I had to list books not mentioned on the blog:
1. Moebius "Transe Forme" - I got it when I was in France in January. Thick and heavy book which shows pieces from many moments in Moebius' career. I don't know if it's available on-line. It was linked with an exhibition in Paris and I could't find it on Amazon.fr. Maybe you can get it on e-bay?

2.Various "Magnitude 9" - Another book from the francophone market. It includes works of renown (like Andreas Martens) and unknown artists from all around the world. The theme is linked with Japan and the tragic events during the tsunami/earthquake. I think that some/all of the proceeds go to charity. Really beautiful book with great pieces throughout. https://cfsl.net/tsunami/ - some information and plenty of photos can be found here.

Ray Toh's Ideabook
One of the few books I instantly wanted to buy. It really stands out with the lack of layout and the sketches creates the feeling of unrefined ideas :)

The Art of Alice: Madness Returns
I have not play the game yet, and usually don't play games just for the graphics, but Madness Returns really looks sweet. The book captures the mood of, at least what the game is supposed to deliver.

Dofus 2.0 Frigost Art
Sketches next to ingame graphics.

1. My first choice would have to be: The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms and Beyond. As a huge animation fan, I owe it to myself to own at least one art book about Disney. This new and revised edition is a great way to start.

2. My second choice is: The Art of Puss in Boots. I was speechless while reading your review. This book is GORGEOUS. I saw the movie and I ended up loving it. I would love to own the book even more. The drawings are simply amazing and I love the fact that some storyboards are included.

3. I grew up with Harry Potter and I was very sad to see it end this year. It should come as no surprise that my third choice is: Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey. The name says it all. Major in depth footage of some of the most celebrated and iconic movies of our generation. SOLD :) Also, it helps that I am a huge fan :P

My Top 3:

1. The Art of Pixar. Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge Pixar fan. The computer I'm writing this on has a pixar skin covering the front. Every one of the color scripts in this book are so incredible. I love looking at the differences in these movies.

2.The Art of Cars 2. I loved the movie and this is such a great companion piece to it.

3. Sketchtravel. I am amazed by this project. It is incredible for me to see all the artists I look up to and admire in one book.

My favorites of 2011:

1. The Art of Alice: Madness Returns - I loved the game for its dark, disturbing atmosphere and plot. This art book perfectly matches the tone of the game with its morbid scenes and eerie motifs. I also liked that the art book is full of unused concept art, which sets it apart from some others I have that are just character renders/art that was used in the game.

2. The Art of Metal Gear Solid - Ashley Wood's art is fantastic and memorable due to how frantic and scribbled it can look while expertly incorporating pops of color to accentuate subjects. This book does the Metal Gear Solid series justice.

3. The Art of Epic Mickey - The creepy, dystopian concept art for Epic Mickey ended up being much more enjoyable than the final game for me. The art is beautifully detailed and perfectly captures the essence of a formerly idyllic Disney creation in ruin.

1. The dynamite art of Alex Ross- so powerful, and it's jam packed with artwork.
2. Drew Struzan- Oeuvre- again a huge collection, who hasn't seen or been influenced by something in this book. Pop culture at it's best.
3. Melange- Hard not to fall in love with beautiful women art even when they are cartoon-ized.

1. Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings. Essential
book on an essential artist. Required reading for everyone.

2. Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey.
Just because the incredible amount of care and love that went into
every aspect of this book.
3. Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Layout &
Background.
Stunning and inspiring book in a ditto series. How-to-create-other-
worlds that draw you inside!

My top 3
James Jean:Rebus
Thomas Ott - R.I.P. Best of 1985-2004
Yeagle, Dean - Melange

And a special one:
An Edmund Dulac Treasury :116 Color Illustrations

the only words that i want to say is ; amazing :]

I'm not very original in my top 3 picks, since you've already mentioned all of them in YOUR list. But here it goes:

1) Harry Potter Page to Screen. I've been waiting for a title like this one for a long time now, and after "Film Wizardry" came out I was disappointed and pretty much convinced that was the best they'd put out. But THEN they go ahead and make this gem of a book. I'm not quite sure if it's my no. 1 because I'm such a Harry Potter freak or because the book just totally rocks - but in any case, I'M LOVING IT.

2) The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2. I missed the first "Art of Kung Fun Panda", so when the artbook for the second movie came out, I knew I had to at least get this one. It's my no. 2 for Nico Marlet's character design and a load of awesome background paintings - these are the things that make the book so freaking awesome :)

3) The Art of Alice: Madness Returns. I was a fan of the first game a long time ago, so I had high hopes for the new one. Then the game came out and I realized it's so much better than the first - or at least, so much better FOR ME. The "story" is style, the "psychology" is my style, the art style inside the game is my style... I LOVE this game. However, even though there a few very nice pieces within the pages of the artbook, it only gets spot no. 3 because there's a number of drawings / paintings I'm not fond of. A few of the concept art pieces seem unfinished. However, because I love the game so much, and because of the images that I feel really ARE valuable - and for the commentary of course - this book needs to come up in this list.

And that's it. My top 3 of 2011 :D. I still haven't purchased The Art of Puss in Boots yet, but I hope to get it by New Year's. I have skimmed through it though, and if there was place for a runner-up, "Puss in Boots" would be my no. 4 :)

Here goes another not so original selection:

1. The Art of Pixar
What can I say about this one? It's not just the -almost- complete collection of colorscripts, but a chance to discover how Pixar movies are done. Not just by selecting the correct color scheme, but also the style that inspires each of their films. Not to mention the chance to get some of Dominique Louis art.

2. Alive Character Design: For Game, Animation and Film
To me it's hard to find books that cover a wide range of the process that involve character designing. The book provides lots of styles to inspire from, and they all come from some of the greatest characters designer I've ever heard of.

3. The Art of Kung Fu Panda
As it's predecessor, Kung Fu Panda 2 is an amazing compilation. I love the fact that it is so complete: it includes character design (by Nicolas Marlet!), backgrounds, colorscripts, storyboards, renders. Even the commentaries are interesting to read! A "must have".

1. Rebus
Amazing collection of a lot of James Jean's work, everything is very vivid and unique.

2 Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey
Pretty much grey up with Harry Potter, seeing all the behind the scenes of the movies is just great.

3. Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
A classic! The tone is very encouraging, instructions are very informative and I continuously look back to this book for reference

My favourites books of the year

Rome Sketchbook: This book is an inspiration, I hope to travel to Rome in 2012 and being me an artist, this artbook is a tremendous reference to try to make myself my own travel sketchbook. I love the edition, layout and design of the book,
the illustrations are very detailed and have dynamics sketches

Ashley Wood's art: A perfect blend of a great game and a great artist, I love
treatment designs and visual images that generate Wood, besides, the edition allows view images in a perfect size to study, analyze and appreciate.

Covers Fable: The Art of James Jean Vol 1: James Jean is great, has a great imagination and each picture is a symphony performing the composition, it is fascinating to see the details and visual tours achieved in these works, the book also has the processes as makes it even better for those who are artists.

In the xmas contest of the last year, I not won with my "kung fu santa", I hope to be the winner of this year!!

Greetings to All

P.D. It's everything ok whit this to enter to the contest? :D

My top 3 books for 2011 are:

1. Batman: Hush Unwrapped
I am a big Jim Lee fan as well as a big Batman fan. This book was great because it really opened up my eyes to just how great an artist Jim is...his art is extraordinary and Batman: Hush Unwrapped was a fun way to showcase his talent for it's awesomeness.
2. Harry Potter: Page to Screen
I read the books, watched all the movies, and so it only seemed natural for me to pick this book up...mind you it was as a gift for my girlfriend...but secretly it was gift for me as well! The book really brings to life how fantastic the movies were adapted and makes me want to re-watch them all over again.
3. Crazy 4 Cult: Cult Movie Art
I love movies, and I love art. This book is a match made in heaven. I truly believe that today's scene belongs to the illustrators, and this book really shows off how great movies benefit from illustrators re-interpretations.

Thanks for letting me share my favorites!

hey how did you get it and how much it cost you

Unfortunately, I can only nominate what I managed to buy. I'm sure there might be another book or two that would top this list, but I'm limited to what I know.

1. Figure Drawing for All it's Worth:
I own a lot of how to draw books, but never could find a copy of this often mentioned book. Finally in hand, I can understand the hype. Some of what's here I've seen mentioned in other how to draw books and articles, this book is where those lessons originated. This is essential for Comic and Manga artists.

2. Spectrum 18:
I've been collecting the Spectrum books since Spectrum 2 and they never disappoint. A nice variety of fantastic art that I would have never seen if it wasn't for this series.

3. Exotique 7:
I've only recently this year started buying this series and regretted not collecting these books earlier. Wonderfully printed, taking up as much of the page as possible, smartly themed arrangements, and premium designed secure packaging.

Thanks for the contest and a special thanks for all the reviews you've done, without your video book samplings buying art books online would be too much of a gamble.

My 3 favorite artbooks for 2011: (Do we have to actually own it?)

1.Kim Jung Gi 2011 Sketchbook
Simply breathtaking artworks, the pencils are alive and none of his works are boring. They vary in angles, the characters have personalities of their own. His work simply becomes my number 1 most wanted book. There's so much that can be learned from his pencils.

2.Harry Potter pages to Scenes
I'm putting this one since it's a great reference source. It's got medieval theme, sorcery, fantasy, and beasts! I suppose the same can be had with any movie artbooks, but Harry Potter wins since it literally collects all 7 movies's references.

-Both books unfortunately are so costly in shipping, I;m just putting it as my wishlist-

3.Light for Visual Artists: Understanding & Using Light in Art & Design
One of the best book I ever bought. Really informative, in short a must have for inspiring artist...

My Fav. art books in 2011, not in order:

The Art of Pixar
Of course, as a animation fan and student, I'll be lying if I say, with open eyes, this is not my among top favourite. Filled with sketches, pre-finalized designs and more sketches, this book is definitely a big treasure trove for any animation and/or Pixar fans.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings
This is the greatest and most awesome-est book ever publish, showcasing the great Master's work all in one big book.

The Art of Alice: Madness Returns
As a fan of the original illustrations of the book AND the Disney's adaptation, Alice: Madeness Return is a turnover for the "Alice" universe. Dark, gritty, and more mad than the Mad-Hatter, this book definitely a keeper!

My top 3 favorite art books of 2011 would have to be:

1. Spectrum 18
Each year, Spectrum manages to introduce the world to a great batch of fantasy artists from all over the world and with 18, they did just that and more, Being an aspiring artist, I never grow tired of my Spectrum art books.

2. D' artiste: Character Design
This book blew my mind, not only did it include wonderful pieces of art, there were also interviews from top artists, along with tutorials covering one of their pieces, and for an added bonus, each top artist would briefly discuss other artist's artwork. I've learned quite a lot from this art book.

3. Digital Art Masters: Volume 6
Even though I have a subscription to 2D artist, which is where some of the tutorials came from, it is nice to have some of the top tutorials compiles into one book.

The Dynamite Art of Alex Ross: Its really awesome to see those cartoons/comics characters of your childhood become a powerfull almost real life characters by the hand of the best at it.

Drew Struzan: Oeuvre: I "discovered" Struzan recently, but I have to admit that I love his work, every piece you see its related to a popular character and/or film, and when somebody works only with the best its because himself its one of the best in the industry

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth: Its the guy everybody quotes, the book everybody recommends, and its printed!!! finally someone decided to reprint one of the best instructional books there is. It is just amazing, the drawings, the tips and the way it is written is lovely, definitively the best instructional

1. Drew Struzan: Oeuvre
Amazing

2. Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
Classic

3. Rebus: James Jean
Inspiring