Contest: What are your favourite art books from 2012?

2012 was a really great year for art books. In no particular order my top three are:

The Art of Journey: I have not played this game but the art is just so visually stunning that it doesn't matter to me. The shapes of the various characters are gorgeous and I love all of the scenery included.

The Art of Wreck-It Ralph: I loved this movie and the book is a perfect companion piece. I absolutely adored the Sugar Rush section. All of the candy reminded me of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book which I love. The character designs and developments in this were great to look at as well.

A Disney Sketchbook: I love looking at sketches. They're often a favorite of mine when browsing through art books. Sketches always have so much life to me and they've really helped me become a better artist by following a master's sketches.I'm also a big Disney fan so this is a no brainer for a favorite.

The Art of Rise of the Guardians,Pictoplasma - The Character Compendium and The Art of Wreck-It Ralph is my favorite art books because all of these books had recall my childhood memory which just moving forward even with obstacles.

My favorite art books of 2012 are
-The art of journey -the best artbook i got this year, the art are wonderful to go with the game, and also the use of AR to show off the model is unique.

-Asura Wrath Official complete works- Being the fan of the game and really liked the design and feel and just have to get the book and it did not dissappoint many character arts are cover in the book.

-FInal fantasy type zero official complete works- Its the first artbook i got this year, and i really like it, huge fan of Nomura's illustrations.

The Art of Darksiders II :Because Vigil Games has and amazing creative team , along whit the legend Joe Madureia , Marvel vs Capcom : Oficcial complete Artworks , This Book have , a lot of different illustrations and most of them have and amazing technique and style and finally The Art of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron , it has amazing illustrations whit the coolest transformers concepts

Top 3:

Journey - The game is a masterpiece and the art book perfectly reflects that. In addition, the AR feature is a really great idea to feature better representations of 3D models.

The Art of Brave - The movie wasn't the best, but it had great art direction; and the art of book was one of the better Pixar books I've seen.

A Disney Sketchbook - I was able to take a look at this one at a convention and the print quality is so amazing, almost as good as the original drawing (you can see all the eraser marks and original textures!)

My top 3 choices:

The Art of Marvel's The Avengers-
It's a great read with tons of art from character design, weapons, and background locations. I really enjoy the slipcase, which makes a great display in my library. It just felt a little rushed going through all the characters and since I have some of the art books of previous Marvel movies, it also felt a little repetitive.

The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy-
I would never expect to learn so much about the films from this book as well as experience some amazing concept art at the same time. It really makes the experience of watching the movies even more special. I hope to get the blu-ray of the trilogy to re-watch it on my big screen TV.

Inside HBO's: Game of Thrones-
I haven't gotten a chance to read through it yet, but from what I've seen it appears to have a good in depth look into the characters, houses, and locations. I enjoy the cover as its raised and feels real nice.

1. Foundation 1: the best artbook in 2012 for me, me and my friends are fans of Feng Zhu, he has been an inspiration for us till we know him. I also admire the students of FZD school, so many talented. Has been followed FZD School channel on YouTube and didn't missed any Episode :)

2.The Art of Assassin's Creed III: My favorite game series, the game itself is like a dynamic history book, it content many informations and knowledge. What I like most is costume design of this series, amazing.

3. Pixiv Almanac Vol.1: yes, I have a wide range of taste for art :P beutiful artbook, lots of contents, many talented artists, very good to use as a library, it worth being one of my favorite artbook in 2012.

Keep blogging and reviewing.
We'll look forward and keep supporting you :D

@All: Merry Christmas guys, have a nice holidays :)

2012 Was actually quite surprising in the animation and movies department, we had Brave, the legend of korra, Rise of the Guardians, (wich is something I'm quite looking forward to see an artbook from), Cloud Atlas, The Hobbit, quite a year for the arts indeed!
Anyways my favorite artbooks were undoubtly "The art of Brave", "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art & Design" and "The art of Paranorman", all absolutely terrific, they contain not only stunning concept art and a lot of eyecandy, but great insightfull information about how the movies were made. I especially loved Paranorman, it's a shame it didn't do well in the box office, the quality and ammount of effort put behind it just leaves me in awe and warms my heart.

Differently The Art of Mass Effect Universe and The art of Journey were and are my favorite books so far.
Not only that they have awesome art ,but seeing the sketch and the concept process is somehow so satisfying.
Every page is filled with ideas and stuff you wouldn't even expect to see in the games.
The artists of both books outdid themselves.
Sketches,Designs,Concepts and full illustrations what else would an art book lover want!

My top three art books for 2012 would be:

-Marvel vs Capcom : Official Complete Works.
I love Marvel comics and Capcom games so this book is a wonderful treasury of beautiful art and a nostalgic look at some games I played growing up (and still play on occasion).

-Nuthin But Mech
I love anything mech in general and this is by far the best book this year on the subject.

-The Art of Marvel's The Avengers
I loved the movie so much and wanted a piece of it so this book was perfect. Rather than watch the movie and pause to stare at the beautiful costumes, tech, aliens, etc. I now get to do that in this book and learn about all the other designs they didn't go with (still beautiful).

The Art of The Secret World of Arriety was pretty cool, as I think most Studio Ghibli artbooks are apt to be. I love seeing character sketches and stuff, and it was also great that they included the script.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 World Artworks -- Udon really seems to hit out of the park with their artbooks. The one for the original Valkyria Chronicles was nothing short of fantastic, and the second one didn't disappoint. Even though we haven't gotten it localized, I look forward to the book for VC3.

The Art of Assassin's Creed 3 -- Even though I was disappointed with how the Assassin's Creed 3 turned out as a game, I've always thought the Assassin's Creed franchise had very strong art direction, and this didn't change with AC3.

My 3 favorite art books of 2012 are
1.Spectrum 19: I get excited about and look forward to this book every year. I think no other book series is as jam packed with such a high caliber of artwork for such an affordable price.

2.The art of Carbon Grey:I love the art style of Hoang Nguyen. I think this book takes some of the best work from the comic and lets you see it in black and white pencil. As an artists I prefer to see work in black and white than in color. Love this book!!

3.Journey: !0 minutes into playing the game I began to think how amazing an art book would be. When I found out they were making one I was ecstatic! Such a pretty game with beautiful artwork! A must own!

My favorites:
1. Pixiv Almanac Volume 1 : Some Japanese character illustrations by a lot of talented artist will inspire me.
2. The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty: Who not like Studio Ghibli? I like their sketches...
3. DISGAEArt!!! Disgaea Official Illustration Collection : I like it because all four Disgaea games illustrations in one book!

My favorite books this year would be:

The Art Of Brave: I loved the movie, and this is definitely the best 'art of' book Pixar has done, so much concept designs and sketches, looks amazing!

Soul Calibur - New Legends Of Project Soul: I'm not much of a gamer but I love the Soul Calibur franchise (although not owning any console I haven't even played this one) and this book is filled with great art, I don't even mind not being able to read any of the Japanese text haha.

The Art of Mass Effect Universe: again, not a gamer, never played any of the Mass Effect games, but the sheer amount of incredible art in here is just killer.

my three favourite book 2012 are: EXPOSE 10: The Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe, The Art of Assassin's Creed III and The Art of Journey! Why? Because I am 3D artist, and these book were really exciting! I enjoy this blog so much! Keep up the good work! Bernhard

The 1st book is a no-brainer for me, because it is the 1st book coming from a great concept designer that I totally admire and respect for he's work ethic and talent, the book is Foundation 1: FZD Art of Book from Feng Zhu. Unfortunately the cost of shipping to my country is almost 3 times the book's price so I'm waiting for it to be available on Amazon or Book Depository.

For the last 2 books it was a little bit tough, since I'm a video gamer tester, I had to choose from the games related books :)
So after an internal debate I chose the last two: The Art of Mass Effect Universe and The Art of Halo 4.

I'm not a fan of the Mass Effect games, but the ME Universe is so rich and there are so many beautiful designs that made me instantly love this book.

Did not played any of the Halo games, but I can't deny that the concept art from all the games is top notch and the book for the 4th game only, standing at an incredible 192 pages (more than the whole ME Universe book) is a visual delight.

I have to mention the Art of Journey book here, because the art direction of this games is amazing, the designs are not that complex like say Gears of War's but in a world full of guns and mechs, this little game is a mental and visual refresher. I love the color palettes, the story and the book.

The final standing:

1. Foundation 1: FZD Art of Book.
2. The Art of Mass Effect Universe.
3. The Art of Halo 4.

Honorable mention: The Art of Journey.

Thank you for the great work you are doing Parka and Happy Holidays to everyone!

My favorite for 2012 is GENGA from Otomo, simply the best thing I ever buy. Well also I would like to mention the Kim-Jung Gi books.

Art of Paranorman was the only one I read this year. Great insight into their process.

Art of Paranorman was the only one I read this year. Great insight into their process.

My Top 3 of favourite books are:

"The Art and making of Hotel Transylvania":
I specially enjoy the character design the made, even if the movie was a bit silly. I really like it because they give the chance to a lot of comic artists and illustrators than doesn't use to work for cinema, and that's fresh blood created really original ideas.

"The Art and making of Paranorman"
Cool book! The illustrations are great, but I really enjoyed the part of how they builded the settings and props.

"Ray Harryhausen's Fantasy Scrapbook"
Harryhausen was a genius and this book is full with his greatness. I admire how he looked for original solutions with a very basic technology.

Hi, my favourite art books from 2012 are:

The Art of Rise of the Guardians. I really liked the movie and the redesigning of these popular characters, my favourite ones are Sandman and the Teeth Fairy (even if they are not characters from my childhood, because here in Spain we have El Ratoncito Pérez (Pérez Mouse).

The Art of Wreck-It Ralph. I discovered that Ralph looked like a gorilla more than like a person, at the beginning. And the karts, I love the karts.

The Making of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. I like the way they show you how they did the dolls. And the huge miniatures of the city.

My favourite art books this year are:

Art of Brave: Pixars books, like their films are always great. The art of Brave had brilliant concept art. The book really shows how much work they put into the environment. 160 pages filled with great artwork.

A Disney SketchBook: The quality of the paper and the amazing drawings chronicling the history of Disney films made this one of my favourite Art books this year.
A reviewed it here:
https://www.parkablogs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=639

The art and making of Hotel Transylvania: This is a great book. There is so many great character designs. The drawings / designs /renders themselves really capture their personalities. The book also has a very good section on props and backgrounds etc. but is very much more focused on the characters which for me was great.

My Top 3 Choices of 2012 Artbooks are:

//Foundation 1: FZD Art of Book -- I've been following FZD blogs posted in youtube and I thought that could help me develop more of my art through watching the videos. Pretty amazed I was, learning that Feng Zhu now has a collection of concepts that I love to see and keep me inspired at all times.

//The Art of Gears of War 3 -- Haven't played the game, but as an art hobbyist myself, I find this book outstanding. And by the looks of it, pretty much you'll end up with a lot of inspiration to create your own characters simply by looking at those detailed artworks.

//The Art of Rise of the Guardians -- Such an awesome concepts and fantastic use of colors in the characters are the main strong points of this book. Seeing a different art style than the usual sci-fi's is definately worth to look at.

The Art of Rise of the Guardians:
I love to see the development of these amazing characters.

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA:
It´s Tartackovsky art, man! How could I said no? ^_^

The Art of Wreck-It Ralph:
Simple one of the best 3D films Disney had made in this years. Great characters, great idea, and very entertaining.

My favorite book is the The Art of Mass Effect Universe. These artists did an amazing job. Especially the environmental designs are exceptionally well done. Character and vessel designs are also great. Sorry that I can't vote on the two other books.

1. Foundation 1: FZD Art of Book - I've been following Feng Zhu's works for many years now and still find something new for myself in his works.

2. The Art of Darksiders II - I'm the fan of this great game series and comic style is my favorite.

3. The Art of Journey - Journey was a discovery for me. My second favorite game after Uncharted 2 :)

No.1: The Dark Knight Manual: Tools, Weapons, Vehicles and Documents from the Batcave - Initially I thought this would just be another book targeted for fan with lots of movie stills and made up tech info on the gadgets. It turns out to have more concept art, descriptions and even detailed technical sheets for the suit and tumbler, as compared to any other "art of" books for Nolan's dark knight francise. Definitely my favorite book of 2012.

No.2: The Art of Marvel's The Avengers - I have very strong passion for comic books superheroes and movie concept arts. This book is the ultimate combination of both, for not just one but a whole team of superheroes, packed with tons of concept arts and information. Definitely the icing on the cake for all the other "art of marvels" books.

No.3: The Art of Darksiders II - 2 words, Joe Madureira, nuff said.

*The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Art & Design - Love Alan Lee and John Howe's artwork. Gorgeous character & environment designs.Love every inch of the book.

*The Art of WOW: Mists of Pandaria - Very nice and textured cover. Love the detailed artworks on the backgrounds. Very inspiring artworks.

*The Art of Darksiders II - one word JOEMAD! I love his art style of drawing. Awesome game and artbook.

• Marvel vs Capcom: Official Complete Works
  --Big fan of the games, so I really enjoyed the artwork for the various characters, which is easy to miss when playing the actual games.
• DISGAEArt!!! Disgaea Official Illustration Collection
  --If you liked the games, you'll love this artbook.
• The Art of the Mass Effect Universe
  --Lots of good artwork on the ME universe, especially liked the characters sections. Paper quality very nice, as well.

My favorite books from 2012 have to be:
-Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 - I never really got into the games, but I follow several of the artists who worked on this game. All it took was one thumb through the book and I was sold. It's a really fantastic book, in my opinion!
-Transformers: The Art of Fall of Cybertron - From the awesome vistas of Cybertron to the techy paintings of the Transformers, I couldn't get enough of it.
-The Art of Wreck-It Ralph- This book is so unique in that it spans both nastalgic and modoern video games and covers a wide subject matter of different environments and characters. It's pretty awesome.

The Art of Journey is as beautiful as the game. Also, a friend of mine got into the fan art section, so it was a plus for me :).

Mattias Unfiltered: I have Mattias' First In Line book and can't get enough of his art.

La Luna (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423137663). Enrico Casarosa illustrations are superb.

My three favorite books of 2012:
1. The Art of Urban Sketching - I like it because it makes me feel connected with all human beings around the world.
2. Comics Sketchbooks: The private worlds of todays most creative talents - I enjoy all sketchbook type books and Heller did a fantastic job with this one.
3. A Kiss Before You Go - Danny Gregory story and art is moving and honest.

Most of all thank you for your blog. It is my favorite site on the web.

3.

My favorite books from 2012 are"
The Art of Journey: the game itself is a work of art, so naturally the book is really great
The Art of Brave: Pixar always make the best animation art books
Marvel VS Capcom: I always like the Capcom's art ,so it's just another good collection of art I like

my email is gadyariv@gmail.com

1. The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy - I love the insight it provides into one of my favorite film series. I just wish it included more concept art.

2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art & Design - I love Weta's work on Hobbit/LOTR, and this book shows why.

3. Buffy: The Making of a Slayer - I've watched the series, but don't know much behind-the-scenes info, so I'm looking forward to reading this.

My favorite art books this year (but not limited to)

The Art of DarkSiders II
Concepts, sketches, monsters, heroes, armors, weapons and 3D art Cant get any better than this. These series is unsurpassed!

The Art of Mass effect
2D and 3D images! Characters galore in scifi theme! who can ask for more?

The Art of Gears of War.
Bad ass monster and weapons concepts in 2D and 3D.

My Top 3 Best Artbooks of 2012 are

Top 3 - Mattias Adolfsson's Unfiltered.Details details details,his art is just amazing.You could always look back at his work and find something new that you missed the first time around.I love the amount of passion that goes in his works,his subject matter are unique and crazy which in turn makes it interesting.

Top 2-FZD Foundation-I'm a big FengZhu fan,He's a great instructor and I learnt alot from his YouTube vids.Now if only I have the $ I would be enrolling in his school..

TOP1-*drumroll* Art of Journey- I don't own a PS3 to enjoy the experience that is Journey..:( But from what I've seen its a Masterpiece,nuff said its Beautiful..

My favorite art books from 2012. There were so many great ones. I think Art books might be my favorite thing, ever.
Art of brave - I love characters personality that come through, as well as the use integration of Celtic design elements. Most of all, blown away by the atmosphere in some of the paintings.
Disney sketchbook - addicted to sketches, sketchbook blogs, Disney’s always expressive character style. At night I can sit in living room, dog on my foot flipping through this, examining each pencil curve and line.
The Art of Rise of the Guardians – I have not even seen the movie (yet), but fell in love with the character design in the book on its own merits. I picked up the book for the watercolor and did not put it down.
That is my top three, but many more that I found here. Thank you!

Persona 3: Official design works - Although I haven't even played this Persona, I still had to get the book. Persona art will always have a soft spot in my heart I guess. It's just that style I can't seem to grow out of.

The Art of Assassin's creed III - Needed to add it to my AC collection. Great art to compliment a great game. Need I say more.

The art of gears of war 3 - I have to admit I haven't bought this book yet because I'm having an internal battle with the price but GOW3 was one of my favourite games, and looking at the preview for it was like heaven. I defiantly love seeing some of the work that went into a game I love

#1 - THE ART OF JOURNEY. Simply astonishing art book & art direction to the the most amazing game / interactive work of art ever created (the only thing comparable is the Team ICO games & the Zelda saga). This is thatgamcompany's magnum opus, a true masterwork. I have no idea how they are going to outdo it. I absolutely love Matt Nava's simple line work. I've always preferred pencil sketches over completed pieces. My favorite art book of all time, & I have an extensive collection...
#2 - THE ART OF DARKSIDERS 2 - The first game & art book blew my mind. The 2nd brings it all to a whole new level. I love how they went more heavily fantasy & epic. This game has a hard to describe eerie beauty that is completely unique. Joe Mad! & the masters at Vigil Games are simply in a class of their own. Joe's departure truly saddens me... but I still have faith in the team's future endeavors, I can't wait! (Just no more screen-tearing please).
#3, 4, 5, & 6 - ASURA'S WRATH OFFICIAL COMPLETE WORKS. THE ART OF PROMETHEUS. ART OF THE MASS EFFECT UNIVERSE. ART OF ZONE OF THE ENDERS. Umm, lets just say all are perfect masterpieces...

Art of Journey - such a wonderful simplistic, yet powerful style and atmosphere. The AR feature is fascinating and I wonder why it has not been incorperated into more art books yet.

Art of Rise of the Guardians - The Dreamworks art books are always great, not much else to say. Another book filled with "art of" goodness from one of the best animation companies in the world, adding to the wonderful art books of Kung Fu Panda and HTTYD.

Art of Mass Effect Universe - the Mass Effect world is so beautifully planned and every creature, character and environment is designed with careful, unfailing dedication to the story they serve. And what a story. A shame, though, that the names of the artists behind the amazing artwork were not included.

My Top 3 Best Art books of 2012 are..

N0 1 - The Art of Rise of the Guardians.
Love the character design and the amazing persona of the santa. A great Concept, sketches, heroes that can save the world... vo ho...

N0 2 - "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
No words for the design and decor, its like coming on our way unexpectedly.

N0 3 - The Art of the Mass Effect Universe
Huge no. of great artwork. Loved the characters sections.

Hi everybody,

I just reviewed the list of publicated books in '12 and have to wonder, how many there where and how many I didn't struggled over while following this blog and own researches. So ... have to do some more orders from amazon during Christmas holidays.

my three choices:

1st: BLAST: Scott Robertson – I like design studio press and most of their books. This one is an outstanding compendium of Scott's work for scifi-spaceships, vessels, hovers and so on. The package of images is themed (like in the book drive) and well assorted to one topic.
As typically for S.R. the selection of pics is not just focused on the highress final pics or otherwise overfilled with unfinished sketches - it's a great mix of all, plus everything is in the high quality of S.R.'s painting style. Like to see more books of him and his projects.

2nd: Massive Black Volume 2 – the first one was great, the second one don't rank behind the "black one". They fit well in my collection of animating artbooks.
In this book I like the overwhelming quality of the pics. They show a mass of projects and each one with its best and most representative artworks. The variety of themes gives you a great overview of their studio work and how concept design can keep its high quality through changing topics. Working as a designer I know how difficult it can be not to work on ones beloved main-topic but to experience with different fields on customer demands. These guys do their job really good!

3rd: Foundation 1: FZD Art of Book. – a great book, a greater artist. It's only on my third's choice because, sadly, it's not easy available in europe. But the pics I've seen let me consider about an order. It’s a must on everybody’s list and maybe, if many of us like to order it via amazon, maybe one time it'll be there :D ... Sry, I can't say more about this book than: I won't it. If choosen from the contest, I'd definitely order this one!

bye and have a nice Christmas

Not in particular order, bought two of these during the summer 2012:

Tactics Ogre Art Works - Yoshida's illustrations are awe inspiring - the game sprites at the bottom are icing on the cake.

Valkyria Chronicles Design Archive - The game is awesome already and should be in every PS3 owners game library. The character, equipment, and word design is phenomenal from concept and it's art style translated into the game.

The Art of Mass Effect Universe - Very controversial series, but the various works and concept art of the game's alien races, environments, and armor designs, you'll know how much they dedicated in crafting the trilogy.

Honorable mentions:
Anything from Soejima (Persona) and Shinkawa's (Metal Gear/Konami) art books... Looking at their art will always make my mouth water.

hi!

My three favourite art books of 2012 are:

+1:Awakening: The Art of Halo 4
Halo series is awesome and there is no doubt about that. It's great, when you can track the whole concept and vision of that universe and see it evolve - and the best way to really get into it are concept arts created for each game. What you can see in this artbook are the most characteristic elements of the series: giant open spaces, diversity of vehicles and weapons and awesome character concepts. This and overall high quality of works makes this album one of the best in 2012.

+2:Nuthin but mech
Mechs are awesome! - this is what this album is all about. Lots of great mech concepts, highly detailed and deliciously fresh designs. And i think it's one of a kind mech themed artbook on the market :-)

+3:The Art of Assassin's Creed III
I haven't had a shot at Assassin's Creed III, but just by looking at the arts I am very determined to play it right away. The most characteristic works come from William Wu, whom I adore, very painting'ish and dirty. In my opinion, they are the trademark of the series, giving the game a very specific mood.

thanks and merry Christmas!

My top three, from what I've gotten a chance to look through:

- The Art and Making of ParaNorman - I pre-ordered it the day it appeared on Amazon, and I don't regret it one bit, it is an amazing artbook.

- The Art of Journey - Though I don't have it, I have seen the content and it's amazing. I don't have a PS3, so I've never had the chance to play the game myself, but it has such a calm beauty that is rarely seen in games.

- Sketchtravel - Technically I got the French edition last year, but since the English edition came out this year, I'm gonna list it. I love the range of all the artist featured, and the proceeds got to a good cause. I've had it signed by some the artists, and they're really great people!

Here are my top 3:

1. Mattias Unfiltered: The Sketchbook Art of Mattias Adolfsson
One of my favorite illustrators, funny, detailed drawings.

2. The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty
Beautiful concept art and character designs.

3. The Art of Urban Sketching
Wonderful sketches from around the world, very inspiring.

Thanks!

1: Inside Game of Thrones Collector's Edition- This is the best artbook in 2012! This box is INSANE, the cover of the book is beautiful with details in golden, full of images from the designer production and backstages. And this version contains a storyboards book with ALL storyboards of ALL episodes of season one and season two.

2: The Dark Knight Manual - This artbook is awesome for the people they love fac-similes, from the map of Gothan City to Joker cards, the artbook includes beautiful images from the concepts of the movie. This artbook it's essential to all Batman fans.

3: The Art of Journey - I don'.t have this, but I played the game. The art of this game it's beautiful, the architecture is inspired in the arabian culture mixed with some oriental things, creating a world full of a simple magic. Really impressive!

1) The Art of John Carter : Love this book probably because of the stand-out creature section, nice Zbrush model images as well as beautiful 2D work....although it's a shame it is so hard to pick up now at a decent price (I was was lucky to hunt down a copy)
2) Art of The Avengers : Another great book in the Marvel films series, great work all around about each section of the movie from characters to props etc. Also presented in a nice slipcase and also better paper stock.
3)Prometheus the art of the film : A great book in a nice format (at a good price on Amazon) which covers most aspects of the design of the film....would of liked to have seen more creature work by Neville Paige and Carlos huante in there though.

This is my favourites. No order in particular.

The Art of Wreck-It Ralph:
The work he has done with this Disney film is very interesting and I love the whole iconography between the world of animation and video games that have been made.

The Art of DarkSider II:
Madudeira always Madudeira and care has been put into the design of this game deserves to have this book on your shelf.

The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy:
No comments. Anyone who has enjoyed the Nolan trilogy, should have this book in his hands.

Hello world,
My three favorite art books of 2012 are the following(in no particular order):

The Art of Urban Sketching
This book had an immense impact on me; not only in my approach to art and studying art, but in my approach to life. I have an extreme tendency to hesitate with everything including sketching. This book inspired me to sketch without fear of commitment as well as to engage with the world around me more directly. I now try to find a new place in my city to sketch every day and I have learned more in the past few months that in the previous three years about the city where I live as well as about the many different sketching techniques shown in the book and online by fellow urban sketchers.

Character Mentor
This book has to be one of the most effective instructional books I have ever read on any subject. Perhaps this is because, similar to Tom Bancroft's previous book, Creating Characters with Personality--to which this is a follow-up--it has assignments that are meant to build on one another and unlike the previous book, this also shows attempts by 'apprentices', who were chosen from deviantArt, and suggestions for improvement by the author. I think this is as close as it gets to getting personalized feedback from a teacher.

The Art and Making of Paranorman
This book made my list because it shows, in depth, the innovative process in the creation of a masterfully-crafted film.

I have chosen these three books, because they have inspired me the most in my creative/artistic pursuits.

Daniel C.