Book Review: The Art and Making of Kong: Skull Island

Submitted by  Teoh Yi Chie on  May 16, 2017 - 1:41 pm

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This is a decent artbook companion to the film. It's sort of like a mixed bag but thankfully mostly positive.

The actual title of the book is The Art and Making of Kong: Skull Island. Some places, like Amazon USA, list it as The Art of Kong: Skull Island and left out the 'making of'. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a large amount of text in the book.

This 176-page hardcover is huge. All the artworks included are reproduced huge as well, but unfortunately some of the original artworks aren't that high resolution so the reproduction is slightly blur, even if it's not pixelated.

The book features a good mixture of concept artworks and behind the scenes photography. It's mostly artworks so that's great. The not so great part is the quality of some pieces are very CGI looking with that paint-over-3D-model look. Sometimes the photo-bashing feels unnatural. As for good pieces, they look really beautiful with lots of details. The creature designs, especially those drawn in pencils, are nice. I like the environment art.

Also included are artworks for scenes not included. Those scene paintings are actually really good. They also include discarded creature concepts, like tigers with horns.

I enjoyed the film but the plot was too much of a cliche. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the production process, on most pages, there are lengthy writeup talking about the shoot and designs.

The artbook has a Jurassic Park sort of vibe because of Kong and the setting. Overall, like I mentioned earlier, it's a decent artbook with lots to see.

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This review copy is provided by book distributor Pansing. You can get the book from major bookstores in Singapore and Malaysia.

The Art of Kong: Skull Island is also available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy from the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn

Tags
king kong
art book reviews
titan books
movie art books
making of
pansing sponsored

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