Contest: What are your favourite art books from 2017?

My top three artbooks:

Art Of Overwatch
Seeing Arnold Tsang’s work is amazing. The development of the game from characters to the world.

Art of Persona 5
One of the best games of of 2017

Horizon Zero Dawn
Techno-dinosaurs

this year, i found it really difficult to choose three favourites. too many singularly terrific books came out! but, for what it’s worth, here are mine:

* the silver way (stephen silver) – it’s rare to find tutorial books that go appreciably beyond listing successive steps, but this is one. and not only does it have the right focus (communicating understanding instead of giving recipes), it is also big and full of quality stuff. despite its title, many of the principles apply far beyond drawing characters in ‘the silver way’, but hold true for drawing in general.

* the movie art of syd mead: visual futurist (syd mean & craig hodgetts) – this is a no-brainer. for how impossible it is to find designs not in some way influenced by him, syd mead’s work is way too elusive to get onto one’s shelf. sentury 2 aside, his books are expensive to begin with, and usually sell out quick, driving prices up even higher. this book is both a comprehensive overview over his film work, as well as a normal book price. the perfect remedy.

* norse myths. tales of odin, thor, and loki (kevin crossley-holland, illustrations by jeffrey alan love) – not an art book per se, but an illustrated retelling of norse myths. but those illustrations! jeffrey alan love’s work was published last year in his book ‘notes form the shadowed city’, collecting isolated images with cryptic notes. here, his stark illustrations often cross over into page layout with their big shape compositions, and some big black part of the illustration forcing a text column into white-on-black. as a free bonus, kevin crossley-howard is a real authority on norse myth. ;)

honourable mentions:
* art of horizon zero dawn (gorgeous design, beautiful art!)
* greg manchess’ above the timberline (long awaited!)

cheers parka, and thanks for your tireless work!

Persona 5 Official Setting Art Book

This is definitely my favorite game of the year. The artbook itself is amazing, with 500 pages worth of stylish Shigenori Soejima's illustration. Even though I can't read Japanese to understand the creative process behind such amazing work, the illustration itself tells a lot of story and was such a treat to the eye.

The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts

Zelda is my favorite Nintendo franchise. I own the previous artbook so this is a must have. It features so much illustrations of Zelda throughout the year, from the earliest Zelda game to Breath of the Wild. Though, there's not a lot of content for it in this book which I hope would be rectified if they release the book dedicated to it.

The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn

One of the most ambitious game this year. I love the juxtaposition of modern high tech machines in a lush and vibrant nature setting. The commentary behind the creative process was very interesting and it features lots of concept art and character design which was treat to the eye.

Cool contest!
Lead Poisoning: The Pencil Art of Geof Darrow
I love Geof Darrow’s comic art, he is so imaginative and talented. It’s cool to see all the detail he puts in his drawings and to see it at the pencil stage is awesome!

Sketching from the Imagination: Characters
3dtotal makes great art instruction books! I love to look through everything they produce! Great advice and great art!

The Art and Making of Alien: Covenant
The Aliens movies are so great the character and vehicle design are great. The book for this movie is a great look into the world of Aliens.

Learn to Paint in Watercolor with 50 Paintingsby Will Freeborn- I like the way this book has you do a painting for the subjects being taught. Rather than focusing on one type painting - landscape, floral, etc., you paint a wide variety of paintings and focus on technique rather than subject matter.
If You're Bored With WATERCOLOUR by Veronica Ballart Lilja. This book shows you how to break out of the mold of straight watercolor painting and into using it with other mediums and with unusual techniques. Right up my alley.
The Art of Brush Lettering: A Stroke-by-Stroke Course on the Meditative Art of Creating Letters. I like the information included in this book and the way it is presented. I also like the worksheets and guides that are included.

The Art of Harry Potter: It was the first fantasy franchise that I enjoyed and I loved the wide variety of the artwork in the book, from concept sketches to unreleased posters etc. Visually a stunning book and it incorporated a good mix of digital and traditional art

If you're bored with watercolour read this book: Taking Art as a school subject was both a blessing and a curse as I was restricted with how I could use my media. This book used cool techniques and I rediscovered my love for watercolour and why I chose art in the first place. Loved the collaging and mixed media approaches

Lego Batman: I loved seeing the characters being brought to life in a lego format and the concept designs and behind the scenes looks were so funny. There was so much thought put into the design and elements in the movie which were reflected on here

1 art of ghost in the shell. Look so terrific. Insight editions is thick, heavy. so satisfing to Keep and reading. Full of art and simple explanations for dumb people.
2 art of blade runner 2049: did you keep an eye to the landscapes.
3 Art of guardians of the galaxy 2. Full of concept. Explorations witn color. Yet one of the best of Marvel series as art of doctor strange second only to the art of the first movie.
P.S. Sorry for any grammar error. I’m not native English. Not even My intuitive corrector.

Good conquest!

1. Jamie Hewlett - Taschen • Wonderful book with a lot of information, also sketches and a lot of big illustration from Jamie. To mention two less good things: is too big and heavy that you will not able to read ad wc haha, the other is that I thing papople will like more sketches (never is sufficient)
2. Steven Universe: Art & Origins: Good book, full of info and characters from the cartoon, and some sketches of prior designs and pilot designs, I’m not a big fan of the series but really enjoy the characters designs.
3. The Art of Over the Garden Wall: A mist have book, full of art of each chapter of this woulderful wonderful cartoon, impresive backgrounds and sketches of prior designs. A must have book!

PS: Thansks a lot for your blog is one of the most enjoyable from my rss list!

My first favorite art book is The Silver Way by Stephen Silver.
Why?It taught me much more than my college lecturer who always just opens YouTube tutorials in class as his teaching method. Though there are many drawing techniques out there, this book provided me many simple and approachable methods which I can remember after many months of reading the book.

My second favorite art book is The Art of Coco by John Lasseter.
Why?One word, BEAUTIFUL.I believe anyone who comes across this art book could not resist to sacrifice their lunch money to put this art book at their book shelves.

My third favorite art book is The Art of The Boss Baby by Zahed Ramin.
Why?The design of the characters is clean and nice, especially the cute Triplets. Also, the light and mood of color scripts in the art book served as a guideline in our final year short film project because of the simplicity and storytelling. Overall, the arts in this art book are clean and simple but memorable.

Here are my three Favorite Art Books in 2017 . Thank you and keep producing these book reviews which serve as my reference before buying a book.

Top three from reviews (I only own one of them):
1. Dare to Sketch by Felix Scheinberger - I love artist's style, loose lines. There are also some interesting ideas in this book
2. All My Photographs Are Made With Pens by Tommy Kane - another great style from the artist. And details! so many details - would be fun to look at it. Also it's almost like looking through "Where is Waldo?" books :)
3. Learn to Paint in Watercolor with 50 Paintings by Will Freeborn - I like miniatures, so small paintings always interest me

New York Sketchbook by Jason Brooks :
Probably my most-wanted book from this selection. I've spent a couple of months in NYC but that was before I started to draw/sketch. This book contains a lot of nice drawings, with different styles. They remind me a lot of nice souvenirs, and I would love to go back to NY to sketch this wonderful city, Until then, reading this book should be perfect :)

Dare to Sketch: A Guide to Drawing on the Go by Felix Scheinberger
I'm pretty new at sketching, and I still feel clumsy especially when it's about sketching in a public place surrounded with people. Your review for this book gave me a good impression and it's on my wishlist !

The Spirit of the Brush: Chinese Brush Painting Techniques: Simplicity, Spirit, and Personal Journey
Well, I like to try different techniques : watercolor, pencil, ballpen, brush, ... I have to admit I find it a bit difficult for me to draw nicely with a brush, I think this book could provide me some good tips and make me improve !

Too bad "the Art of Atari" was on the 1026 list, I missed it ;)
Thanks Theo for your interesting blog and videos !

"The Art of Prey" - I loved the game and the book looks amazing.

And then the other two were "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets The Art of the Film" and "The Art of Ghost in the Shell". The movies for either weren't that good but the art was amazing and the books look even better.

The future is now: Neon Rising (Josan Gonzalez) - I just love the cyberpunk art and world presented in this book. Neon coloured graphics show futuristic city slums populated by cyborgs, hackers, mutants, robot-policemen and other scum. Some of Josan's art can be seen here: https://www.instagram.com/deathburger/

Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water: Creating a Fairy Tale for Troubled Times - what separates del Toro's films from the others is a keen sense of design and it's purpose in the narrative. And the latest is no different in that aspect.

Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor and Loki (by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love) - Not an artbook, but an illustrated story collection. I own 4 or 5 popular collections of norse myths and legends and this is the most gorgeous one. Many double page spreads with text and illustration well put together.

1. Art of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: This art book has everything I expect from an art book. There is an appropriate amount of character art, environment art and stunning colour story boards. They used 3d fractals and mathematical models for Ego's planet and home. That's how deep they went into the details.

2. The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049: This book focuses more on the environment set prieces and art, but damn, does it look gorgeous. It's a huge broad book with colourful images all over. The guys from Weta Workshop (District 9) actually built small scale structures for all the buildings in the movie like the LAPD headquarters. All practical effects!

3. The Lego Batman Movie: The making of the Movie: As a huge Lego fan and a die hard batman fan, I was expecting a lot from this book and it did not disappoint. The amount of work done to make the characters and their emotional variants was just amazing. The team responsible for The Lego Movie did their research right. The way they incorporated Batman's history of TV and film into the movie was so creative. Hat's off to them!

My Top Three Artbooks of 2017 are: The Art of Persona 5, MOMENTARY: The Art of Ilya Kuvshinov and Bloodborne Offical Artworks.

Persona 5's art style was bold, distinct, unique and gave a sense of rebelliousness (which was perfect for the story it told). Persona 5's art was able to capture the series subtly eerie roots while finally embracing it's shift into bombastic.The character designs were done by Shigenori Soejima which has been doing illustrations for the series since P3 and he continues to knock it out of the park with Persona 5. Also the game was really good.

Ilya Kuvshinov's art has always fascinated me, they are able to create paintings that feel alive without painting photo realistically. I've been a huge fan of their work for awhile and to be finally able to hold a physical collection of their pieces feel extremely satisfying.(That and I just like supporting Indie artists)

I always loved things with gothic vibes and bloodborne's themes and style resonated with me perfectly. The trick weapons had creative and interesting designs (especially when compared to the multitude of similar looking swords in the Souls series) Outfits were gorgeous and held a sense of regality contrasted by the horrifying and dreadful designs of the mobs. The concept art of the areas in the game also exemplifies the amount of work put in to create the beautiful atmosphere present in the game.

I also really liked NieR Automata's artbook which unfortunately was only released bundled with it's Black Box Edition.So I can't gush about that here :C

1.The Art of Overwatch - The art is just as lovable as the characters and the setting of the game.
2.The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn - The world building in this game is amazing and a book showcasing its art is just a delight.Who doesn't love mechanized dinosaurs?c'mon.
3.Alphonse Mucha book - I had to put this here for he is one of my alltime favorite artist.

With the risk of sounding weaboo...

1) A Sky Longing for Memories: The Art of Makoto Shinkai - I was late for the Your Name party, i know, but that was a movie that really starstrucked me. Later diving in his other works made realize how sad i was for not knowing him before. It's weird but the atmosphere he conceives in his artwork and movies are just so inspiring to me.

2) The Art of Persona 5 - What a stylish game. I mean, my first Shin Megami Tensei game was Persona 3, so his artwork has a very special place in my heart. His character designs are simple and yet very striking, which set the whole tone of the game.

3) The Art of Posuka Demizu - Started The Promised Neverland this year and i'm already hooked. Her art is just what i look for in fantasy and it really reminds from the first FF games i played in my childhood, it's very fresh in comparision with what we have in Shonen nowdays, almost innocent and yet there is a bite to it. Good to see she is receiving more attention thanks to her serialization on Jump!

Honorable mentions includes: Bloodborne, love the overall aesthetics; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets The Art of the Film, while it's nice to see comics from your childhood becoming movies, not gonna lie, i did not enjoyed it that much despite loving the visuals; The Art of Over the Garden Wall, because i loved the cartoon, just delightful.

My top three books for 2017 are...

The Silver Way - If you as an artist/cartoonist want to get into the creative process of character design then this is the book for you. Each page of this book is loaded with drawings by Stephen Silver the lead character designer of Kim Possible and Danny Phantom.

The Art of Coco - Disney/Pixar's Coco was a visualy pleasing and colorful film based on the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead that had a great sense of authenticity when it came to Mexican culture and traditions. You can't go wrong with this one since the book is jam packed with character designs, maquetes of the characters, storyboards, color layouts, and backgrounds.

The Art of Rick and Morty - The TV show is absolutely funny and the book is a wonderful look into the creative process of making the show. The imaginations of the artist of the show are definitely set in another wavelength. There were times where i spent some time looking at a drawing and wondering how in the heck they came up with such a weirdly offbeat character.

All three books are crammed full with amazing art and I highly recommend all of them.

My top 3 would be:

Art and Design - Final Fantasy XV - It is in a super wide format with art from both the movie and the game. The layout of the art is very creative and shows that the creators put a lot of time and effort into creating this book. A lot of cool art both concept art and final art in the game. Overall a great art book for any fan.

The Art of The Last Jedi - Just like the previous art books from the series, this is an in-depth look into the concept art and pre-production into making the movie. It is always so detailed in terms of how much art they cram in here and the text details that talks about behind the scenes. A must for any star wars fan.

The Art of Overwatch - Blizzard has some of the nicest art books and this one is amazing going into detail of every character in the game. It provides nice commentary and the game and the process and it is always a pleasure looking through the detail.

#3 Lead Poisoning: The Pencil Art of Geof Darrow
Geof is a master of his craft and you can spend hours looking at all the details in his drawings.
#2 Jamie Hewlett
He is mostly associated with Gorillaz but he is much more then just that, I'm glad that Gorillaz fans can now discover his other sides. Have you seen his pines drawings? You should definitely check them.
#1 Art of Over The Garden Wall
Hands down the best book of 2017, so many beautiful sketches and paintings and I had a lot of fun rewatching this series and reading this book right after that.

I am such an avid gamer, and I think it shows in my favourite art books this year!

1. Art Of Overwatch

Absolutely wonderful, not only visually but to see how character and concepts are developed and changed from idea to execution (and continue developing even right now!).

2. Bloodborne Official Artworks

Beautiful, haunting, macabre. I love being able to see how characters and bosses are fleshed out conceptually, which can be sometimes difficult to discern when playing in-game (especially when they are moving fast to kill you, haha.)

3. The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn

I love the blend of technology with natural concepts, especially the machines. I completely bought into the game and the game-world when I got hooked, and seeing how the artists and designers designed intelligently with the backstory and history of the world of HZD in mind was amazing.

1. Re-child by Zeen Chin, the art is fantastic by itself, I was lucky enough to meet him at an event and learn more about his inspirations and symbolism, and I'm really impressed. Nothing is random and it's extremely interesting. Fantastic book.

2. The art of Overwatch, because I'm a artist AND a fanboy so getting to see all those concept art and development images is great. The quality of the book is also great.

3. The Electric State - I absolutely love everything by Simon Stalenhag. He has an unique art and writing style and some fascinating ideas. The book came out days ago, looking forward to the review too, but for me it's amazing.

Also worth mentioning (how can you pick only 3?!):
Above the Timberline - fantastic oil paintings, this is one of the best example what a personal project can look like. Great stuff.
Blade runner 2049 - because Blade runner 2049. Stunning visuals.

1. Wonder Woman Art and Making

Great Movie and awesome set pieces. Wonderful images of the production process and the crew. The book to the movie ist the best since years.

2. The Art Of Horizon Zero Dawn

From the beginning to the last days of the year Horizon is the game with the best graphics and environment in the gaming year. The mecha dinos are one of the freshest ideas in the scene.

3.Art of Ghost in the Shell

The live-action movie from the anime was technical great, the realization of the story mediocre. When book looks great and had nice collection of backstage and behind the scene material.

Thx for all the reviews and content over the years.

Hi. This is my TOP favourite books of this year:

1. Pencil Art Workshop
I'm still learning how to use pencil.

2. Masters of Sketching
Amazing artworks.

3. 5-Minute Sketching -- Animals and Pets: Super-quick Techniques for Amazing Drawings
Never too much learning.

1. Zeen Chin - Re-Child: Love the format and the art and the different concepts. There is lots of details to be had and I also like the mixture of cute and somehow weird/threatening witch imagery. Unfortunately I was not lucky/fast enough to get a copy of my own, so I could only watch videos of it.

2. Gwent - Art of the Witcher Card Game. I just love all of the Witcher novels, games and artbooks, because it is so easy for me to get lost in that world. Part of its charme to me is that it is inspired a lot by slavic folklore instead the usual staples of fantasy often derived from Greek or Northern European mythology. This book has just spades of artwork for this world in great format.

3. Norse Myths, Tales of Odin, Thor and Loki. Speaking of Mythology, Kevin Crossley-Hollands classic about Norse Mythology got updated with illustrations of the wonderful Jeffrey Alan Love this year and it's amazing, if you are familiar with his earlier book "Notes from the Shadowed City" you should know what you are getting in terms of style.

1. Art of Valerian: Of the three big-budget space adventures this year (the others being GotG 2 and Star Wars) this had the most original and imaginative production design.

2. Art of AC: Origins: Another big beautiful art book that covers Ancient Egypt, Rome & Greece (three civs for the price of one!). This gets bonus points because they include the academic, realistic renderings of ancient cities next to the exaggerated, theatricized renderings typical of games and movies.

3. Art of Star Wars: Last Jedi: The new Star Wars art books reflect the creative power and funding behind the world's greatest entertainment franchise. Rogue One is my favorite among the new movies and art books, but Last Jedi's book still deserves a place in the top 3.

Honorable mention: 2017 was a big year for Sci-Fi adventure art books! I'm getting a little burned out and hoping for some less saturated genres in 2018 (i.e. Art Red Dead Redemption 2), but "Project 77" by the great Martin Deschambault deserves mention... it is too thin for its price tag, but the artwork is original and gorgeous.

I have to agree with Horizon Zero Dawn. Also Assassin's creed origins - the world is developed in such detail.

1.Overwatch . The backstories of the characters are just as fun as the game itself.

2 Coco The story is engaging from start to finish.

3. Assassin's Creeda popular game set in many interesting places.

The 9th year... WOW, still remember the first time I met your blog... since than I had to move to a new place (too many books Ho Ho Ho)
Kidding:-)
Anyhow, these are my favorite books for 2017-
1. The silver way. for me, it's the best guide book I've ever got. each tutorial is more than perfect. it's not silver, it's gold!
2. The Art of Posuka Demizu. I got into this artist "by mistake", and since than, fell inlove with him...
3. The legend of Zelda. such a wonderful art, and so many of it.

May the force be with.. all of us :-)

1. Zeen Chin - Re-Child
Sumptuous, colourful images, and one of my favourite artists, too. Very limited availability.

2. Bloodborne Official Artworks
The game achieves an atmosphere, a complete world, and this book shows how. Imagery is unlike anything else--with the obvious exception of Dark Souls, of course.

3. Art of Over the Garden Wall
My partner is an absolute fan of the animation series, and got me into it. There is a very cozy vibe to the world, perfect for the Christmas holidays and the art book captures that. We look at it together when comforting is needed. Makes great gifts, as well.

I loved these three the most:
1) Epilogue from Udon.
Man whenever Udon puts out a variety kind artbook you can bet it'll be great in terms of selection and quality and I wasn't let down! I'd hope Udon does a follow up book showcasing talent from another part of the world or something.

2) Art of Overwatch.
Never played the game but I was always drawn to the interesting and varied designs for the characters. Lo and behold a hefty lush artbook is released! What I find great to is the draft designs are like almost as good as the finalized designs it makes you kinda wish these unused designs were new characters.

3) The Art of Posuka Demizu
Just awe inspiring damn. How this guy can churn out beautiful art weekly for the manga they're illustrating and manage the lovely colour illustrations has me at a loss for words.

Hi,
It's hard to choose only 3 books, but here is my choice.
1) Art of Overwatch
The drawing of Arnold Tsang as well as the colors he uses are wonderful! I also like the environnements and mechas.
2) Art of assassin's creed
The book is filled with beautiful landscapes which make us travel to Egypt because the colors create amazing atmospheres. I love the work of Raphael Lacoste. Another highlight of the book are the detailed maps illustrations of Jean Claude Golvin.
3) Art of Coco
There is a lot of drawings and they are great.Pepita, the chimera animal is one of my favorite part of the book with all the sculpturs and colorful drawings (some are even psychedelic).

I wanted to thank you for all the work you do.

Awaking Beauty: The Art of Eyvind Earle: I love his style. I believe its lead wya to other great artist like Pascal Champion.

Project 77: I have always enjoyed the art of AC so when I saw one of the artist created a sci-fi world that began in his childhood I had to check it out.

The Movie Art of Syd Mead: I cant get enough of the blade runner world.

1. The Art of Magic: the Gathering: Zendikar

It is one of my lifelong dreams to one day become a card artist for Magic: The Gathering. It is one series where the art has always been so consistently amazing. Magic is one of the biggest reasons why I am a fantasy artist today.

2. Warcraft: Behind the Dark Portal

I am huge Warcraft fan and the movie was something I had been waiting for, for a long time. I was amazed by the craftsmanship that had been put into the making of the film and this book showcases all the hard work of the numerous artists involved with it.

3. Rust N' Bolts by Luis Esteves

Although I am mainly a fantasy artist, looking at the artwork on this book from the review reignited my passion for mech design, which was something I had lost touch with.

Hi there, here are my choices:

1) Art of Captain Underpants: the First Epic Movie
Erratic
Preposterous
Insane
Convulsing

2) Art of Coco
Delicate
Erudite
Aweaome
Drop-Dead... Awesome

3) Lead Poisoning: The Pencil Art of Geoff Darrow
Splendid
Intricate
Complex
Kick-Ass!

Hope I can still enter. In my time zone it's still the 31st for another 6 hours.

The Art of Overwatch: Never played the game, but the book is just packed with art. Incredible work in every category.

The Art of Over the Garden Wall: Fantastic look into an alternative fantasy world. Really great book if you are into character design. Variety of designs, yet all fit beautifully into one world.

The Art of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus: Great in all aspects. This one especially if you are into robots, mechs and a darker version of our world.

1. Los Logos 8 : Latest edition of the series is a great source of inspiration for any graphic designer.
2. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: The Art of the Movie : One of my favourite movies from the marvel universe and the book didn't disappoint either.
3. Art of Coco: Filled with wonderful artwork from the best Pixar artists

Hi. My favourite art book of 2017 are:
1. Gwent: The Art of the Witcher Card Game - Im big fan of witcher. I read every book, and play every game, from this beautiful universe
2. The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn - I just like awesome images here. Artworks and concept art more describe this unusual world
3. Botanical Sketchbooks - Multiple artworks and sketches of real plants, some of them hundreds years old + lots of interesting informations. This only one i own.

The art of Wolfenstein 2: I grew up playing the original game and love how they've created an industrial futuristic vibe for the new games

Robotech visual archive: Played an old school robotech rpg in high school and always thought the mechs were amazing.

Undisputed Street fighter: again, grew up playing the Street fighter games and have always loved the character art.

Modern calligraphy - hand lettering is so beautiful and it's fun to learn cool new techniques.

All my photographs are made with pens - this is a cute book. It's really impressive to see all the art he did.

National portrait gallery: 100 portraits - I've been to the portrait gallery before and was very impressed with all the paintings I display.

1.- Assassins Creed: Origin: Best landscapes and character design.

2.- The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Great Study of character, ambient, ships, vehicles and art concept in general.

3.- The Art of Horizon: A beautiful tour of the art for the game created, a magnificent guide of how art for games should be created.

4.- NECA Blade Runner 2049 Visual Art Book (Though no really an art book), it´s a very inside art book of how worlds are made for Sci-Fi movies.