Contest: What are your favourite art books from 2014?

My 3 favorite artbook of this year are
-The art of Naughty Dog
Such an amazing artbook covering different franchises and the history of the studio.

-The art of Wolfenstein
Really likes thw design within the book. The concept drawing and the 3d render. Really show alot detaiks that you might miss in the game.

-Art of Legend of Korra
Actually become an avatar fan after I read the artbook for the first one. The new book cover new characters and new design of existing one also brand new environment. Definitely a great artbook.

How to Render - Scott Robertson - The absolute go-to book for any issue to do with rendering the form. There doesn't seem to be a question that the authors haven't answered. Plus there are exercises and videos to help you practise!

Alien the Archive - amazing behind the scenes of one of the greatest sci-fi franchises. To have a book that contains art by Moebius, Chris Foss and H.R. Giger is just magic.

Art of Dreamworks Animation - a huge mix of styles showing all the different approaches Dreamworks have made to their projects over the years. Rich in content, it's worth looking at over and over again.

Soo.. my three favorite art books (2014) are:
• LOVELY - Girls Of Animation (I love to see the different styles presented in the book.)
• The art of Blue Sky Studios - finally! Love to see the art of ice age (Scrat :D)
• The Art of Assassin's Creed Unity - as I am a big fan of the "The Art of Assassin's Creed" series. Really nice art

Nuthin' But Mech Volume 2 - everything awesome about mechs are within this book, it's a must have :D

How to render by Scott Robertson - Really informative book about the insights of art,another must have, also Scott Robertson is awesome :D

The Art of Paper Blue - Jae-Cheol Park's work in progress is too attractive. :D

My favourite art books from 2014 are:

- The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I´m in love with this fantasy world created by Bioware. Warriors, costumes and landscapes are fantastic.

- The Art of Film Magic: 20 Years of Weta. I´m a big fan of movies and digital effects. It´s really interesting learning about behind-the-scenes, motion capture, graphics, etc. I think it´s a gorgeous artbook and a must have for film lovers.

- The Art of Robert E McGinnis. Cover illustrations, movie posters, sketches...His art is wonderful. This artbook is to enjoy!

Greetings.

1. "How to render" by Scott Robertson.
Scott Robertson is my favorite author. First, he is one of the best instructors in the world. His books are very well thought out.
2. Anatomy for sculptors.
I have a couple of books on anatomy and this new one is amazing. Its price is the only drawback.
3. 3DTotals' "Sketching from the imagination".
Other people's sketches always inspire.

Here are my favourites
1. Now Where Was I? by Steven Reddy : I always like realism urban sketching style but this book surprises me and introduce me to cartoon style. Stories behind every sketches are fun to read.
2. Urban Sketching: The Complete Guide to Techniques is written by Thomas Thorspecken : Best urban sketching book of the year. Perfect for beginner (like me)
3.An Excuse to Draw by Tommy kane : His full-page sketches are amazingly full of details and unique views of palces wherever he went.

Hi there! First off, thank you so much for doing this, you're awesome!

Here are some of the 2014 books that I've absolutely adored:
The art and flair of Mary Blair - I've always loved Mary Blair's knack for showing personality in her work and the way she used colour to enhance the storytelling elements in her illustrations.
Art fundamentals and Foundations in Comic Book Art (fundamental tools and techniques for sequential artists) - As an aspiring artist, I am always on the lookout for new books and tutorials that can help me improve and I think these two would make good reference books for any artist-to-be.

Thanks for the contest !

My 3 favourites artbook from this year are :
_ 3000 moments by Pascal Campion : simple moments, Pascal Campion always manages to give a great smile with this book.
_ The Art Of Book Of Life : really inspiring and original visual. This is maybe one of the most creative animation I've seen ! Great colors, chara design, places, ...
_ The Art Of The Boxtrolls : It's always great to discover the inside of a stop-motion. The creative process, the precision on the characters, that great dark and funny universe. Imagining how cool that must be to be surrounded by all those figures !

I think my 3 are
1. The art of Dreamworks really love their movies love seeing all the pre production and production work
2. The art of Blue Sky studios, I like how you can see very early concepts of big characters and how much the ideas changed and adapted during production
3. Zbrush characters and creatures, never been a very good character modeler myself but somehow they make this work so appealing and they make it look so simple to start but it's difficult to perfect

Let's see:
1) The Art of The Book of Life: incredible, intricate mexican inspired works;
2) The Art of the Croods especially for its beautiful character sketches, much better than the final CG designs;
3) The Art of Rio: Featuring a Carnival of Art From Rio and Rio 2, bought as a Christmas present (for me of course!) after your review.

Substrata - Very detailed and amazing mix of creatures and character designs and some environment.Top notch art from top notch artists.Definitely one of the best this year for me
Monster Hunter illustrations 2- If you enjoyed the previous MH artbook then this is a no brainer its more of the same.More monsters, more armors and weapon art.Awesome designs highly recommended.
Second in Line-Insane amount of detailed illustrations.Its like a Where's Wally artbook, lots of things to see.Its always a treat seeing Mattias Adolfsson's pen and watercolor illustrations.

Here are my top 3

1. "The art of Castlevania : Lords of Shadow" : The book is literally packed up to the brink with art. Collecting illustrations of all the three games this book is a real gem.

2. "The Art of Miro Petrov" : Have been waiting for this book to be published for more than an year and boy is it worth it! The book collects concept art and personal artworks of Miroslav Petrov drawn for the past couple of years. There is a wide variety of styles and techniques used that showcase the work of this very talented young artist.

3. "Peter Pan" This is actually not an artbook but a comics drawn by the great Regis Loisel. The book is a massive 300 page hardcover collection all 6 chapters of Loisel's timeless saga. Published by "Soaring Penguin" this is a really gorgeous book worth every cent.

Honorable mentions:
"Ilya Repin" by Parkstone publishing.
"the art of boxtrolls" by Chronicle Books

Whoops. The Art of the Croods is actually from 2013. I'll replace it with
DmC Devil May Cry: Visual Art, and its vast collection of haunting but beutiful creatures frome the game.

Thanks for the contest!

Here are mine!

Adventure Time - The Art of Ooo: An art book stack full of content, including concept art, doodles, storyboards, preliminary designs, fascinating commentary from creator Pen Ward and his team. It’s a compendium worthy of the Land of Ooo (the ‘Adventure Time Bible’). Definitely my pick of the year!

POSTERS - Otomo Katsuhiro x Graphic Design:
A huge (literally) book filled with film posters from Otomo Katsuhiro. Beautiful if you’re a fan of Japanese commercial film posters or graphic design. The book’s large scale translates the grandeur of each film, with gorgeous artwork splashing over sprawling A3 pages. But beware - after flipping through, you might want binge-watch the movies!

The Art of Neil Gaiman: This book offers a fascinating insider’s look (a window) into author Neil Gaiman’s thought processes, journal scribblings and concept sketches, showing you the skeletons of his ideas before they were fully formed. When an artbook inspires you not to give up on your own creative journey, that’s when it’s a real gem!

(Thanks for the chance! Love the blog, it's my art-book go-to).

#1: The Art of Alien: Isolation - The art book is an amazing document of design this game, making it clear that the developers wanted to give us a female protagonist as strong as Ripley and that they were very reverent of the 'blue-collar industrial' aesthetic present in Alien. The respect for the creature is present, too - the pages packed with illustrations detailing that they wanted to get the more unusual, stalkerish nature of the creature on page and in-game, rather than the lightning-fast bugs of the second movie onwards. The use of film photography from Alien also shows just how intent they were on getting things right. The choice of more... Unusual art-styles in the sketches and the like, at times - in addition to the usual painted background and character work - is a plus point too.

#2: The Art of Wolfenstein: The New Order - This, like the game, should have been such a mess, and I was surprised to see an artbook from Dark Horse creep in under the radar after being disappointed by the previous Wolfenstein game. But just like the game being a pleasant surprise, the artbook turned out to be fantastic, too. It could have been really cheesy to have an AU world where the Nazis won, but the book shows that they really wanted to treat the idea with relative seriousness and only a little bit of tongue-in-cheekness. There's also real respect and reverence for the past of the franchise while trying to move it forward, with little bits and pieces like their design for BJ directly referencing the original character portrait from Wolfenstein 3D but also instilling age and vulnerability and wear and tear into the character. The design work overall, for the Nazi mechs and the redesigned troopers, is really strong and appropriate, too - and just like the game can really hit home with some horrific, true-to-life sections involving the Nazis - things like their propaganda and the environment dressing are utterly spot-on, too. This one's another winner for Dark Horse, who have put out a really impressive set of books lately.

#3: Substrata - This is - as I commented on the review page for the book - a really interesting concept in of itself as it.. It isn't even tied to anything. It isn't like Udon's usual offerings, tied to a Capcom property, and really, feels like it could be an actual, upcoming game, where a bunch of artists were basically handed a brief and told to go nuts; The results are really fascinating. Some basically just hit the standard notes of 'fantasy' and are a little 'eh', but others really go for it and conjure up designs that Guillermo Del Toro or Mike Mignola would be proud of. It's a thick, meaty art book with wonderful variation in styles and a really fascinating experiment in seeing numerous artists handle one concept. I'd love to see this one turned into a real game.

3000 Moments
Pascal Campion has an amazing talent for capturing the essence of a moment. Beautiful, inspiring, magic!

How to Render
Scott Robertson is amazing! He shares so much. Along with How to Draw, I just want to get my pencil and paper out and get creating!

Anatomy for Sculptors
Uldis Zarins and Zandis Kondrats have teamed up to make an amazingly informative book on anatomy aimed at the sculptor. There's nothing else like it out there!

in no particular order

- The Art of Dragon Age Inquisition
love the game and the game studio and I was so incredibly happy that they finally made a proper artbook for a Dragon Age game.

- The Art of BlueSky Studio
mostly because it finally has more concept art for Ice Age and to my knowledge there are no books focusing on Ice Age by itself. But the concept art for all the BlueSky Studio movies is beautiful and the book does a good job at showing those drawings.

- The Art of How To Train Your Dragon 2
again a good book to go with an animated movie :)
still waiting for "The concept art of Nico Marlet" *swoon*

honourable mention:
- The Art of Big Hero 6
I only took a quick look at what's in there because the movie isn't released until January here, but what I saw is right up my alley :)

The Art of Richard Thompson - A incredible book about an artist who deserved a lot more attention. Smart, funny and brilliant.
Spectrum 21 - Spectrum is in great hands with a new editor.
The Art of Ian Miller - There is only one Ian Miller and he has enjoyed a long career doing work that was and still uniquely his own. Really nice book with beautiful reproductions and a lot of work.

So many great books out this year, but these stand out:

1. How to render by Scott Robertson
An amazing 'how to' series, beginning with how to Draw, from one of the industries greatest instructors. These should be "must haves" for any and all artists. I wish I had these in art school, they are a complete education.

2. Lovely: Ladies of Animation
A wonderful collection of amazingly talented artists. Spanning several styles and with great narrative. This is a book I keep out on the table for inspiration and browsing. I bought this for the work of Mingjue Helen Chen and found all the artists impress.

3. 3000 moments by Pascal Campion.
A prolific, profound and amazing story teller. No one captures narrative. more so simply and with style. Each image is a gem. If you do not know Pascal's work, first get out from under the rock and look him up. with just the smallest gesture he weaves the most intimate relationships.

1. The Art of Dreamworks Animation

I really liked the earlier works of Dreamworks Animation and had enjoyed the Art of the Prince of Egypt. I was disappointed when I couldn't find more "Art of" books for their earlier 2D works. But this book came out and I've seen the preview of the artworks on your blog and was excited that they included some pre-production works of those earlier films that they had worked on. I'd be really happy if I can get that book!

2. Art of Blue Sky Studios:

I love collecting artbooks of studios and their showcase of the work they've done throughout the years. Another artbook I anted is the Art of Blu Sky Studios because I loved their films, Ice Age, and was hoping that they'd release several artbooks for the film. Now that they released an artbook showcasing the films they had worked on, I can't pass up the oppportunity to read this book.

3. The Art of How To Train Your Dragons 2

I got the first book and fell in love with the character designs of both the vikings and the dragons. Now that the second book came out, I'm really looking forward to more prop designs and character designs after that the children of the village had grown up.

Looking back at the list and seeing how much we had this year was a lot of fun! There are quite a few books there that I am yet to purchase and would have had a shot at my top 3 if I already owned them, but since there are so many books out there I will focus on the ones I've actually already purchased. Although there's one book in particular which I am sure would have made the list if I already had it - and that's the latest Hobbit Chronicles. The other Design and Art books from the Chronicle series are among my all time favorites and this would have been too. Alas, I ordered the signed version directly from Weta, and it won't be here until early 2015.

Which frees up room for other books, so why not. I decided that my favorite 3 books this year actually also appropriately represent new discoveries for me. After many years of focusing solely on books that cover only live action films, only this year I really got back into watching animation, which I have not done in years - and as a result also started catching up on the animation books, and an even bigger discovery for me, not being a gamer, was the beautiful art that is involved in many games. Initially I had intended to only buy books of things I am emotionally invested in, because there's so much out there, but at the end of the day I gave up: if I love the art, I want to have it.

So without further ado:

1. The Art of Assassin's Creed: Unity - would you believe that my first gaming art book was actually a Limited Edition? But I feel in love with this as soon as I've seen it, partly because of my love for Paris, but mostly because the style of that particular franchise really appeals to me (and I am slowly catching up on previous art books as well). The Limited edition is so beautiful done I can even spend long minutes just staring at the slipcover.

2. The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I love fantasy art, but more so, I love fantasy art when it shows me a whole universe. Because I don't play the game and only familiar with what I've read about it, the amount of information I got about this fictional world through the gorgeous art is even more impressive. Even without being very familiar with the context, you can see the pieces are not stand alone works of art, but how they all connect to one another.

3. The Art of DreamWorks Animation - as I started catching up on all the animation films I haven't watched since I was a kid, I realized that many of them belonged to DreamWorks, and from there the road to that book was very short. I still intend to get the individual books for some of my favorite movies on the list, but this massive book, even though it touches every film only a little, still manages to bring across the sheer volume of work that has been done by DreamWorks over the years, and the vast variation of styles and stories. Every spread in this book is a celebration of the imagination.

Alien the Archive:Such an awesome behind the scenes look at all 4 films in the alien franchise.

The Art of Destiny: A really great sci-fi/ fantasy book filled to the brim with beautiful concept work.

Spectrum 21: I have 14 of the previous Spectrum books and this one was one of my favorites so far. Really top notch work submitted this year and I am certain I will flip through this book countless more times in the future.

My favourite art books of 2014 are:
The Art of Ian Miller - This book just blew me away. The detail in the drawings is incredible and pushes the boundaries of what I previously thought possible in pen and ink work. The subject matter is slightly disturbing, but also compelling to look at. I always know when a book hits the mark by my emotional response to the work and the enthusiasm it generates in me to try new things
Drawn to Drawing - I love to draw and often thought my work was over detailed, until I saw the work in this book. I am a visual thinker and in my day job have been criticised for doodling in meetings, even though they help me to think. I was interested to read that many of the complex drawings in this book started life as doodles from meetings!
Sketching from the Imagination-fantasy - I loved the first book from the same stable and this is more of the same. I particularly like Kerby Rosannes, so was really pleased to see his incredible work featured in this book.

My favourite art books of 2014 are:
The Art of Ian Miller - This book just blew me away. The detail in the drawings is incredible and pushes the boundaries of what I previously thought possible in pen and ink work. The subject matter is slightly disturbing, but also compelling to look at. I always know when a book hits the mark by my emotional response to the work and the enthusiasm it generates in me to try new things
Drawn to Drawing - I love to draw and often thought my work was over detailed, until I saw the work in this book. I am a visual thinker and in my day job have been criticised for doodling in meetings, even though they help me to think. I was interested to read that many of the complex drawings in this book started life as doodles from meetings!
Sketching from the Imagination-fantasy - I loved the first book from the same stable and this is more of the same. I particularly like Kerby Rosannes, so was really pleased to see his incredible work featured in this book.

My favourites for 2014:

Art of Robert McGinnis - finally a decent collection of his works was made available. Those women, colors and composition! Gorgeous book. I've seen some of his poster work without realising that these were painted.

Walter Baumhofer - Mostly pulp covers (Doc Savage) with a lot of intense action. I got it through Kickstarter. It's a real pity I missed th follow up called 'Golden Age' by The Illustrated Press which offered a look through works a wider variey of artists.

Drawing Beautiful Women - The Frank Cho Method - Very informative if you've got a grip on some basic drawing skills. Frank explains some of his techniques and shows how to achieve certain effects. He's also really good at drawing beautiful women with somewhat realistic and natural looking bodies.

My top 3 for the year are:

1. Art Of Wolfenstein: The New Order

I love the overall feel of the book, every possible aspect of the game was well thought out and illustrated. One of the best artbooks of its kind I've seen yet.

2. How to Render: the fundamentals of light, shadow and reflectivity

Really amazing sequel to How to Draw: drawing and sketching objects and environments from your imagination. Best go to book on perspective and the rules that follow. Also, one of the only books that I've seen with detailed web links/videos.

3. The Art of The Evil Within

Very detailed character thought process. Renderings are done really well, and the anatomical sketches are very captivating.

My favourites for 2014:

Art of Robert McGinnis - finally a decent collection of his works was made available. Those women, colors and composition! Gorgeous book. I've seen some of his poster work without realising that these were painted.

Walter Baumhofer - Mostly pulp covers (Doc Savage) with a lot of intense action. I got it through Kickstarter. It's a real pity I missed th follow up called 'Golden Age' by The Illustrated Press which offered a look through works a wider variey of artists.

Drawing Beautiful Women - The Frank Cho Method - Rather informative if you've got a grip on some basic drawing skills. Frank explains some of his techniques and shows how to achieve certain effects. He's also really good at drawing beautiful women with somewhat realistic and natural looking bodies.

Star Wars Art: Posters - I love Star Wars and Star Wars art. So no brainer!

Star Wars Costumes - Again, it's Star Wars

Transformers Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging - Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine there would be a book published on this.

My favourites books of 2014 are:
The Art of John Alvin : I love movies so the movie poster are the best for me. The work of Alvin reminds me the days of my childhood.
Star Wars Art: Posters : This has to be my #1 because I think the SW universe is the best invention in fiction. Again my childhood days are back . I still feel like a child when I see SW products. A very good collection of the imagination of Lucas's saga.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Oil Painting Techniques: A great artist that shares with us a set of great lessons to make such a realistic work. It´s so graphic and so usefull for those who likes to see the making of art.

G'day! Only found the site this year and it's in my daily favourites to check what new stuff is out there! My top 3 for this year.

1. Sorayama: XL Masterworks Edition. This larger re-release with added artwork is 98% visual and 2% text, which sometimes for an art book (especially Sorayama) you just want to soak up the art.

2. Drawing Type. Word art or lettering design is often forgotten but is so prevalent and powerful. Books that showcase just how many styles and variations there are of 26 alphabet symbols are amazing to view.

3. The Art Of Robert E. McGinnis. I don't actually have this one yet but from what I've seen on parkablogs and other preview images I already know this might be my favourite for 2014! Only 10 more days to get it for 2014! :P

Looking forward to your selection of reviews next year!

Love the blog, keep up the great work, Parka!
I didn't get to treat myself to many artbooks this year unfortunately, but here are my picks:

-The Art Of How To Train Your Dragon 2:
Best movie of the year! And just like the first movie's book, this one is just absolutely filled with tons of gorgeous and fun concept art. I just love those dragons!

-Hellboy: The First 20 Years
Mignola is my favorite comics artist so of course I had to get this! Seeing some of the uncolored pages is a real thrill for me, I really wish I could afford to get the recent Artist Edition of Hellboy In Hell...

-The Hobbit: Battle Of Five Armies Art Chronicles Art & Design
I'll readily confess that I couldn't care less about the Hobbit movies and didn't even see them (could barely get thru the non-extended Lord Of The Rings trilogy in theater without falling asleep lol), but damn if WETA doesn't constantly produce some of the most incredibly detailed concept artwork you've ever seen!

PS: Wish there had been an artbook for Edge Of Tomorrow, a surprisingly great sci-fi movie!

There is so many but i will pick the ones that made me go wow and helped with my art as well.

The Art of The Book of Life
This book is amazing in so many ways its hard to go into details. You have to look thru it yourself to experience the beauty of this book. The director said he wanted his movie to look like concept art and he wasn't kidding. ITs pretty dead on accurate. Just a gorgeous book and definitely one of my top favorites.

The Art of How to Train a Dragon 2
The reason for this cause well i love dragons. Its that simple. I loved the first book and this one did not disappoint. Amazing in every way. The different concept of Hiccup mother to the Alpha Dragon. Very amazing book.

Hellboy:The first 20 years.
Mike Mignola is a huge inspiration for me. His art is amazing and when i heard about this book, i knew i had to get this book signed by him and i did sure enough. I have his first art book that he released and this one is as great as the first. Tho not a sequel, more like a compilation of the series. This book is pure genius and can't stop looking at it whenever i see it on my desk.

Thanks to this blog I found it possible to reach and got a visual example for the books contain inside.
This year I got this 3 books thanks to you

The Art of DreamWorks Animation: Celebrating 20 Years of Art
I love traditional hand animation, specifically The Prince of Egypt and The Road to el Dorado and actually there is not other way to have the movie art from,this pictures.

The Book of Life
It's just amazing to see the sketches from Jorge Gutierrez and Paul Sullivan, drawings with a lot of details and became a 3D with the spirit from the original design. I love it! by the way Dark Horse made a great work with the book edition

The Art of Big Hero 6
I didn't know the comic until the movie's book. The ultimates Disney Animation Studios movies since Tangled has an amazing pre production character design and visual environment. The work and layout for San Fransokyo it's awesome all the book is complete since backgrounds, references and character design.

I really glad to know this blog, cause even I never could have all the books that interest me, this is the only way to know that the books are treated.

Regards
Paul Piceno

Hi Parka, your blog always gives a lot of reference, loves it! Yet at the same time saddens me a bit, because I can't afford them all, haha.

The Art of Guardians of The Galaxy
I have a thing for superhero movie, especially Marvel Cinematic Universe. The works of Marvel's design team, Ryan Meinerding, Charlie Wen etc always fascinate me and very inspiring. I remember giggled like a little girl when I saw 2 full page variations of Nova Corp's helmet design. And don't get me started with Milano design, I could stare at those design for days! :D

RoboCop : The Definitve History
Robocop was one of my favorite movie growing up. At first, didn't really aware of this book, until I read your review. And you were right, this book was awesome. Lots of pictures and informations. Back in the days with limited CGI, Peter Weller make up amazes me every time. Overall, the book was a fun read.

The Art of Captain America Winter Soldier
Guardians was better, but I enjoy design variations on Winter Soldier's metal arm, and Falcon's wing. Still, the book's full of stunning concept art and it's Marvel, so 5 stars from me.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of Planet of the Apes: The Art of the Films
At first glance, this book has a great cover. Matte black finish with glossy part on Caesar eye. Gorgeous! On the inside, lots of information for motion capture process, although not on the same level as The Art and Making of Avatar.

Salam dari Indonesia
Hasto

The Urban Sketcher: Techniques for Seeing and Drawing on Location- the sheer variety of sketches and themes in this book is just amazing and inspires to draw every time i see anything
The Art of Big Hero 6 - the artwork is a real good mix of graphic and character design and the process seems really interesting for many of the plots. a must have
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Chronicles: Art & Design - The epicness of the movie and the richness of the mesmerizing worlds depicted makes it a must have art book for me

Udon's been knocking them out of the park this year, all three of my picks are theirs!

1: Eyes of Bayonetta
Lots of sketches from the design process accompanied by footnotes from the character designer herself. Also included is a "making of" dvd for the game that explores the gameplay development process. The commentary is insightful and suprisingly hilarious! A must own for fans of the game. Hopefully Udon's got the next book in the wings as well.

2: Gurren Lagann Art Works
A fun book to leaf through that'll likely send a wave of nostalgia for the show. The various artists present their different renditions of the familiar faces, sometimes showing a different facet of the characters not seen in the show. I would've liked a few words from the creators though.

3: Darkstalkers Official Complete Works
I've always had a fondness for the character designs from the Darkstalkers series, despite not particularly enjoying the game itself. With the release of this book, I've found the best way to experience the franchise. Namely by savoring the outstanding artwork!

1) STAR WARS COSTUMES : THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY
Wonderful book full of costumes you are so familiar with but can see now in a new light due to the wealth of new photography, from pages of Rebel helmets to minute carved detailing of Princess Leia's metal bikini.

2) THE ART OF GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Marvel continues its run of great Art books based on it's features, this is full of amazing environments, characters and spacecraft not seen in the movie : fantatsic

3) ALIEN : THE ARCHIVE (The Ultimate guide to the Classic movies)
Another book full of never before seen images from old well loved movies, great to see all in one lovely book.

I really like the character design of Dreamworks studios. And the best contributors to this art are the Blue Sky studios. My favorites of 2014 are:

The Art of Blue Sky Studios

The Art of DreamWorks Animation: Celebrating 20 Years of Art

The Art of Rio: Featuring a Carnival of Art From Rio and Rio 2

Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition - THICK book... with well-balanced amount of excellent character, enviroment, weaponry, clothing and fauna art. And packed with all that, a good measure of art-driven insight;
The art of Rio - Marvelous, cute and awe-inspiring characters! Being myself a carioca, I´m truly amazed with the mix of brazilian culture, fauna and an authentic, beautiful cartoon style given to these concepts;
Art of Legend of Korra, Book 2 - SUCH CHARACTER ART! And the japanese/chinese painting style from the chapters showing Wan story is the cream of the crop of 2014. Period.

Mine would be
3000 moments by Pascal Campion - Love his work and I was lucky enough to be a kickstarter back so got it signed and sketched along with prints.

The art of Dreamworks - Huge book, lots of art covering so many great films.

Art of Rio - Got the limited edition copy. Really great colours and character designs throughout this book.

Also have to include Art of Blue Sky - Got it signed at CTN this year and it is massive and filled with great art book.

Honourable mention for Lovely - The women of Animation - Love the variety in this book.(Also signed and sketched by the artists)

Wow, this was a great year for my book collection!

The Art of Richard Thompson
Black Light: The World of L.B. Cole
Disney During World War 2
The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio
Flesh and Steel: The Art of Russ Heath

Was a good year for books!

1. The Art of Guardians of the Galaxy- My favourite of the Marvel art books, grats designs and colour and includes my favourite artist Andy Park

2. The Art of Destiny- Just got this and as always, Bungie deliver, some of the best enviroent art in video games, not a fan of what they game ended up being, but the book does no dissapoint

3. The Art of Blue Sky Studios- Simple, colourful and full of character just like you expect with a studio like this. Not a bad page in there and it was a hefty book!

My favourite art books of 2014:

1) Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series Book 2 - I have been following the amazing world of Avatar closely, and the second season of LOK was breathtaking in terms of the art style that Avatar Wan's arc was done in. When I had finished watching the second season of LOK, I knew I needed the art book.

2) Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo - The Adventure Time series is very creative in general. However, what I love most about the show are the character designs! This book not only showcase character designs, but also many other aspects of Adventure Time's production. I thought the art book itself was like the series' show bible. I'm big fan of Adventure Time, so I loved the art book.

3) The Art of Big Hero 6 - I wasn't initially interested in the art book, but after seeing the movie, I grabbed it right away. The visuals of the movie left me in awe, and the story warmed my heart. After watching the movie, I definitely wanted to see the work that went into making the movie. The art of big Hero 6 does not disappoint.

Sketch! Franco Bellive - Van Stone
It's really a book to start with, you learn a lot of key stuff to begin sketching everyday.

Urban Watercolor Sketching Felix Scheinberger
Truly guide to bring sketch to color life

The art of Urban Sketching Gabriel Campanario
A lot to learn form the sketchbooks form other around the world, amazing collection.

1- Artbook by Otto Schimidt
Great design, elegant woman et gorgeous colors it's a hard to miss
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/muntyan/artbook-by-otto-schmidt

2- The Art of Titanfall
Great design who got really they're own flavor and it's nice to see a different influence to mech design.

3-The Art of Castlevania Lords of Shadows
Increadibly nice series of remake the art quality if above expectation, definitly one of my favorite books.

There are so many great Art- of books, that it´s hard to choose:

1. The Art of the Boxtrolls- it´s an excellent and inspiring collection of the Boxtrolls Art
2. The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation- i´m a huge fan of her Art. A lovely overview of her work.
3. Magic Color Flair: The World of Mary Blair- i couldn´t resist, it´s just great.

Hi, that was hard but here it is:

-1 : Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series Book 2 :
Because I’m a fan of the animated serie which has got amazing battle sequences. In this one, the storyboard sequences allows us to understand how those battle scenes are made, and that’s what was missing in the previous one (even if it was really good too). (PS : You can see the comparison between the animated storyboard sequences and the finished one in the bonus of the bluray if you are interested).

-2: FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn The Art of Eorzea - Another Dawn:
It’s filled with drawings from marvellous full page arts of known artists to inventory weapons and also monsters. I love that the bosses are shown from several angles as well as the costumes and armors. There is also every weapons types (sword, arc, axe, claws…) for every class in the game that's pretty awesome. It’s really full of nice surprises.

-3:The Art of Rio: Featuring a Carnival of Art From Rio and Rio 2:
I had not seen the movies when I bought the book but the research drawings I discovered in it make me watch them shortly after reading the book. I love Sergio Pablo’s roughs, thanks to his talent, we can imagine how the characters will be in 3D and how they would move and there is another thing that I can’t explain that make his drawings above the others. The colors of the landscapes drawings are also wonderful.

The Art of Destiny
The Art of Assassins Creed Unity
The Art of Blue Sky Studios

1. The art of the legend of Korra: Book 2
2. The art of Rio and Rio 2
3. The Art of the Book of Life
Personally these three have been some of my favorites due to their commonality in bold color choices, strong shapes within their character design and how well they introduce you to the cultures they are representative of. These three books go a long way in inspiring me to think differently about my art and to dig deeper when it comes to world building and character development in order to create an overall strong end product. Art wise, I enjoy seeing the experimentations, the vivid color schemes and the minutiae details that combine to create such an impressionable finished product. I absolutely enjoyed the reviews for these and the chance the reviews gave me to glean a little insight on the books themselves.