The art & reference review thread! 2012

**Crane** · July 29th, 2006, 07:32 AM

Welcome to the art & reference book thread!

Hey guys, I thought I'd update this thread with a little something to help anyone looking for photo books for reference or general art books.

Hopefully I can help anyone looking for such books and that other people are willing to jump in and help too, as I am also looking for more books, art or reference.

I've posted these pictures of all my current books that I use for study, if anyone wants to ask about any of these books, I'd be happy to take a few pictures of it and a brief overview.

All of the reference books have large photos of the subject matter inside, which makes them excellent for study.

You can ask me for a preview and information about the book, size, no. of pages, whether I think it's worth buying or not etc.

Everyone is welcome to add their own books/recommandations.

*I made this thread a long time ago, so please excuse my older comments and the lack of grammar :/

*This was originally a thread linking to a DR Tran animation, so thats what the comments below are concerning

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**Flynn** · July 29th, 2006, 10:42 AM

Aye, tis an old animation but still brings a chuckle ;p

**Crane** · July 29th, 2006, 12:15 PM

aaa..poo.. but yes, it is indeed funny, hickory smoked horse buttholes....from a cup!

**Jason Rainville** · July 29th, 2006, 01:29 PM

Because of this toon, each time I see one of Jason Chan's threads, I want to chime in with "Oh shit, it's JASON CHAN!"

Out of huge respect I contain myself though

**Dile_** · July 29th, 2006, 01:44 PM

Wow, I have never seen that

I acctually was laughing

especially
when he was quited once

**Blahm** · July 29th, 2006, 04:54 PM

haha dr chan

**Lohan** · July 29th, 2006, 05:42 PM

theres a bunch of art books at this link...

http://gh.ffshrine.org/art.php

**Erica Johnson** · July 29th, 2006, 06:43 PM

Yea, I love art books. It's eye candy and you can get lost in them for hours. They can be pretty inspirational and entertaining.

**DSillustration** · July 29th, 2006, 07:22 PM

there are a million great artbooks out there.
but if you can only get one,
i think you'd like:
Rakugaking by Katsuya Terada.
1000 pages of brilliant sketches.

**Interceptor** · July 29th, 2006, 07:29 PM

Art of Empires. It's the art book for Age fo Empires 3. The Craig Mullins artwork makes it superb. There tons of other great stuff in there, though. Although I'm not sure if you can buy it on it's own. I had to get the whoel collector's game set to get it. Worth every penny

-Loren

**Dile_** · July 29th, 2006, 07:33 PM

Wow, thanks DS!! I have seen his work be4 absolutly awsome!

http://www.animebooks.com/teradakatsuya.html

**Sam Araya** · July 29th, 2006, 09:59 PM

Try Ebay, get "The art of Metal Solid" and "The art of Blame!".

Another good one its "The Art of Hellboy", both "Ashley Woods: Grande Fanta" and "Goad: the many moods of Phil Hale rock", these are avaible via Amazon, I think.

**Magic Man** · July 29th, 2006, 10:36 PM

Concept Design 1 & 2, the Spectrum series, the books by Ballistic are all great books.

**Killer Napkins** · July 29th, 2006, 10:53 PM

well personally.. i like the art of metal gear solid.. i want to get the other ones MGS2 and Zone of the enders... i believe there is an art book of starwars.. thats pretty cool.. but thats if youre into robot snad stuff...

**Snarfevs** · July 29th, 2006, 10:59 PM

The Oddworld Inhabitants book
The Aliens sourcebook

And these are GW art books of note:
Jes Goodwin - The Gothic and the Eldrich
David Gallagher - The Face of Battle
The art of Adrian Smith
The Horus Heresy sourcebooks 1-3

**guggemmaneuver** · July 29th, 2006, 11:12 PM

agreed with ds illustration... RAKUGA KING: i borrowed this book from one of my sketchgroup friends and it literally blew my mind...

truly an inspiration and the context is so beautifully sketchbooky for lack of a better term. expensive yes. worth it absolutely.

guggs

**pogonip** · July 30th, 2006, 12:38 AM

Some of my favs not mentioned

The Art of anything that is a Miyazaki film such as Spirited away
A lot of the old Disney art books such as The art of The Hunchback of Norte Dame
The making of Ghost in the Shell

also this place has TONS and TONS of artbooks !
http://www.sqpinc.com/

**Crane** · July 30th, 2006, 04:55 AM

bloody hell, wasn't expecting this many replys lol. but awesome thanks for all the info, DSilliustration: damn that books looks pretty neat, gunna see if i can find it on amazon or ebay or something.

I'm really into mech and techno shit, is there any which is based around that? apart from the starwars ones.?

Thanks guys

**Dile_** · July 30th, 2006, 05:43 AM

MadCat:I searched around and couldt find it, but I posted
a link to it where you can buy it from another place

*but I guess you only read the big names replies..*

**Yoonjin** · July 30th, 2006, 05:48 AM

Get all the books Mentioned here, you can never get enough books.
I would recommend SYD MEADS books if you are inte industrial design.

**Crane** · July 30th, 2006, 05:48 AM

Dile
haha of course i read yours man, i went on the site, but being in england i wanted to see if i could get it here, cheaper or faster ya know, looks like i don't have a choice, thanks for the site dude

Motherfuck, syds books cost a freaking ton!..i need a job before i get them..whoo

**phade** · July 30th, 2006, 05:49 AM

Intron Depot 2: Blades
Intron Depot 3: Ballistics
Genesis: The Art Of Transformers (out of print I think)
Art of Robots (the Blue Sky movie from a couple years back)
Grand Space Opera (Ballistic but available at amazon - alot are now in fact . . . )

**Flake** · July 30th, 2006, 06:59 AM

Art of Star Wars Ep3 is very nice, as are the Lord of the Rings ones.

Also, no art book thread would be complete without me pimping Waterhouse.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/071...991327?ie=UTF8

**joelhinxman** · July 30th, 2006, 10:20 AM

the Frezzato Sketchbook from heavy metal is rad. its just a bunch of comic sketch pages.

the phil hale art book is cool to. i got the jon foster book to now that i think about it. man ive seen so many that are cool but cant think of them

**DSillustration** · July 30th, 2006, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by joelhinxman

i got the jon foster book [too] now that i think about it.

that book is out of print now, and nearly impossible to find (at a decent price).
however, there is a NEW jon foster book coming out soon, sure to be 100x better than the last!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159...lance&n=283155

**young paddy1** · July 30th, 2006, 01:25 PM

Just bought that rakuga king and zenbu (literally ebayed it just now) DS cheers for the heads up.

I'd go for the ballistic publishing books personally, lloads of different takes on the same subject, they really get my mind whirring.

**joelhinxman** · July 30th, 2006, 01:29 PM

sweet im soo gona get that book.
i think the first jon foster book was the second art book i ever bought. not that i own alot of art books but still.
the first one i got was sabastin krugers stars got that back in high school

oh yea i never pay attention to what im typeing unless its like a cover letter or something where it really matters so if i really dont make sense im sorry.

*edit* not that it dont matter here just .....yea

**Interceptor** · July 30th, 2006, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by pogonip

Some of my favs not mentioned

The Art of anything that is a Miyazaki film such as Spirited away
A lot of the old Disney art books such as The art of The Hunchback of Norte Dame
The making of Ghost in the Shell

also this place has TONS and TONS of artbooks !
http://www.sqpinc.com/

agreed. I pikced up spirited away, howl's moving castle and pricness mononoke art books. The background watercolor paintings for pricness mononoke are stunning.

**Crane** · July 30th, 2006, 02:14 PM

Young paddy
your in england right? how much did you get them for? used or new?

Spirited away is one of my fave movies so i'll def look into getting the art book, mmm found a pretty cheap one (just amazoned it) under 9 quid. nice.

gunna look on ebay now

EDIT: I found Katsuya Terada on ebay, comes up with a US shop, cost 66 dollars, with 25$ P&P, Diles website was cheaper than that. Young paddy is that the same result and price you got?

**jcaffoe** · July 30th, 2006, 03:09 PM

ehh, I got both the Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle art books and wasn't really sold, a lot of the pages are dedicated to stills from the movies.

The Skillful Huntsman is a book no artist should be without.

The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island is one of the most incredible books I own, it gives a background on the formation of the island and the evolution of all the creatures in it, as well as page after page of amazing paintings.

I would also recommend The World of Dark Crystal, which I have yet to pick up myself, but the film is an absolute visual masterpiece, and the book gives a ton of great background, as well as all of the early sketchwork.