Looking through our bookshelves, it’s clear that one type of book is almost in danger of completely taking over. They’re usually thick weighty hardback tomes, filled to the brim with delights a-plenty, they’re books that are read and re-read again and again, and they are books that are definitely keepers – in fact some of them predate our blog by a considerable number of years.
Art process books, such as the gorgeous “The Art of Zootopia” pictured to the left (or “Zootropolis” if you’re over here in the UK) are always pretty expensive, but utterly luxurious – like trading up your Arctic Roll for a sumptuous tub of Italian Gelato.
As a pair of doodlers, both C and I love these books, just to gain a tiny insight into what it’s like developing an idea from a few rough sketches, into a finished and highly polished rendering which may (or may not) one day make it onto the silver screen.
I am particularly obsessed with the later run of “The Art of Star Wars” books. Quite often, even if the movie is a bit poo (we shall not speak of “The Rise of Skywalker”), the art books are well worth the entry fee. With these you get a whole gamut of artistic inspiration, from the backgrounds and planetary landscapes, to the amazing spacecraft, robots and other machines, through to the characters, their costumes and the weird and quirky creatures designed for these movies.
Costume is a big thing for C, and she’s particularly obsessed with designing her own stuff – so any luxurious art book that shows off fashion designs from movies is an instant draw.
We’ve bought the majority of these ourselves (review copies of huge expensive art books are usually few and far between) but now and again we’ve been sent some brilliant ones.
“The Art of Hotel Transylvania 2” was a review copy, filled to the brim with gorgeous character art depicting our favourite thing – monsters – and showing once again just how talented these concept artists are, often hitting the exact look and feel of a character fairly early on.
Through all these books we’ve learned about some of the best artists in the biz, and though our own meagre skills will never match up to these amazing folk, we always love to see those processes all the same and how polished those final images become after months (if not years) of painstaking work.
Illustrators and artists are often given the thin end of the wedge in children’s publishing so it’s always great to see them gaining proper recognition and a showcase of their work in these books.
Original review links.
Disney’s “The Art of Inside Out” (Chronicle Books)
“Rise Up – The Art of Protest” by Joanne Rippon, Foreword by Chris Riddell (Palazzo Editions)
