Parka Blogs

Silhouette Runners (Male) - pack 01

2010-09-19T16:07:00.000+08:00

Some vector silhouette runners.

File is saved as EPS version AI10, CS4.

Download link:
www.megaupload.com/?d=UALF61YH

Free for use but link back to parkablogs.com for credit.

Free Vector Download: 32 Businessman Silhouette

2010-09-14T14:09:00.000+08:00

These are my personal templates created in Illustrator, saved in EPS file (AI 10, CS2 & CS4 version)

You can download it at:
www.megaupload.com/?d=5WU2LL6W

Link back to this page if you do use them.

There's also a businesswoman vector set available.

Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Free Vector Download: 24 Businesswoman Silhouette

2010-09-14T12:32:00.001+08:00

These are my personal templates created in Illustrator, saved in EPS file, version AI10, CS2 & CS4.

You can dowload it at:
www.megaupload.com/?d=MOTXC21D

Link back to this page if you do use them.

There's also a businessman vector set available.

Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Free Vector Download: 61 Soccer Players Silhouette

2010-09-13T12:39:00.000+08:00

This is my personal template done on my free time.

You can change all the player's jersey at the same time by selecting them based on the same colour swatch.

There are 61 players. I merely reflected the group to get the opposite pose.

The work is saved as EPS files, version AI10, CS2 & CS4.

You can download it at:
www.megaupload.com/?d=B21S5PP0

If you find this useful, do place a link back to this page or my deviantART page.

Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Book Review: Watchmen: The Art of the Film

2009-09-11T10:22:00.001+08:00

Full review is relocated to parkablogs.com at Book Review: Watchmen: The Art of the Film

Parka Blogs Art Book Stores

2009-06-13T13:31:00.002+08:00

Hi there, if you're still reading this, you should head over to the new parkablogs.com for the latest art book reviews.

I've also just recently created a few online art book stores on my blog. There are art books relating to animation, concept art, comics, manga, individual artists, movies, and Japanese anime art books.

Here are the links back to the art book stores on parkablogs.com:
USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan 日本

Help bookmark the stores or post links on your blog's sidebar! The more visitors I have at the stores, the more giveaways and contests I can organise.

Thanks.

Parka Blogs has moved

2009-02-04T22:40:00.002+08:00

I've moved parkablogs.blogspot to parkablogs.com.

All new art book reviews will be posted over there in the future. I will no longer be updating this blogspot account.

Do update your bookmarks and your RSS feed so you can access the new content.

Thanks everyone for the support so far.

Book Review: Massive Black Volume 1

2009-02-02T11:24:00.005+08:00

The first thing I noticed about the Massive Black art book is that it's titled Volume 1. It's safe to guess that there's going to be other volumes in the future. That is great because this book is very good.

If you have no idea who or what is Massive Black, here's a short history I found on Ballistic Publishing page:

Founded in 2002 by a group of passionate developers, Massive Black has grown to become a powerhouse of the entertainment industry—particularly in the areas of concept art, illustration, 3D, animation and intellectual property development. During its six-year history, the company has worked on 210 projects, generating a staggering 30,000 pieces of concept art for games, film, television, graphic novels, toys, and advertising.

The book is a paperback edition housed inside a slipcase. There are 192 pages and they are relatively glossy. The binding is great too. This book is a fingerprint magnet, and I left a few when I first held it.

Right at the start is an inspiring company's history. You'll get to read about how they started the company with $6000 to build it to a world class art studio where their art workshops look no different from rock concerts.

Inside the pages contain an impressive portfolio of illustrations and concept art created for too many clients. There are character designs, environment paintings and 3D modelings. The level of technical quality is top notch, of course.

Because the clients are mainly from the movie and gaming industry, most of the art pieces relate to the fantasy and sci-fi genre, oftentimes dark. It's like entering a different world just by looking at the paintings, the characters.

Massive Black Volume 1 has managed to put a smile of art lust and fascination on my face. It's highly recommended for concept artists, art directors, video game art lovers and people who just like good art.

Do check out the Massive Black homepage as well, for more illustrations in their art galleries.

Special thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this short review.

Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more books for review.

You might have to get the book from third party merchants on Amazon because not all Amazon sites stock the book themselves, at least at the time of this writing.

Country-specific Amazon links for this book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Ballistic Publishing is also accepting orders on their website as well.

Book releases for New York Comic Con 2009

2009-02-02T10:10:00.000+08:00

Here's a list of books I found on that would be appearing in New York Comic Con 2009 on 6 - 8 Feb.

Anyway, here's the original page where I found it on Amazon.

Comic & art book releases 3-4 Feb 2009

2009-02-02T10:00:00.001+08:00

Seems like a lot of comic books are coming out for the first week of February 2009.

I encourage readers to support their local comic retailers whenever possible. Visiting comic shops is cool.

Book Review: Once Upon a Time

2009-02-01T10:00:00.000+08:00

Here's a nostalgic book authored by Amy Weinstein, a curator. She has collected a great amount of children books published by McLoughlin Brothers. There are many classics like Mother Goose, Tom Thumb and other less well known stories. Right at the start is an introduction to McLoughlin Brothers and the history of children books.

The illustrations are collected in the book, with captions. Children books in the past has a very unique artistic style, with respect to colouring and penciling. Throughout the book, the captions also explain the various influences on the books, such as the appearance of flags to show patriotism.

This book will serve as a useful reference for artists into children illustrations.

Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more books for review.

Country-specific Amazon links for this book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Photos from Massive Black Workshop Jan 2008

2009-01-30T10:30:00.000+08:00

Irene Gallo just recently blogged about the Massive Black workshop held in Seattle in Jan 2009 and has provided tons of great photos from the event.

Great stuff.

Book Review: The Art of Porco Rosso

2009-01-30T10:00:00.001+08:00

Porco Rosso, the movie, is actually based on a 15-page water-coloured manga by Hayao Miyazaki. Included in the book are 3 pages from that manga and they look really fantastic.

The only one thing I don't like about the book is there are too much screenshots from the movie. The concept art consists of character designs, airplane designs, publicity posters and storyboards. I love that they included the film ending credit illustrations. Overall, the amount of concept art is still overwhelmed by the film stills.

Right at the end, there are over 60 pages of the screenplay, broken down to story beats with captions. There are also 5 full black and white pages from the original manga.

There's also not much writeup except to explain a little history on the story.

This book is still good just that it's not as great compared to the art-of books released for later movies.

If you like this book, you might also want to check out the other art-of books I have reviewed for Studio Ghibli's movies.

ArtOrder - Blog of Jon Schindehette

2009-01-29T09:00:00.003+08:00

Today's featuring art blog, ArtOrder, belongs to Jon Schindehette.

He's the Wizards of the Coast’s senior Dungeons and Dragons art director.

I found the blog from ConceptArt, where Irene Gallo posted a link to an interview she did with Joe Schindehette.

So check out ArtOrder! There are lots of fantastic art featured there. Oh, he has a Flickr photostream as well.

Book Review: How to Draw Noir Comics

2009-01-28T10:00:00.001+08:00

Shawn Martinbrough has illustrated comics for DC Comics, Vertigo, and Marvel Comics, ranging from Batman, Superman, and X-Men, to King James, based on superstar athlete Lebron James. He's an accomplished artist and it's great he shares his tips on drawing noir comics with this book.

Everything in the book is explained simply and clearly with lots of personal examples. He tries to address the many approaches to creating noir comics and does them well. For example when explaining the tools he used, he would talk on the type of ink to buy (fade and erase-proof), how to maintain them and choosing the right tools for the job.

The main bulk of the book deals with comic creation specific to noir style. He explains the ways to create mood, lighting and texture to aid the story. And also touches the comic creation part like paneling, pacing, creating drama, choosing backgrounds, using references and more. All the examples included are well caption to emphasis the techniques reviewed.

At the end of the book is a 16-page noir style graphic novel to show readers the finished product.

This book is a great introduction to noir comics and serves as a great reference.

You can view more of Shawn Martinbrough's work at Verge Entertainment, which is a company he founded with his partners.

Thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this short review.

Book Review: The Masters of Illusions

2009-01-27T10:00:00.000+08:00

Here's another interesting book on optical illusions. It's sort of a catalog book that presents the illustrations page after page. The illustrations are only accompanied by a short caption on the facing page, which explains the illusions. There's also a short section on sculptures.

It's a visually entertaining book that will bring a smile of awe and wonder on the face.

If you like optical illusions, also check out Masters of Deception.

Comic & art book releases 27-28 Jan 2009

2009-01-26T10:00:00.001+08:00

Here are some comics and art book releases coming up.

Among this seemingly random list you might spot the Massive Black Vol 1 art book. It's going for US$55 on Amazon via a third party comic book seller.

I encourage readers to support their local comic retailers whenever possible. Visiting comic shops is cool.

For a war movie Rescue Dawn has almost no conflicts

2009-01-25T20:58:00.003+08:00

I've just finished watching Rescue Dawn a few days ago. A few of my colleagues also watched it. Some liked it, others not too much.

For a war movie based in Vietnam, somehow I just can't feel the conflict and the OMG-what-are-they-going-to-do moments. While Christian Bale was tortured continuously, at no time did I think he was going to die. When he decides to escape, one of his prisoner friends threatens to tell on him. That's the only conflict in the movie. There was no tension anywhere else.

This is a very strange movie, especially when it's rated at 90% on rottentomatoes.

Book Review: Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative

2009-01-24T10:00:00.002+08:00

This is one of the three instructional books written by Will Eisner. The other two are Comics and Sequential Art and Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative.

Telling a good story is an incredibly difficult. In this book, Will Eisner shares with readers some of things to be aware of when tackling storytelling using comics.

He talks about techniques to use to help build a more convincing story. This would include comic tools like lettering, building momentum, using visual clues and writing. Examples include how props (i.e. guns) are held to reveal human characteristics.

There are lessons on how to engage readers, how readers think and mistakes to avoid. These are followed with lots of comic strip examples — including a selection from different comic artists. Unfortunately, they aren't captioned page by page like it was done on his other books. The comic examples are great, you know it but you don't know why they work.

The book doesn't really go in depth into all aspects of storytelling. There's no talk on character development, story arcs, conflict management and specific story elements and tools.

Overall, this is still a very useful book for anyone who's just starting out and thinking of drawing their own comics.

Book Review: Comics and Sequential Art

2009-01-24T09:00:00.002+08:00

This is one of the three instructional books written by Will Eisner. The other two are Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative.

The book focuses on the creation of comics and the various techniques one can use. Specifically, it talks about the why the techniques work and the concepts behind. The various lessons touch on timing, framing, composition, expressive anatomy, writing for comics and other application of comics.

Every page of comics included that serve as examples come with captions. They explain the effect to achieve on readers. One example would be to tilt a composition of a moving train to simulate the rocking on the tracks.

How Will Eisner uses his panels and framing is amazing. He can use doorways or windows on a plane as frames, and he can so easily blend his panels together using the environment. Paneling and pacing when done right really just enhances the story. You'll see and understand why it works. It's all explained.

This book will serve as a very good introduction to comic artists. Professionals might learn some new ways of doing things too.

Northlanders Vol. 1: Sven The Returned

2009-01-23T10:00:00.004+08:00

Northlanders tells a savage tale of a warrior, Sven, returning back to his homeland to take back what belongs to him, or whatever that's left. In his path, he looks at his exile, sleeps with ridiculously beautiful enemies, and takes down all who opposes him, of course. The plot's written by Brian Wood, straight forward, well paced.

I like the artistic style for the comic, particularly the stylized character designs, paneling and colouring. The illustrator is Davide Gianelice.

And since I don't usually buy comics nowadays, this copy is from Kelvin Chan.

Shane Prigmore

2009-01-22T10:00:00.001+08:00

Shane Prigmore

Book Review: Swede Illustrations

2009-01-21T10:00:00.000+08:00

This is essentially a catalog book to advertise Swede illustrators and their work. Each artist or design firm comes with contact information and a small sample of their work.

There's a great variety of artistic style showcased, ranging from collages, political cartoons, vector, fine art and other forms of digital art. There is no common motive or concept since this is a catalog book.

Oh, the price is pretty hefty as well, published by Page One. Not sure if it's worth the money unless you're in Sweden looking for local artist.

Book Review: Watchmen (Absolute edition)

2009-01-19T10:00:00.003+08:00

Seeing that the Watchmen movie is coming out soon, I figured I had to put up a review on the book. It is the first time I'm reading the Watchmen and it took me 2 days.

Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons has created a wonderful dark mystery thriller. This isn't really a superhero story since only Dr Manhattan has supernatural powers. That really surprised me a bit because why are there costume adventurers? The best part has got to be the storytelling, unveiling of events and character interactions. At the end of each chapters includes back stories like letters, biography (The Owl), newspaper reports from inside the comic world.

For the Absolute edition, John Higgins is colorist and he has done a superb job at recoloring the whole series. The atmosphere created is really great and feels like the war is looming all the time.

So what's different about the Absolute edition, compared to the hardcover or the paperback? Well, this book is huge and that makes the panels easier to read. The paper quality is thick, white and reproduces the colour brilliantly. Right at the end, there's lots of extra goodies like writeup on the creation process of Watchmen and its characters, some pages of scripts and rough panels developed for them, unpublished promotional posters and other stuff.

Comic readers should seriously consider getting the book. It's currently the top seller on Amazon.

I would recommend reading the book first before watching the movie. It's really hard for movie adaptations to be better because books offer subtlety so much better.

Oh, and check out Watching the Watchmen, which is making-of for this book.

Special thanks to Jonrob for providing the book for this short review.

Comic & art book releases 20-21 Jan 2009

2009-01-19T09:00:00.000+08:00

Here are some comics and art book releases coming up.

I encourage readers to support their local comic retailers whenever possible. Visiting comic shops is cool.

Book Review: Japanese Comickers 2

2009-01-18T10:00:00.002+08:00

This is the 2006 sequel to Japanese Comickers that was published in 2003. Featured here are Shigeki Maeshima, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Waka Miyama, Lily Hoshino, Jeong Juno, Hyung-Tae Kim, Kuroboshi Kouhaku, Haccan, Kaouru Yukifuna, Shukei, Chen Shu-Fen & Pin-Fan, and Noa. Some are from Taiwan and Korea if you actually know the artist.

Although the subtitle says "draw manga and anime like japan's hottest artists", this is not strictly a tutorial book. It shows you how these artists create their work rather than show you how to draw them. Still, a lot of techniques and tips can be picked up from the captions as they go through the working process.

Each artist comes with a few pages of full page art as their gallery. There's also a short introduction and bio looking at their tools, favorite artists and published work.

I guess this book would be useful for artists who already know anatomy and are looking to learn some additional drawing tips.

If you like this book, check out Comickers Art too.

Special thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this short review.

Paul Lasaine

2009-01-17T22:14:00.003+08:00

Paul Lasaine is a production designer working in the film industry. Looking at his blog, I would say he's more in the animation industry.

He has work on a few films which includes Surf's Up, The Prince of Egypt, Shark's Tale, Lord of the Rings and many more. On his blogs, he post a generous amount of concept art from these films. They are mainly on environment paintings. Additionally, he shares a few digital painting tutorials as well.

I'm glad to say that I've the art book for Surf's Up, which I like very much.

Link: Blog of Paul Lasaine

Book Review: Sketches of Daphne Yap

2009-01-17T10:00:00.003+08:00

Daphne Yap is a freelance artist working in Los Angeles doing concept design.

As this book is on sketches, don't expect anything polished, although some of the details are intricately rendered with pencils. There are concept designs on fashion, creatures, insect ladies (no typo here), sea creature ladies (no typo here as well), toy designs and other sketches.

The theme throughout has a heavy focus on surrealism and fantasy.

The pencil sketching style might not appeal to everyone. I personally prefer pen and ink sketches more.

Pictures of Absolute Sandman with Slipcase

2009-01-15T10:00:00.001+08:00

I love looking at people's bookshelves and see what they've got. So today, I did a search for Absolute Sandman on Flickr. All pictures shown in this entry are from Flickr and will link back to their respective owners.

Absolute Sandman is actually a 4-volume hardcover compilation of all the Sandman issues. It comes with a slipcase. You can read more about Sandman and its history on Wikipedia.

Notice how the Absolute editions have more colours added on.

Oh, and notice the size difference too.

I haven't got a chance to read any Sandman yet, but I shall find a way to get them.

Here are some Amazon links if you want to find out more on the books. The reviews on are overwhelmingly positive.

Country-specific Amazon links for Volume 1:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Country-specific Amazon links for Volume 2:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Country-specific Amazon links for Volume 3:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Country-specific Amazon links for Volume 4:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Book Review: Shadowline: The Art of Iain McCaig

2009-01-14T10:00:00.004+08:00

Iain McCaig (wikipedia link) has been in the art industry doing work for movie studios for a long time. In this book contains illustrations created for Star Wars prequel, Harry Potter and his concept art for other projects. Most of his work are belong to the fantasy genre.

In this book, a fictional interviewer called Bryon is created to introduce readers to the artwork and bring them into Iain McCaig's imaginative world. It's pretty amusing and reads like some fantasy adventure. My minor quibble would be that there isn't a biography of his illustrious career.

Insight Editions is the publisher of this thick and big book at 240 pages. It's hardcover with a beautiful matte dust jacket.

Inside are lots of glorious concept art, mainly to character designs. They are made up of paintings and sketches. Each is reproduced brilliantly on the glossy paper, showing intricate details of ink, pencil or colour strokes as well as the texture of the medium. The large pages enhance the viewing pleasure.

While there are some digital paintings, most of the illustrations featured are done using traditional medium, showing texture and grain.

This book is highly recommended to fans of Iain McCaig, fantasy artists, concept artists and character designers. It's very inspiring and overflows with creativity.

Special thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this short review.

Book Review: Comickers Art

2009-01-13T10:00:00.002+08:00

For anyone who's just starting out drawing manga style, this book provides useful information on colouring.

Different colouring tools are introduced. Each are explained on their characteristics and tips on using them.

The featured artists in this series are Saya Iwasaki, Hiroki Mafuyu, Ayumi Kasai, Hamlet Okinawa, Renji Murata, Kim Jyung-Tae and Houden Eizo. These artists goes through tips on their colouring process with their tools: markers, coloured ink, water colour, acrylic paint and digital colouring. These are step by step tutorials with detailed captions.

Additionally, there are Q&A interviews with some of the artists.

Right at the end is a gallery containing illustrations created from a variety of medium. These are from other manga artists.

This book is a great book for beginners. Experts might learn something new too, especially on exploring new colouring techniques and medium.

If you like this book, check out Japanese Comickers 2 also.

Comic & art book releases 13-14 Jan 2009

2009-01-13T09:00:00.001+08:00

Unfortunately, I'm unable to list every single comic or art book release due to lack of information and resources.

This list below is my quickest way to show you visually what's coming up.

In any case, I encourage readers to support their local comic retailers whenever possible. Visiting comic shops is cool.

Open Season 2 and Shrek straight to DVD

2009-01-12T10:41:00.004+08:00

Do you know that Open Season 2 is a straight-to-dvd (Amazon link)? Or do you even know it exists?

The trailer doesn't look very good.

By the way, they have a straight-to-dvd addition to Shrek as well, called Shrek The Halls (Amazon link). And they are selling that for $12 for a 22 minutes video. Not really worth the money.

Coraline, Gundam, Tim Maughan Books and stuff

2009-01-11T21:26:00.006+08:00

Coraline the movie

It's coming out in February this year. Coraline is based on a book written by Niel Gaiman, and the movie is directed by Henry Selick.

There are already a few Coraline books released as promotional tie up to the movie. The one that's on my shopping list is the hardcover Coraline movie visual companion (Amazon link). Notcot has two fabulous entry on Coraline as well. They look like props from the movies. Read here and here.

There's also a graphic novel version which was released in June 2008 (Amazon link). linesandcolors just had a short writeup about the Coraline graphic novel.

Gundam's 30th Anniversary

This year is also Gundam's 30th anniversary. It seems that there will be two art books released to commemorate the anniversary. Both are in Japanese though. I hope there will be English translations.

Massive Black art book

It seems that the Massive Black art book vol 1 would be out on 13 January 2009. Not sure if the source is accurate because there's still no news from Ballistic Publishing.

Tim Maughan Books

This blog by Tim Maughan is actually very similar to Parka Blogs. Instead, he reviews mainly Japanese art books, anime and other stuff from Japanese culture. There are lots of great reviews and plenty of pictures to see.

Animation books preview for 2009

This animation books preview is done by Amid Amidi of cartoonbrew.com.

The few books that caught my eyes are Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant and Joe Ranft. I've heard much about the two Joes but don't actually know anything more other than the fact that they used to work for Disney and Pixar. Both have, sadly, passed away. Hopefully the book would be a good tribute to them and their work.

Book Review: d'artiste Matte Painting

2009-01-11T10:00:00.000+08:00

Matte Painting is the third book in the d'artiste Digital Artists Master Class series. The series is actually a look at the process of creating art in tutorial style. This book presents Alp Altiner, Dylan Cole and Chris Stoski.

Each artist has a biography written by themselves on their beginnings, education, inspiration, life and career in art. The tutorials that follow are very well captioned. They explain the style, idea and the execution. Each comes with a still from the work in progress. There are lessons on using photo reference for compositing and texturing, fixing perspective and other useful tips.

Right after the tutorials is an invited artist gallery. That's where the 4 artist choose some of their favourite paintings from other artists and talk about them. This gallery is impressive. Let's just say talent shortage in the art industry is not a big problem.

This book is fairly pricey, as with all Ballistic books. I think it's pretty worth the money, considering that finding tutorials like this on the Internet is nearly impossible.

Book Review: d'artiste Concept Art

2009-01-10T09:00:00.000+08:00

Want to paint like the pros? There's nothing better than learning from the pros themselves.

Concept Art is the fourth book in the d'artiste Digital Artists Master Class series. The series is actually a look at the process of creating art in tutorial style. This book presents George Hull, Andrew Jones, Nicolas Bouvier and Viktor Antonov with a total of 12 tutorials.

Each artist has a biography written by themselves on their beginnings, education, inspiration, life and career in art. The tutorials that follow are very well captioned. They explain the style, idea and the execution. Each comes with a still from the work in progress.

Right after the tutorials is an invited artist gallery. That's where the 4 artist choose some of their favourite paintings from other artists and talk about them. This gallery is impressive. Let's just say talent shortage in the art industry is not a big problem.

This book is fairly pricey, as with all Ballistic books. I think it's pretty worth the money, considering that finding tutorials like this on the Internet is nearly impossible.

Preview pages for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

2009-01-10T08:54:00.002+08:00

Here are some page previews from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Skottie Young. Nice

Notice that you don't get to see Dorothy's face? Strange.

Comic & art book releases 8 Jan 2009

2009-01-09T19:55:00.003+08:00

I'll be listing new releases for comic and art books from now, as and when I have information on new and upcoming books.

Since Darkstalkers is on the list, I'll like to mention that Udon is calling for entries for their new art book called Darkstalkers Tribute. Doesn't that familiar to some Street Fighter Tribute book?

Anyway, here's the page to the Darkstalkers contest.

I read this on Udon at deviantart. By the way, they have a stunning art gallery, of course, so check it out.

Ok, here's the list for comics and art books for 6-12 Jan 2009.

Book Review: Masters of Deception

2009-01-09T10:00:00.000+08:00

This book is a delightful treat to anyone who loves optical illusion.

Here's a quote from the author, Al Seckel, in the introduction:

In researching and presenting optical illusions to wide audiences, I have found that their effect on people is very primal. It does not matter how old they are, how artistic they are, how intelligent they are, what their background or culture is; people just love optical illusions and enjoy being deceived in a delightful and surprising way.

He has done a terrific job at research on the subject, collecting over hundreds of paintings all the way back from the 16th century. Many of the optical illusions found on the Internet are just extensions or interpretation of these masterpieces.

There are 20 artists featured in the book. Every one comes with a well written introduction and a gallery of their best work. While the book can't print all the art work for each artist, it has packed enough to entertain for hours. Each is also captioned to explain the idea and inspiration behind.

There's an incredible array of artistic style used in creating optical illusions. There's Escher who plays with perspective, Shigeo Fukuda who works with light and shadow and many more.

This is a very entertaining book.

The Running Jetsons

2009-01-08T12:09:00.001+08:00

A fun piece. Colouring in Illustrator isn't very time efficient.

Book Review: Tapestry The Paintings of Robert E. McGinnis

2009-01-08T09:00:00.002+08:00

I've no idea who this guy is. When I first flipped open the book, I was like, "Wow, this guy is good!"

Robert E. McGinnis (born 1926) is an amazing painter. He has drawn over 1200 book covers. This book contains a selection of those covers, together with movie posters, landscape paintings, western art, ladies and miscellaneous paintings. He has done film posters for Breakfast at Tiffanys and James Bond just to name a few.

Why is this guy so good?

He can draw women very well. So well that each is termed 'The McGinnis Woman'. His understanding of the female form, and human anatomy is unparalleled. Every lady looks carved out on the paper. The style and elegance are stunning.

His paintings on landscape and cowboys are out of this world good. The composition and the style is just so right.

This book was published in 2000 and will be hard to find. But it's one hell of a book, if only to look at his painted women.

Links:
Robert E. McGinnis Wikipedia entry

Shane Acker and Tim Burton's 9 Coming on 9.9.09

2009-01-07T17:23:00.002+08:00

Directed by Shane Acker, produced by Tim Burton, 9 is looking great. You can check out more of 9 on wikipedia. So far there's very little on it, not every an official movie website.

Here's the original same name short film it was based on. It was created by Shane Acker.

No news on any books coming with the movie as yet.

Book Review: Star Wars Panel to Panel

2009-01-07T10:00:00.001+08:00

This book has plenty to like even for someone who has never read the original Star Wars comics from Dark Horse Comics. The glorious covers are printed on thick white low gloss paper. It's strange that there isn't a hardcover version of the book.

While some comic panels are included, the bulk of the book are on cover art, glorious cover art. Every piece is reproduced brilliantly. Lots of artists have contributed to make for a wonderful variety of artistic style. Every page is captioned.

The illustrations are categorised as follow: Heroes and Allies, Villians and Rogues, The Jedi, Spaceships, The Worlds of Star Wars. At the back is the list of artists involved.

This is a visually tasty art book.

Sketch of a camper

2009-01-07T00:51:00.003+08:00

It has been a long time since I did any sketches. This was done in Adobe Illustrator.

Book Review: The Prince of Egypt: A New Vision in Animation

2009-01-06T10:00:00.001+08:00

When The Prince of Egypt came out in 1998, it featured some spectacular visual effects ever used in animation. In this book, it shows the art and research done for the movie.

It includes set paintings, storyboards and character designs. The production design is excellent. The mood of old Egypt is recreated perfectly with the amazing use of lighting and restricted colour palette.

The text throughout explain the process of making the animation. For example, it talks about the difficulty in portraying Moses, on how costumes had to be designed to look Egyptian, on looking for the right actors for voice acting and more.

At the back of the book is the summary on all areas of production. It includes, the story structure, design, layout, voices, animation, backgrounds, music and effects.

This is a great art book.

Some of the artists involved:
Richard Chavez
Paul Lasaine
Darek Gogul
Ken Harsha
Lorna Cook
Luc Desmarchelier
Carter Goodrich
Christian Schellewald
Ron Lukas
Mike Ploog (wiki)
Carlos Grangel (wiki)
Kevin Turcotte
Sam Michlap
Simon Wells (wiki)
Guillaume Bonamy (blog)
Nathan Fowkes
Donaldo Yatomi
Bari Greenberg
Armen Melkonian
Kelly Asbury
Steve Albert
Kelly Kimball
Alexandre Puvilland (blog)
Mick De Falco
Armand Baltazar
Tianyi Han
Hani D. El-Masri
Bill Kaufman
Kathy Altieri
James Fuji
Rick Farmiloe
Paul Shardlow
Ruben Hickman
Gary Perkovac
Wade Huntsman
Marcos Mateu-Mestre
Bruce Zick
Joty Lam
Cathy Jones
Todd Kurosawa
Karl Wehrli
Ronnie Del Carmen
Barry Jackson
Zhaoping Wei
Barry Atkinson

Book Review: My Italian Sketchbook

2009-01-05T10:00:00.008+08:00

My Italian Sketchbook is a travelogue made with watercolour paintings. The illustrations are drawn by Florine Asch for her Grand Tour of Italy. Included right at the start are two well written stories on the history of Grand Tour, and on Asch's work.

The Grand Tour was the traditional travel of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. You can read more about the Grand Tour on wikipedia.

Covered in the book are places such as Milan, Venice, Verona, Florence, Tuscany, Rome, Naples and Sicily. Captured in watercolour are the amazing architecture of Italian buildings, their people and way of life. The paintings are captioned with personal notes and sometimes with quotes from Asch's favourite books.

The hardcover is actually clothed cardboard with a white textured paper pasted over it for the cover art.

If you like this artistic style, also check out My Paris Sketchbook by Alain Bouldouyre.

Book Review: Mas Creaturas: Monstruo Addendum

2009-01-04T09:00:00.000+08:00

Mas Creaturas is the addendum for Monstruo, an art book Carlos Huante published in 2004.

This book contains additional illustrations on character designs and monsters. Carlos Huante has also included a short introduction on how he uses storytelling to aid in his character design. There are no captions also.

It's a small thin book with only 54 pages. I certainly think that publishing with so few pages is a mistake. After reading his book Monstruo, it left me wanting more. After reading this book, it left me wondering why Carlos Huante didn't choose to wait for more materials before sending to print.

Disturbing anime live action movies coming up

2009-01-03T12:53:00.002+08:00

I've read some scary news on the web. Some of them have already came true. Here's the list.

1. Dragon Ball Evolution

Seriously?

Oh yeah, it's serious enough. They have the Dragon Ball Evoluvation website for it as well.

You can already check out the cast from IMDB. It's not looking good. Not looking good at all.

I can imagine doing a 3D animation movie on Dragon Ball easily. There are countless 3D Dragon Ball computer games available and they show viability. But live action? Seriously? Why would anyone want to take a highly stylized comic and turn it into live action? Because they can?

2. Cowboy Bebop (live action)
When I first read it on conceptart.org, I was stunned beyond words. Cowboy Bebop is one of my favourite anime.

There can only be two outcome to this. It's either going to amazing, or it's going to stink so very bad.

3. Akira (live action)
Warner Brothers has acquired the rights to make this masterpiece anime into two movies. The news might be from Feb 2008 but it still sends chills down my spine.

Book Review: Character Modeling 2

2009-01-03T10:00:00.001+08:00

Character Modeling 2 is an art book at heart with an in depth look at the 3D production process of 3 different artists. It's part of the d'artiste series where artists are featured with their tutorials.

The featured artists in this issue are Kevin Lanning, Timur "Taron" Baysal and Zack Petroc. Each of them comes with a short biography on their life and career in computer graphics.

This is not strictly a tutorial book even though it might look that way. It's a "making of" book that provides multiple screenshots of work in progress. The accompanying captions describes the workflow and techniques used. Different 3D software packages are used, such as Lightwave, 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox, etc. The workflow and techniques presented are universal and can be applied easily to other software, even if the controls are different. That being said, the book provides very useful information and look into different workflows of professional 3D artists.

These guys have been in the computer graphics industry for a long time. Each artist has a gallery included, which showcase the 3D models and projects they have worked on. Each artwork is captioned. It's nothing less than impressive.

Here's the list of "tutorials":
High-poly workflow
Low-poly workflow
Rip and process workflow
Box modeling
ZBrush and texturing
Character creation
Workarounds

This book can be found on Amazon or from Ballistic Publishing.

Parka's goals for 2009

2009-01-02T21:24:00.003+08:00

Here are some goals for Parka Blogs and me in 2009.

Do more art book reviews

Let me start with a short history on how the blog suddenly took the art-book-reviews route.

You guys might have noticed that I've accumulated quite a number of art book reviews so far. In fact, I've only started doing art book reviews more seriously in August 2008. As far as I can remember, my first review is actually The Complete Calvin and Hobbes in 2007.

In August 2008, I came across halcyon realms, a blog by Vong yonghow — Singaporean too! I was searching for some Inoue Takehiko stuff or something. Then I saw a review of The Art of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I thought that was pretty helpful and exceptionally cool. That's when I took out my art books and started reviewing them.

Since I work in a newspaper art department, I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by other artists, among them are two other art book collectors, Kelvin Chan and Jonrob. Jonrob collects comics, design and art books. Kelvin collects toys and art books. Here's a hilarious quote from Kelvin I found on his 10 Dec 08 Deviantart journal entry:

I'm nuts over 'em to a point of needing medical attention.
I think the word is ADDICTED.

So some of the books you see on the blogs are provided by them. Those are the ones with a thanks and link back to their blogs at the end of the reviews.

And then there are those that I borrow from the library. The library is great for finding interesting older out-of-print books.

In 2009, I hope to review more art books. That's dependent on my wallet actually. I'm not particularly rich so I buy mainly CG movie art books — think Pixar and the likes.

Highlight more art blogs

I'll try to post more links to blogs of artists in the art books reviews.

Additionally, I'll also highlight more cool art blogs. I've seen plenty of great ones from my blog followers' blog list. I always check out my follower's blogs and their links.

San Diego Comic Con 2009

I might be heading down to Comic Con 2009 at San Diego in July. It's mainly to take a holiday and if possible, cover the event at the same time. If this actually materializes, it's going to be fantastic.

The air tickets are still insanely expensive. Aren't they suppose to fall with the oil prices?

Draw more

I've been slacking off from drawing last year. I shall draw more cartoons and stuff this year. Can't put those instructional books I bought to waste!

Get more readers

Hopefully, this should play by itself with more content coming up.

Currently there are 300 visitors per day on my blog with 41 Blogger followers. That's really amazing compared to negligible last year, which I won't even bother to check the stats.

It will be great if you guys and gals post a link back to the art book list on your blogs. It should be helpful for your readers too.

Book Review: Luminair: Techniques of Digital Paintings From Life

2009-01-02T10:00:00.003+08:00

More accurately, this book should have been called Luminair: The Art of Nick Pugh. Luminair, as I learned, is digital painting with a computer on location.

To include "techniques of digital painting" in the title is deceiving. There are only two short tutorials on digital painting. One is about an outdoor scene painted during the day, the other is an indoor scene painted at night. The screenshots, if they are provided to explain the text, aren't really helpful because they are a bit small. Oh, this book is rather small in size also, maybe about a palm's size — I've a small hand.

Skipping past the lessons is the art gallery. These are paintings drawn in Los Angeles, New England, New York and other places. The art is great, especially the colours. There are no photos to compare so I don't know if the place is really that beautiful. The captions provided are those you would expect from a travel writer instead of an artist.

In the last chapter are 4 paintings from guest artists.

You can see more art of Nick Pugh on his website, Nick Pugh Studio.

This book is more of a personal sketchbook. It's recommended only to people who like Nick Pugh's style of art.

Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books for review.

Country-specific Amazon links for this book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Check out other books reviewed on this blog, with pictures:
Art book list | Design book list

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T20:46:00.003+08:00

Happy new year 2009!

I hope to do more art book reviews and draw more cartoons. Stay tuned.

Book Review: Counterweight: The Art and Concepts of Rick O'Brien

2009-01-01T10:00:00.001+08:00

Counterweight is a collection of images, observations, and concepts by artist/creator Rick O'Brien.

I would consider the art featured in this book abstract. It might be a little hard to make form and physicality out of some pieces. In simple terms, it translate to,"Hey, nice art, but what is he painting?" For those that I can make out, they are about human characters and the environment.

He uses a lot of traditional medium such as egg tempera, oil, gouche, wood, ink, resin and plaster (for his scuptures).

It's very hard to review abstract. Everyone has their own interpretation. It's better for you to see it and decide for yourself.

Your Favourite Art Books From 2008 Contest Results

2008-12-30T10:00:00.002+08:00

Thanks to everyone for participating in the 2008 favourite art books contest. The response is not bad. Maybe I'll hold another one for 2009.

The winner for this contest/lucky draw is yash gupta. Congratulations, you've won yourself a $20 Amazon voucher!

Below are the other entries from other readers who left their comments. I've provided links back to the readers' websites, and the books are linked to Amazon.

There are lots of books I've not seen before. Thanks for the recommendations!

Nicole

1. Shadowline, the Iain McCaig artbook. It has some of the nicest printing I've seen in a while, and as I'm particularly fond of his sketches, it's definitely one of my favorites. Link: Iain McCaig homepage

2. Art of Paul Bonner. Lots of art, very high quality prints, and plenty of stuff I hadn't seen before. Link: Paul Bonner homepage

3. Mark Schultz, Various Drawings 3 - I really like seeing the process work in these, and I think this one's the best of the bunch. Mark Schultz doesn't get nearly as much attention as he merits, IMO. Link: wikipedia page for Mark Schultz.

Francis Vallejo

1. N.C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonn: BEAUTIFUL repros over 700 pages. A staggering amount of his work is reproduced. Finally a fitting book for this legendary and influential artist. Great photos of his studio. A good balance of smaller thumbnails and full page spreads. Good literature as well. Link: wikipedia page for N.C.Wyeth.

2.VICTOR PROUVÉ (1858-1943): Terrific book on the often overlooked French artist. With a hint of Toulouse Lautrec and Sargent, along with scupltures, Prouve is a great inspiration.

3. JC Leyendecker by Laurence S. Cutler et.al:
Again one of the greatest illustrators to live receives a gorgeous book with great reproductions of all his covers from Colliers to the SE Post. It's a good year for Golden Age Illustrators. Now we just need a Mead Schaeffer book!!!

dugbuddy

1. Fables Covers: The Art of James Jean. With preliminary sketches included for the works it is a wonderful capturing of one of the hottest illustrators recently. Link: James Jean homepage

2. Classical Painting Atelier: by Juliette Aristides. A detailed look into the return of realism in figurative painting. This book is flat out wonderful, a great read, and print wise has great color. Her drawing book companion from 2006 is also a must for any artist.

3. Spectrum 15: Consistently good printing, wonderful imagery, and where else do you ever get to see an collection of talent of this caliper? Link: Spectrum homepage

Otto

1. Art of Kung Fu Panda: What can I say? This is one of the best "art of" books out there. It's up there with The Art of Mulan and The Art and Making of Monster House (also my favorites). Nicolas Marlet is brilliant too!

2. The Totoro Forest Project: Sadly, I do not own the book, but from seeing pictures of the book and all of the artwork on the site, I can already tell that it's an amazing book. All for a good cause too! They're in the talks of a second printing, so I'm prepared to pounce on that! I might just break and get the 1st printing (goes for $200!!).

3. Art of the Modern Movie Poster: International Postwar Style and Design: A monstrous book with movie posters from around the world. There are more than 1,500 images in it. A great book for illustrators, designers, and movie buffs alike.

Lemon

1. The Art of Kung Fu Panda
The art book of the year.

2. Street Fighter Tribute
I love Street Figther and Udon.So this album had to be second.

3. The art of Walle
Great movie and great art book.

Vinod Rams

1. Shadowline: The art of Iain McCaig
Been waiting for it forever. It's great to see some of his non-Star Wars stuff, like the Princess of Mars concepts. I love the personality and sensitivity in his sketches.

2. The Art of Paul Bonner:
The level of detail in his art is amazing and it’s great to finally have a huge collection in one book! The book is big and chunky too!

3. Blade of the Immortal Illustration collection
Another book I’ve been waiting to come out for years! It has a good mix of his old and new covers as well as the amazing grayscale chapter heads.

Peter S

1. "Walt Disney Animation Studio Archive: Story." A wonderful collection of storyboards, showing not just just how pencils drawing depict and diagram movement, but how pencil marks can themselves seems to move.

2. "Willie & Joe: The WWII Years." Watch Bill Mauldin develop as an artist in wartime, with cartoon linework steadily transformed into slumping, slouching, muddy, inky masterpieces.

3. "Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1926-1933." The catalog captures the playfulness of Calder, whose uses wire and metal like a kind of drawing in the air.

Three runners-up: Lynda Barry, "What It Is" (a wonderful comic/diary/sketchbook/writing workshop/collage); Kramer's Ergot 7. (comic artists working at tabloid size, like the Sunday funnies of the early 20th century; Hiroshige, "The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido" (like floating).

inkdestroyedmybrush

1- watching the watchmen - an exhaustive look at Gibbon's work on a true classic of the genre. anyone who wants to be a comic artist should be held and down and forced to look at the amount of work needed to do 12 issues.

2- retroactive - darwyn cooke a neat coffee table book by someone whose style can actually stand up to the enlargement of the pieces!

3 - the art of herge vol 1 - a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of a master - the foremost practicioner of the belgian "clean line" technique

Sanndra SF

1. Kungfu panda - Amazing artbook,saw this book review from a magazine, then found this book in KINOKUNIYA. From character design to environment setting, this book give quality information and really worth to have it.

2. The art of Sparth, Structura - I am a big fan of sci-fi art. i can't wait to see the book after i ordered it from Amazon. The author,Nicolas Bouvier is a very creative person. I like all his works.

3. HellBoy Library Destruction Devil V.1 - For me it is super good book, the book in hardcover, full color printing,high quality paper. The art works is great and fantastic.

nysv

1. Okami official complete works
The book has beautiful artwork in one of my favorite mediums - watercolor & ink. I haven't even played the game, but the art in this book is just stunning and there's nearly 300 pages of it. The US version was finally released last summer, I recommend picking this one up ASAP.

2. Iain Mccaig's Shadowline
Ok, I don't actually have this yet (on order), however I've really liked Mccaig's linework since I first saw it in the SW Episode I artbook. There's something nice in his character drawings, expecting more of the same goodness in this book.

3. An Illustrated Life
I haven't bought other 2008 released artbooks this year, so my third pick is something I don't personally have.
Anyway, this book looks interesting and it's quite cheap. Although it doesn't have pro quality art the content still looks intriguing, kind of like what's in the Postsecret-book or a collection of flickr posts of sketchbook pages. There's a preview video on the youtube for this

yash gupta

1. Kungfu Panda
Awesome character designs. Love how they've managed to play with the big round body of Po.

2. Art of wall-E
Explores everything from robots to aliens to fat blobby humans. bonus:Eve is designed in collaboration with apple product designer.

3. Art of Bolt
Ordered it on amazon.ca will be getting it soon. Love character designs of Rhino. And the book does not contain too many movie stills is a plus.

Andre Kishimoto

1. The Art of Kung Fu Panda
Lots of character designs. The setting of the movie is beautiful and the book is superb (loved the dragon pressed in the front hardcover)

2. The Art of Halo 3
After beating the game, seeing the (art)work behind the masterpiece is something I really enjoyed.

3. Udon's Street Fighter Tribute
Udon kick a**, and the fact that this book contains hundreds of incredible works from around the globe is just great. You can notice various styles and influences here.

Here's my list of top ten art books for 2008. All links are to my book reviews.

The Art of Kung Fu Panda
Street Fighter Tribute
The Sumi and The Water: Vagabond Illustration Collection
The Art and Making of Star Wars Force Unleashed
Fables Covers: The Art of James Jean Vol. 1
The Art of Iron Man
Structura: The Art of Sparth
Mechanika
Trick 'r Treat: Tales of Mayhem, Mystery & Mischief

linesandcolors has also compiled a useful list of list of art books. The lists includes a variety of art books across different genres, styles and mediums.

That's all.

Thanks everyone for participating!

Book Review: The Art of Halo 3

2008-12-29T22:10:00.009+08:00

If you're awed by the fantastic visuals of Halo 3 on screen, this book will give you the concept art that were used to create them

It is filled with concept art on the characters, vehicles, weapons and the environment. Each character comes with lots of design variations. Master Chief itself has 15 variations, all fully painted to the point I can't tell if they are 3D or digital paint. Some of the characters include ODSTs, Arbiter, Brutes, Flood and Strato Sentinel. At the end of the book, several pages are devoted to paintings of Master Chief.

The second and third chapter contains the war vehicles and weapons. There are lots of sketches and paintings. The really cool part is they have included lots of different rifles that weren't use in the game. The captions that appear throughout explain very briefly the ideas behind designs, same goes for all illustrations in the book.

The next section is the environment paintings. All look really fantastic and they printed them big. There are a few beat boards and storyboards but not much.

The last chapter is filled with random stuff. There are photos of miniatures, t-shirts, promotional items and toys.

The book itself is hardcover without any dust jacket with low gloss pages. The paper stock is not thick enough. The paper became wavy from the glorious art printed on it. Luckily, it doesn't affect the visual quality of the pictures in anyway.

This is a wonderful book to complement the game, highly recommended to all concept artists, game developers and fans of Halo 3. For the price, it's worth every cent.

Special thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this short review.

The Venice Chronicles from Enrico Casarosa

2008-12-27T20:20:00.008+08:00

If you love sketchbooks or watercolors, you'll love The Venice Chronicles. It's a sketchbook, travelogue, comic thrown into a sturdy hardcover book with a love story at its core.

The artist is Enrico Casarosa, a story artist at Pixar. He has a blog where he post lots of artwork and thoughts so be sure to check it out!

The sketches in the book are wonderful and watercolor beautiful. The characters are appealing and, well, real. I can't remember if I've seen water colour comics before but there it is in this unique book. The story is about his travel with his girl.

Included also is a section on how they met, and how he used his drawings to attract her attention — of course!

Enrico has created a Flickr set for the book where you can read the pages, best viewed in slideshow mode.

You can also check out the creative process of the book on Enrico's Flickr photoset titled The making of The Venice Chronicles, also best viewed in slideshow mode. I love the photo of him painting and carrying the baby at the same time — multitasking creative talent.

If you like the book, do support him by purchasing a copy.

The books are available on:
Enrico's online store | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Amazon sells it cheaper though. Reviews are already in on Amazon and they are very positive.

Book Review: The Art of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

2008-12-27T10:00:00.001+08:00

This art book is noticeably better that the already good The Art of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

This time round, even more details are added to the concept art. Most of the sketches are now coloured. As usual, the pages are filled to the brim with character designs, environment paintings, storyboards, sculptures and ships. All drawings are captioned by the individual artists on the idea they are trying to bring across.

In some ways, the character designs and sketches look better on book than in the movie. The environment paintings are just epic.

Included also, at the back of the book, is the full script for the movie.

This book is highly recommended to sci-fi artists, concept artists and of course Star Wars fans.

Also check out The Art of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and The Art of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Special thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this short review.

Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books for review.

Country-specific Amazon links for the hardcover book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Country-specific Amazon links for the paperback book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Check out other books reviewed on this blog, with pictures:
Art book list | Design book list

Book Review: The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King

2008-12-25T20:15:00.013+08:00

The publisher of this book is Insights Editions, one of my favourite publishers. Their art books always have extra goodies, at least for the ones I bought. In this case, there are two 8” x 10” original art cards in a tipped-in-vellum sleeve and a 12-page booklet on the creation of Sindragosa.

This is a paperback book and the binding doesn't look strong (see an example). Strangely, no hardcover version alternative is available. The pages are rather glossy and oily fingers will definitely leave smudges. They are given the silver-color treatment and the text printed on these silver "plates" is extremely classy.

The book details the production process of the animation in great detail. There is conceptualization, story development, character development, production design and even the 3D execution. To make the book complete, they also included how they did the soundtrack and audio.

On the art side, it starts off with storyboards on the introduction of Tuskassr and Lich King's entrance. Following that are pages of characters, armour, monsters, dragons and environment paintings. There's a generous amount of concept art on Sindragosa and the undead. Also included are multiple screenshots of their 3D creation process like creating matte paintings, composition, animating, rendering, etc. This book is literally packed with artwork.

Blizzard has done a tremendous job with the book and with their game. They have brought together a brilliant team of artists to showcase their talent to the world.

The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King is a stunning art book. I recommend it to all fans of World of Warcraft, or any fantasy concept artists.

Special thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this short review.

Book Review: Spider-Man The Icon: The Life and Times of a Pop Culture Phenomenon

2008-12-25T10:00:00.001+08:00

This is a behemoth of a book, in terms of size and content. Spider-man has been given an impressive coverage.

The amount of research done by author Steve Saffel shows. Included is the whole history of Spider-man up to the blockbuster movies. That's from when Stan Lee was only a coffee boy and comics were only 12 cents!

There's everything a Spider-man fan could wish to read about. Licensing, toys, media coverage, marketing of comics overseas, re-adaption to different mediums and so much more. The book is written in chronological order. We can see how Spider-man has changed and garnered the immerse popularity it has today.

There are tons of pictures in the book. Included are comic covers, toys merchandise, sketches, posters and photos. Every one is well captioned. The clear evolution for Spider-man and his villains can be clearly seen flipping through the pages.

There are 320 pages, a rather thick book made more so with the high quality minimal-gloss paper. It will take a while to finish the book.

It's highly recommended to all fans of Spider-man.

Meanwhile, if you like Spider-man 3 the movie, you should also check out The Spider-man Chronicles.

Some books for 2009

2008-12-24T12:30:00.012+08:00

Here are some books that I'm shortlisting to get in 2009.

Art of Up

The cover art of The Art of Up is out. I've all of Pixar's movie art books. This will just be another great addition. The movie's going to be out 29 May 2009, and the book 13 May 2009.
Links: Pixar's Up | Wikipedia | Trailer | Amazon

Art of Pixar Short Films
Most of the short films are available for viewing at pixar.com. The book should be out 21 January 2009.
Link: Amazon

The Art of Monsters vs. Aliens
Here's Dreamworks' animation for 2009, Monsters vs. Aliens. The movie will be out 27 March 2009 and the book in March 2009.
Links: Official movie homepage | Wikipedia | Trailer | Amazon

The Art of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

This is Studio Ghilbi's animated film for 2008, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Actually the Japanese version for the art book is already out. I'm just waiting for the English version from Viz Media which should be out 3 March 2009.
Links: Wikipedia | Jap preview 1 | Jap preview 2 | Amazon

Watchmen: The Art of the Film

Watchmen, yes. The movie trailer is looking pretty promising. The book should be out 10 Feb 2009. The movie starts 6 March 2009.
Links: Official movie homepage | Trailer | Wikipedia | Amazon

Watchmen: The Official Film Companion
I hope this is the making-of book and I hope it's a good one. Coming out on 10 Feb 2009 as well.
Links: Amazon

Watchmen: Portraits
This is a risky book to get. I've absolutely no idea what's inside.
Links: Amazon

Watchmen (Absolute Edition)
I guess over 600 user reviews averaging at 5 stars says that this is a very good book.
Links on Amazon: Absolute edition | Hardcover | Paperback

Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Comics and Sequential Art (Will Eisner Instructional Books)
I bought Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative which was pretty good. These two shouldn't be too bad. The reviews are very positive on Amazon for Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Comics and Sequential Art.

Shadowline: The Art of Iain McCaig
Iain McCaig is the guy who drew many of the character designs for Star Wars. The art book is actually available for sale, and is one of the more pricey ones I've seen so far. You can read the user reviews that are already up on Amazon.

Color and Composition
The author's Hans Bacher. He has been a production designer in the animation industry for many years. I've his previous book Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation, which is really good. On his blog, I read that he's working on this book for late 2009.

The Art of Halo 3: Prima Official Art Book
I've heard great things about the book on internet forums. The book is already out and there are user reviews on Amazon.

The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King
I like the fact that the publisher is Insight Editions. They have pretty good art books for movies. The ones I have are Open Season, Surf's Up, Kung Fu Panda, Monster House, Madagascar, Shrek and Trick 'r Treat.
Links: Amazon

Animation Unleashed: 100 Principles Every Animator, Comic Book Writers, Filmmakers, Video Artist, and Game Developer Should Know
Because the book title had the word "animation" in it. I like to read stuff about animation — you can easily guess that — although I'm not really in the animation industry. The book is already out and the user reviews are very positive.

Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation
Oh, I'm also interested in storytelling. This book is also currently available for sale on Amazon. If you're into storytelling, there's a great book called Ideas for the Animated Short that you should probably check out.

Massive Black Volume One
Massive Black is a full production artwork and asset outsourcing studio that has contributed to over 85 projects for multiple video game platforms, film, print, toys, comics and more. Ballistic will be publishing the art book and is now taking pre-orders. It should be out Jan 2009. You can read more information and some preview pages on the forum at conceptart.org

Star Wars: Frames

This book represents the ultimate test for wealthy Star Wars fans. It's limited to 1138 copies going at USD4000 per set. You can read more information at starwars.com. Amazon's selling at USD5500 but I'm sure the price will match that from Sideshow Collectibles at USD4000 soon. A sample copy will be on display at San Diego Comic-Con 2009.

This ultimate collectible is from Insight Editions and will be available in May 2009.

Oh, no, I'm not going to get this one. It's way out of my galaxy. Besides, getting the Blu-ray version of the movies will still be a whole lot more affordable.

So what art books are you getting for 2009?

Book Review: Worlds: A Mission of Discovery

2008-12-24T10:00:00.002+08:00

This is essentially a movie style picture book. This book is huge. The width is just shorter than my keyboard.

The story premise is on space exploration. It is told in a photo essay way with captions and quotes. The write up is pretty interesting.

Here's an excerpt:

Toxicity analysis showed that a large portion of the creature's body was incompatible with my digestive system, so I carefully avoided those areas. Even so, after eating I became violently ill, suffering nausea and hallucinations for two days. I discovered the only edible tissue is the facia between the skin and muscle. Even that tastes like a shoe marinated in battery acid.

The pictures included in the book are amazing, and big. They look as if taken from a real camera, with details like depth of field. The creatures created are very realistic. I've absolutely no idea how they create those creatures. A quick look at the credits on the back suggest a combination of 3D and sculptures.

This is an interesting book that can be read as fast as a comic book.

Validation

2008-12-23T17:35:00.001+08:00

This is a nice short film that shows that everyone could do with a little validation, and a smile.

Book Review: Star Wars Chronicles

2008-12-23T10:00:00.001+08:00

This book is very similar to Star Wars Chronicles: The Prequel which I reviewed before. That book is for Episodes I, II and III. This book is for Episodes IV, V and VI.

At 320 pages, this is an enormous book. It's encased in a slipcase cardboard with cutouts to reveal the cover behind. It's very well bind, and the paper stock is great. The first print was back in 1997 and the second in 2006. It might be hard to find this book but I'm sure it will be back for more reprints.

This book is no doubt the most complete and exclusive collection compiled for Star Wars. These materials include -- huge breath in -- hundreds of behind the scenes photos, film stills, models of ships, character designs, miniatures, character models, robots, creatures, props, costumes -- another long breath in -- vehicles, planets, plot lines and anything you can think of. The captions are detailed and explain the concept behind every picture provided.

The photos included show a lot of detail on the subject. Multiple shots are often taken from each side, especially so for vehicles. Every photo is captioned and explained. There is very little concept art, but for that you have to get the art-of series of books.

In addition to the core Episodes, there is also archive information on The Star Wars Holiday Special, The Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.

It's the most comprehensive book detailing everything about everything in a movie.

The price might be hefty, but it is well worth it for any Star Wars fan.

Book Review: Pure Animation: Steps to Creation With 57 Cutting-edge Animators

2008-12-22T10:00:00.001+08:00

This book is very close to being a disaster.

By choosing to include the work of 57 animators, the depth of the book is seriously compromised. The production process is explained in only 4 paragraphs or so. It's incredibly condensed. There seem to be no challenges and obstacles at all. As if creating animation is that easy! Wow.

There's also something seriously wrong with the screenshots. The book is trying to show us the short film by a series of sequential screenshots.

First of all, for all those short films without strong composition and visual style, the lack of audio — it's a book for goodness sakes — totally rendered those screenshots useless.

Secondly, screenshots doesn't pace as well as comic panels. You can experience it yourself. Just go to any video streaming site and find your favourite video. Turn off the audio. Hit the pause button for the video to load in full. Now click at different spots on the play bar until the end. Yes. That's what the screenshots in this book is about.

When the subject in the film is moving from right to left, and the screenshots read from left to right, there's pure confusion. It just doesn't feel right.

I've a big question. Do film makers review their films by playing the video or looking at screen shots of the video? If I'm the film maker, I choose the former. Guess what. There's no disc included with the book! There's also no book companion website. In the book, there are also no URL links to the featured videos or to the animation company! Seriously? Seriously??

This is a catalog book that should have come with a disc. And if it's a catalog book, at least present it like one. A good example is Animation Now!.

I can't think of the type of readers I can recommend this book to.

Superman and Emma Frost Speed Paint Tutorial

2008-12-21T20:37:00.004+08:00

These are done by friend Kelvin Chan, who also collects a lot of art books. He has a deviantart page also, with lots of great art.

One's on Superman, obviously, and the other is on Emma Frost.

Book Review: Structura: The Art of Sparth

2008-12-21T10:09:00.000+08:00

Nicolas Bouvier is Sparth.

He has been an art director and concept designer in the gaming industry since 1996. Born in France, he now lives in Dallas, TEXAS, working for IDsoftware.

Included in the book are concept art and matte paintings from his impressive portfolio. Some projects he has worked on includes Alone in the Dark (2001), Prince of Persia - Warrior Within (2004), Cold Fear (2005), and Assassin's Creed (2007). Art for Alone in the Dark and Cold Fear are not included.

The theme for his art is primarily futuristic science fiction and space. There are quite a few cityscape paintings with flying ships. The worlds he created as just as imaginative as Star Wars. There's no caption on the art except for the titles and dates.

This book is recommended especially to science fiction concept artists.

Sparth has a website for the book, as well as a blog. You can find additional paintings in his art galleries.

If you interested in science fiction art, you might also want to check out Stephan Martiniere.

Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books for review.

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Check out other books reviewed on this blog, with pictures:
Art book list | Design book list