1 Nov 2015, 21:34
@Asatira Thanks for pointing out the James Gurney one. My wish list is getting longer by the day too!
Recommended Book List
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My favorite instructional books are by Stephanie Pui-mun Law - They are aimed at watercolor instruction, but still have tons of great information on design and color
I just picked up Shadowline - Art of Iain McCaig and Art of Totoro, both are just incredible!! I would recommend Shadowline to everyone!
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Wow, thanks @Lynn-Larson - these are some more books I've never heard of. I'm learning loads from this thread haha.
Ace
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@Ace-Connell I buy one art book a month, whether it is a reference book or an art of book. I try to mix it up - different artists, or different reference. I have star wars books, one is a cutaway...OMG! This month i picked up art of how to train your dragon, but havent had a chance to look through it. Next month will be a ref book, i think i'm going to look for an arch style. Amazon has tons of them, and i get used ones. they are cheaper, and i don't have to worry about using them more
- 8 days later
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@rich-green When we were talking about perspective before, the book I listed in my first post (David Chelsea Perspective! for Comic Book Artists) may be quite helpful.
It's actually set out like a comic book, the whole thing, and manages to explain perspective in a really entertaining way. Here's a photo of inside to show you what I mean.
Ace
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@Ace-Connell thanks! I am adding it onto my book wishlist (which seems to have grown much longer ever since our discussions have started)!!!
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@Rich-Green I'd apologise but we both know that it'd be disingenuous
Ace
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You have mentioned a lot of books that I would list. So, these are bit more focused on comics, but some of what's in them would apply to art in general.
If you're interested in making comics, check out Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Making Comics. The first is good for understanding the general history of sequential art, the theory behind it, and a little on the story telling elements. Making Comics is good for creating comics, not just in the mechanics but it also touches on elements such as facial expressions and body gesture, perspective, and pacing.
Another good one is Framed Ink by Marocs Mateu-Mestre, and he focuses on visual storytelling. This is a good one if you're interested in composition and story telling through your images, whether through a single image or a series of images, such as in a comic or animation or live action.
One good general art book would be James Gurney's other book, Imaginative Realism, which helps make the transition from drawing what you see into drawing imaginary scenarios. The core idea is if you want to sell your fantastic image, base it on the real world, and this book shows you how.
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@Asatira Thanks for pointing out the James Gurney one. My wish list is getting longer by the day too!
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@Asatira The Scott McCloud ones are fun. If you've not, check out that perspective one I referenced a couple of posts up - he teaches perspective in the same way that Scott McCloud does and at the beginning he sights Scott's book as a huge influence.
@Dulcie The James Gurney books are awesome. I've got Imaginative Realism but not read it yet. I've read Color and Light though and it's great. Instead of fully teaching and saying do this, then that, it gives you food for thought and the facts behind things and how they've been used in his work and others.
Ace
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@Dulcie He's also got a pretty spectacular blog with loads of great content - http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.co.uk
Ace
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@Ace-Connell I added the Color & Light one onto my wish list a few days ago - they were talking about it in the SVS Colour & Light video and it does look very good! I re-acquired the Dinotopia books recently after my parents had a clear-out, so it would be nice to understand his way of working... I will take a look at his blog, thanks for the link
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I just added to my wish list - Creative illustration by Andrew Loomis. Just by flipping through it you can see that it gets so deep into composition like no other book I ever seen. Also, there is a free scan on the web, poor scan, but legal
Also do you have some favourite reference books? For example I just bought "Racinet: Complete Costume History" for references on historical clothing. Since it was really hard to google some good 12th century clothing references and be sure it is somewhat accurate.