Hey there guys! I hope this week has been extra fun for you and that you have been starting the new year right. I got a late Christmas present from my boyfriend a day ago, and I was so happy to find out it was a Kim Jung Gi 2016 art collection! I absolutely love art books, they’re my go to when I can’t pull together any motivation. I also just like looking to them for inspiration and they’re just plain old fun to have. I’m pretty proud of my collection, in fact, so this week I thought I’d talk about my top 5 art books. (In no particular order because you can’t pick a favorite book like, ever)

Geori’s Top 5 Art Books

1. Kim Jung Gi Sketch Collection

Firstly, I have to talk about one of my all time favorite artists, Kim Jung Gi. He is amazing in that his drawings all have such expansive and wonderfully complex layers to them, you always find something new to look at. He can basically draw anything, at any angle,mas he has a large mental library of all sorts of things he has drawn over and over until he became a pro at them. He is great at perspective in large and complex city drawings.

There are multiple sketch collections, so you can choose from hundreds of his art pages to look at. Though fair warning, there is some adult content, so if you’re looking for something for a younger artist, you may want to look elsewhere. Even so, This artist and his book definitely brings inspiration to anyone looking at them.

 

2. Art of Tangled

I have multiple Art Of books that are from Disney movies, Moana and Frozen included, and I recommend them all! They give you a great look into the research process that goes into them, as well as key notes, and beautiful concept art. In all of them there is also a lot of commentary from the multiple artists, which puts you in their shoes to help understand what it was that inspired them throughout the creative processes in making the movie.

I especially love them because they have a lot of character designs. In the Tangled one, as well as the others, you can see the growth of the characters from the start to finish. I also really love that they include expressions and different angles, so you really get a feel for what they had planned for the specific characters.

3. Dawn: The Works of Final Fantasy

Yoshitaka Amano is very well known for his watercolor art that goes into the concepts of the Final Fantasy video game series. His beautiful work is a mixture of Asian and western influences, and are always brightly colored. It is also interesting to see a behind the scenes look to the games, although it is a completely different feel than the art of books from Disney. Amano’s works, though messy looking, also give a finished feeling and each one very well counts as a finished masterpiece by itself.

If you’re not interested in Final Fantasy, you can still look at these works and view them from an outsider’s point of view. Amano has also done work for Vampire Hunter D, another classic in Japan. He has other art books with art for that show, and they are just as gorgeous, watercolors, inks, and markers are working wonderfully together in beautiful flowing artworks that can stand completely alone.

4. Iroiro

A little more obscure, but Iroiro is an art book for the artist Kato Kazue, creator and artist for the comic called Blue Exorcist. While manga art may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I love her work because it adds something different to my collection. Not only that, and besides the fat I am a fan of her manga series, her colors are bright and beautifully chosen. She works both traditionally and digitally, and in both manners she manages to create such bright and mesmerizing colors and compositions. The expressions on her characters are always fun to study, and each one has their own personalities that show themselves in her illustrations.

Her art itself is different because she works on an action oriented story. While there is no lack of female artists in the Japanese comic industry, most females work on love stories or fantasy. Kazue Kato’s work stands out for that reason because she is also able to make a dent on the male oriented section of the comic books, which is really amazing. My other favorite artist, Katsura Hoshino does the same, and the only reason her art book didn’t make it on this list was because the book is oriented solely for her comic, while Kato’s includes some solo pieces as well. If you liked one art style, however, you probably will also enjoy the other!

5. The Art of Dreamworks Animation

Last but not least, this book is amazing because it contains art work bits for every movie the studio has worked on. While there are separate books for separate movies, such as Shrek and Rise of the Guardians, and even How to Train your Dragon, they are wrapped up wonderfully in this book. It includes story notes, character designs, but also backgrounds, which is my favorite part of this entire book. Backgrounds aren’t really things I’ve enjoyed, but I feel inspired greatly by them in this book, and they make me want to jump in and make them for myself and my illustrations.

Well, that’s all for this week. Let me know if you guys have any recommendations for art books, I’m always looking to add more to my collection! And let me know if you want some recommendations for art instructional books! Until next time, keep on creating guys! See ya!