The Art of Steamboy

The Art of Steamboy, Katsuhiro Otomo's 2004 steampunk masterpiece. This book seemingly has all the background paintings and a lot of the preliminary sketches, and I seriously mean, a lot. A shame there aren't many mechanical model sheets or sketches, because the Steamboy film had some really great mechanics. Still if you're a background artist or interested in background art or old Victorian England, this is a book you should definitely check out.

The Art of Steamboy
Kodansha
272 pages HC
ISBN4-06-364602-5

Hugo Pratt; Periples Secrets

Hugo Pratt; Periples Secrets. This is the matching sibling book to an earlier peek, Hugo Pratt; Periples Imaginaires. Theyre both lovely books and look great together on the shelf, but if you only can have one, definitely go for the first one, Periples Imaginaires.
I do really like those Indochine boards though. If youre a fan of his work both these books are definitely for you!

Casterman
415 pg HC
ISBN 978-2-203-01048-2

Pierre Lambert's Pinocchio

Here we are again, Peek-a-book Monday. I've been slightly focused on series or sets of books, and this week well take a look at the first of Pierre Lambert's lovely Disney series, Pinocchio. This is a sibling book to an earlier peek, Blanche Niege. I believe there at at least two others in this series; Mickey Mouse and The Jungle Book.
Pinocchio is filled mostly with concepts and background production paintings. You wont find many animation boards but there definitely are a few and also a few style sheets. Really nice, thick, ultra glossy paper and a couple fold out pans.
Along with Bambi, probably some of the finest background painting work to ever be seen on the screen or off.
Really great book for the background/Layout artist or anyone whos a fan of the movie.

Pinocchio
Pierre Lambert
Hyperion
235pg HC
ISBN 0-78686247-5

Joseph Urban

Architect Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) came to the US in 1912 to be the art director for the Boston Opera Company. Although he moved on to design ornate interiors, and entire buildings, hes always focused on framing a scene- I dont know if I've seen anyone continually design such great framing elements into his Scenes. This guy is so bad ass!
If youre into set design and all the things great set design can do for things that are not necessarily sets, definitely check out this book!


Joseph Urban
John Loring
224 pgs (HC)
Abrams Publishers
ISBN 978-0-8109-9026-5

Art of District 9

So I'll confide to you that Im already a long time Neill Blomkamp fan so obviously I'm going to beam about this Art of District 9 book. The production design of that film was absolutely tremendous. This book details a lot of what was put into that world. Of course all the alien weaponry and ships are super impressive and dripping with cool, but one thing that this book really highlights is all the fantastic graphic design that was created to sell that world as an actual, believable place. All the Alien and Human graphics, tags, vehicle markings and brand identity of the MNU is just so edgy and bad-ass. They really did a great job on this movie and I cant say enough on of how the art of book puts and explanation point or two behind the statement. Really good job you guys.

The Art of District 9: WETA Workshop
160 pages HC
ISBN 978-1-86950-902-6
Harpers Collins Publishers