One of my faavorite sitting spots

The Art of Brave

Here we go again, another PIXAR book out and up my PIXAR shelf. This one's a little thin compared to the others but it's still pretty cool and has all the aspects you come to expect in an Art of Book from this premier animation studio. Couple things stand out to me, the biggest one is the talented team of artists on the project. Steve Purcell, his pal Mike Mignola, Character design legends Carter Goodrich and Daniel Lopez Munoz, along with artists Steve Pilcher, Huy Nguyen and Noah Klocek, AND my favorite bits, sculpted foam and acrylic paint maquettes from long time PIXAR artist Tia Crater, among many others fill the volume. Ive never been to the old country but Im sure it looks quite a lot like this- Dark, Rich colors, and Cold.
I saw Secret of Kells a number of years ago and seeing the Brave trailer I right away noticed quite a bit of similarities, but now that Ive seen the book and have a little bit of an idea of the film itself Im a little bit more comfortable with realizing this is definitely a different movie.

The Art of Brave
Jenny Lerew
Chronicle Books (2012)
159 Pages (HC)
ISBN 978-1-4521-0142-2
11.25 x 9.25 x .09

A deal at 22 Doll-hairs on Amazon

The Art of Disney

The story kinda goes like this:
In 1960, several hundred concept paintings and drawings personally selected by Walt Disney were sent to Japan to promote the release of Sleeping Beauty. 
The art was shortly there after donated to Tokyo Museum of Modern Art. Not seeing the collection as valuable they sent it to Chiba University of Science and Engineering. Chiba University, being a science school, put the art in cardboard boxes and stored it in a damp janitors closet and there it stayed for 50 years until being re-discovered in 2002. The art, some of which in very poor condition was restored and the collection with 350 more bits of additional art from Disney toured Japan before finally being returned the Disney archives.
This is the catalog from that exhibit-
It's a rare book. 
A few things in it Ive seen in the Disney Design and Background books- but much of it Ive never seen ever before. The catalog is broken into sections according to artist instead of film- so get ready to see real mouth fulls of Tyrus Wong, Eyving Earle, Mary Blair along with all the rest of the Disney greats. Id say if I could only have 1 Disney book, this is definitely the one Id want. 

The Art of Disney
245 pgs (SC)
Pretty rare, this book- I cant even direct you to where to find one, I got mine from the amazing Stuart Ng, but his stock has long been gobbled up. Keep your eyes out for it cause its a real gem!

Barcelona Sketchbook

Quality time with the Mini-Moleskine in the BCN. Our terrace above Rambla de la Catalunya.

The Art of Princess and The Frog

Here is another great art book of a movie I did not see. Im not particularly fond of animated musicals but I respect that Disney chose to back track and give the old musical format a new life in one of their latest films; Princess and The Frog. Its a tricky job, these Princess films, and adding an ethnic element to the narrative, and one with the particular dark history of old American South had to have made quite a mine field of stereotypes and false historical perceptions and romanticizations for the visual developers to overcome. With that said Disney handles it reasonably well I suppose, or as well as they always have with previous films like Pocahontas and personally, the only designs that seemed cringe worthy to me were the prince concepts- but hey, what do I know about what little girls or whoever Disney targeted to the prince to like? But that was pretty much it- everything else looks great and you'll see it all in this book; Sketches, Storyboards, Character Designs, Maquettes, Background Paintings, Effects Animations, and some nice critiques of Legendary Disney Dev Artist Tyrus Wong and how they wanted to apply his composition techniques to their current film. Special mentions to Ian Gooding and Lorelay Bove who's artwork on the film and in the book particularly stands out to me.
Nice balance across all topics- sometimes books lean to be heavy in character design or heavy in background art, Jeff Kurti has done a good job in curating the billions of pieces of art from this film and made a really nicely balanced book.

The Art of Princess and The Frog
Jeff Kurti
Chronicle Books (2009)
160 Pages HC
ISBN 978-0-8118-6635-4
11.5 x 9.25 x .75

I think this book is out of print but you can still find new reasonably priced copies out there.
Seems like theyre going for about 40 clams.

BCN with the Mini-Moleskine

You may of heard I got lost. It was 9am after a red eye flight from JFK-BCN and they weren't letting us into our room until after 12. I took a stroll through the silent sunday morning neighborhoods. Sometime between 11 and 12 all the street cafes opened, transforming the street I was looking for into something completely unrecognizable.
I hadn't bothered to take note of the name of my street nor the name of our hotel (I was positive I could find it again) and I ended up wandering the streets all day trying to figure out what to do and how to get back to my wife and luggage. Luckily my panic was contained by my mini-moleskine and the sheer beauty of that city and its architecture. Eventually  I saw a green parrot dart down a street and assumed it was a sign, and it was! I assumed I would find my wife either not there, and or worried to death after my all morning and most of the afternoon disappearance. She was still sleeping.

S.F.3.D. Chronicles 1982.5 - 1984.7

Here's book one of the two book S.F.3.D. Chronicles set, documenting the published work of master kit basher and designer Kow Yokoyama between the years of 1982-1984. Im pretty sure all these photographs and bonus materials appeared in various Japanese hobby mags, most likely the benchmark hobby mag of them all, Hobby Japan. Unfortunately the clarity of the pictures are not fantastic. Im not sure why that is, perhaps the shots are lost or printing standards (thankfully) aren't what they once were- but all these pictures look like pictures of pictures and are quite "grainy".
Still, the brilliant designs, dioramas, and well lit shots are so bad ass to behold, and it all looks like a believable future even though it was 30 years ago when these photos were taken. Timeless, and Kow Yokoyama will be a well regarded "futurist" for many many years to come.
If youre not familiar with Mr Yokoyama's work, his other books such as M.a.K. Chronicles (recently reviewed here and here on the Last Outpost) are probably better books to buy- but if youre a full on, drop anything and everything for Kow type of fan, like me, you will really dig this two book set. Sketches, comics, diorama photos and making ofs, as well as a wealth modeling tips (all in Japanese) fill this two book, slip cased set. Stay tuned for a review of Vol 2; 1984-1985

S.F.3.D Chronicles 1982.5 - 1984.7
Hobby Japan Publishing (2010)
202 Pages (SC) Slip Cased
8.25 x 11.5 x .33
ISBN978-4-7986-0101-4 C0076

Im not really finding any prices for this set on the web but there are definitely copies out there. probably bet on paying 80 buckaroos for the imported publication

Cosmic Motors

Fun book from designer Daniel Simon and Design Studio Press focusing on a variety of futuristic vehicles; Racers, Ground Effect Vehicles, Explorer Rigs, Fighters and a handful of other creations nicely presented in a 172 Page book. Lots of sketches and tight marker renderings documenting the development Mr Simon goes through, with more than a handful of these designs being modeled, textured, lit, and composited with a slickly styled slightly dated looking fantasy women and a few men. Im a fan of the drawing and surprisingly I found some appeal in the very polished 3D renders. 

Its funny, even the dirt and grime looks really polished, and it all has a very, LA, Art Center feel to them. Quite a few typical nods to Doug Chiang's designs adds to that Art Center feel and marker rendering technique.

All the slickness and LA is something that both bothers as well as delights me, and oddly has me coming back to this book often in order to figure out if I like this book. Very compelling, or even a feeling I would best describe as controversial- Mr. Simon definitely has kept my attention for the past 5 years whether I like it not. If youre into this type of stuff its a good book to have on the shelf. Quite a few things I can say about the styling of the models on the photo shoots, but I will just leave it at that men will always over-idealize women, and women will always strive to be a gorgeous as possible, but the Future is never what it was in the past, even the most recent of pasts. Cool book.

Sadly the hard cover is out of print but the softcovers are easily found.

Cosmic Motors; Spaceships, Cars and Pilots of Another Galaxy

Daniel Simon

Design Studio Press

145 Pages (HC)

12.1 x 9 x 0.6

Currently 39.95 from the fine folks at Design Studio Press

Saul Bass: A Life of Film & Design

Here is another massive book. 424 pages of the most accomplished artist you probably never heard of but you have definitely seen. This guy is the brains behind a majority of the most iconic graphics and image sequences. This book is absoutely packed full of Logos, Theater Bills, Movie Posters, Stationary, Storyboards, and amazingly well documented sequences of images describing his film, film title sequences commercial, among many other things. Really nice presentation of Mr. Bass's body of work. This guy can really tell story with image, whether its one frame or hundreds. Even if youre not an artist or film "academecian" you will find a lot of delight in this book. It happens quite often that there just isnt enough room on my little book review image to give this guys potential justice. Im leaning to doing a rare second page just to add to the small peak these book reviews offer the rare reader. But he and this book definitely deserves it.

Saul Bass: A Life of Film & Design
Jennifer Bass & Pat Kirkham
Laurence King (Nov 9 2011)
424 Pages (HC)
11.6 x 10.6 x 1.7

A steal for 48 bucks on amazon, or 75 at you favorite local book store

The Art of Herge: Vol 3, 1950-1983

This is likely the last Vol in the 3 Volume set from the Belgium master of Comics, Herge. Its packed entirely of Tintin and is a bit of a victory lap for the entire set. Super handsome cover, opening to reveal some of the most memorable Tintin adventures. Filled with pencil roughs, final pages as well as quite a few promotional pieces. I might of said this about the last volume, but this one is probably the one to get if youre a lover of the series and can only have one. Although, it must be said that all three look great together on the shelf or art table. Still wondering about the French version of these as they have an additional 200 pages of, shoot, I have no idea what! If anyone of the three or four readers of this blog know please leave a comment about it.
Nicely designed book as is the entire series.

The Art of Herge: Inventor of Tinitin 1950-1983 Vol 3
Phillipe Goddin
Last Gasp
208 pages (HC)
12 x 9 x 1
ISBN-10 0867197633
ISBN-13 978-0867197631

Available on Amazon for 33 Dabloons

Cannabis Works

So yeah, here we have a nice one from Tatsuyuki Tanaka. He's got great style and a nice sprinkling of some surreal sorts of content. I think Mr. Tanaka is well known for his commercial work but Im sure hes better known for his Manga and Character designs (of which Im not totally familiar with besides whats in this book). But dont be fooled- his backgrounds are super compelling and what I really like in this book is his multiple thumbnails that are included for many of the illustrations. I dont know if these pass for thumbnails, just because theyre so tight, but they are super awesome!

He really thinks and tries lots of different stuff while coming up with his compositions. Really inspiring to see that thought process and super enjoyable looking at the illustrations themselves. Good stuff.

Cannabis Works
Tatsuyuki Tanaka
Style Co., Ltd Publishing (2003)
143 Pages (HC)
ISBN4-87031-567-X
10.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches

Hyper Weapon 2009

These Hyper Weapon books go back quite sometime and are in one way or another produced by Legendary designer and modeler Makato Kobayashi- I think these magazines are little show cases of his work. Hyper Weapon 2009 focuses mainly on Space Battle Ship Yamato, its sequels and Battlestar Galactica. Lots of ship sketches and designs, not to mention gobs of kit-bashed models of those designs. Kobayashi has been around for many years and continues to be one of the most creative and unusual designers in the anime and manga industry. I would be hard pressed to present to you another person besides Kobayashi (Kow Yokoyama being the only other) that is as good as building his own models. Absolutely astounding work.

Couple pages of reference photos of the original Galactica model are in here as well.

Hyper Weapon 2009

About 9000 yen on Amazon.co.jp

A real nice, large, hard cover retrospective from the Spanish master. Pretty hard to compare photos to the actual paintings, as usual but this book does a better than average job color correcting each individual plate. This is a big, thick book with quite a bit of text. There is at least one painting on each spread, so not totally disappointing, but I wish there were more and that they were larger plates. 

BUT still, Sorolla is the man and there was no way I wasnt going to get this comprehensive over-view of his life and work.

Good lord. Its already out of print and super expensive. What the heck!

Joaquin Sorolla

Jose Luis Diez and Javier Baron Thaidigsmann

Thames & Hudson Publishers (Aug , 2009)

534 Pages (HC)

ISBN-10: 0500976937

ISBN-13 978-0500976937

12 x 9.7 x 1.7

Amazon resellers want 485 washingtons for the Hard Cover (what!!?)

Kronoteko

Holy Moly you guys. Kronoteko! Just about 150 pages of Syd Mead's color work up to the early 90s. This is the Sibling volume to Kronovecta that came in the Kronolog 2 Book + Laser Discs boxed set. Yes I said Laser disc. Syd Mead and his studio are brilliant designers, no doubt, but this book begins to highlight his technical expertise when it comes to Marker and Gouache rendering (as well as jaw dropping industrial and environmental design you always come to expect for this Legend. This book will blow you away. (also probably your bank account will be blown away- Kronolog was published over 20 years ago)).
Kronoteko begins with his early work in Transportation Design and moves through the groundbreaking Futurism work he produced for US Steel, well into Interior and Architectural designs and firmly into all the work he produced from some really memorable films- Bladerunner, Tron, Aliens, 2010 A Space Odyssey, to name just a few. Plenty paintings and value packed in here.
Hold on.
Good lord- I just looked and this book is well over $1000.00 on Amazon re-sellers-. Damn! Thats perhaps more than I could pay for this book. But its awesome. I dont know what to tell you guys. Unless youre a collector you will probably just have to settle for digital viewings. Im sure there are bunches out there. But shoot- only 1-2k, you will be able to flip it in the next few years for a profit easily. I say go for it!
Not that I would ever sell mine- kiiinda disappointed I wrote my name on the inside, because Im sure it will easily be worth well over 10k within the next 10 years.
Better return than a mutual fund or a 401k.

Kronoteko
Syd Mead
141 pages HC
Bandai Ltd. Publishing
ISBN-10: 0929463056
ISBN-13: 978-0929463056
13.9 x 11 x 0.8 inches

Amazon resellers have used copies available from $1,190.00 to $2,183.33 bucks! OUCH!

Art of Herge Vol 2 1937-49

I always liked Tintin from the first day I saw it in the old, pre-earthquake Book Cafe at the top of the mall in Downtown Santa Cruz. They had all the Tinitins and Asterix's, but there is so much damn writing in those comic books that I never got that into them! I know- total Tintin poser- but Ill tell you what- all the big money shots that had airplanes, rocket ship, architecture and all this sophisticated stuff had me drooling and has had me drooling ever since. Herge was a master draftsman and you can find a lot of that stuff I was into all up in this book! There's plenty character stuff along with merchandise concepts and products. Herge was making Tinitin everything decades before Lucas successfully merchandised the hell out a property. This is a great book- perhaps just by a feather, the best of all three volumes... all three are pretty good, all in different ways.

I see theres a French version of each of these volumes that came out a number of years ago but those French pubications are over 400 pages a piece!! What the!? This one, just over 200 pages. What the heck are those other 200 pages filled with? Could be anything!

Well even in these half sized american versions theres lots of fun stuff to look at. Solid work.

The Art of Herge 1937-1949
Georges Remi
Last Gasp (March 1, 2010)
208 pages (HC)
ISBN-10: 0867197242
ISBN-13: 978-0867197242
11.6 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches

It'll cost you about 30 greenbacks on Amazon

Todays sketches

mini molskine

Art of Kung Fu Panda 2

I heard some pretty funny stories from Dreamworks friends about all the challenges they had getting this Kung Fu Panda property started. Certainly not funny for those who were working themselves to death to get it off the ground, but funny for me, from the outside, on the typical chaos that these animated features suffer through during pre-production and well into production itself. Ive come to see it's pretty common across all companies- orchestrating an animated feature dances along a razors edge of madness- but hey- lookit- Kung Fu Panda 3, I think is on the boards and this definitely looks like the strongest of the Dreamworks properties. And who doesnt like kung fu and those lucious fictional Asian environments?
This book picks up pretty much where the KFP1 Art Book left off- a handful of additional characters build off our returning cast with the addition of Baby Po and his parents (didnt they just do this same thing with Marty and his parents in Madagascar 2? Is this gonna be the Dreamworks go to formula?).
Id say this book, a little thinner feeling than the first, is more environment heavy than its older sibling- some really great painting in here and a few shots of actual mixed media maquettes of sets and locations- very unusual and cool! But mostly the brilliant character work by Nic Marlett steals the show and eclipses everything else in here- and thats coming from a real serious fanatic of environmental art. Yup- his character design is that strong. This is a pretty good book, especially for fans of anthropomorphic characters, or for someone who likes to imagine a fantastical caricature of ancient China. I have Art of Kung Fu Panda 1 up on my shelf- not sure why I choose to talk about this one first but stay tuned for a review of that one too- soon, soon....

Art of Kung Fu Panda 2
Tracey Miller-Zarneke
Insight Editions
156 pages (HC)
ISBN-10: 1608870189
ISBN-13: 978-1608870189
10.4 x 11.4 x 0.9 inches

On Amazon for 27 Beans

Design on Film

I cant say enough about this book and have been pushing it on people for the past two years.

For those of you who grew up in the era where a movie set was an actual set, and a matte painting and actual painting- and not made up of 3D mesh and effects, or for anyone who loves set design, from a clever shot with a beautifully rendered matte- to a full on massive recreation of Cleopatras Egypt, with thousands of extras filling the scene- here's a book for you.
It's about Production Design and Art Direction from the very first days of film to todays mind boggeling-ly realistic fantasy realms of Avatar.
This book is PACKED full (over 380 pages) of Film stills and behind the scenes shots, as well as Production Design Drawings, Matte Paintings, Sets, and Miniature Mock Sets from the most memorable films of all time.
Pretty nice sized book and just a joy to flip through- the crispness of the shots themselves- just an amazing thing to behold. I never get bored of looking at this book and it has brought to my attention quite a few films that are well noted for incredible art direction and production design that I had never even heard of.
This is highly recommended for the environment designer or visual developer. You will freak out on this book. Check it!!

Design on Film
Cathy Whitlock
It Books (November 30, 2010)
400 pages (HC)
ISBN-10: 0060881224
ISBN-13: 978-0060881221
9.1 x 10.6 x 1.2 inches

Almost 50 duckets on Amazon

Le Livre De La Jungle

Years ago while still in art school my pops got me the Pinnochio volume of Pierre Lambert's incredible Disney art of series. I believe there are three additional books besides Pinnochio. Mickey Mouse, Blanche Niege (Snow White), and the one Im featuring today; Le Livre De La Jungle (Jungle Book). This entire series is magnificent as far as books go. Printed on large format, ultra thick, ultra glossy paper, bound in a hard cover with matching slipcase (I dont think the American Pinnochio came with a slipcase, an already expensive book, the addition must have just been way too much for Americans to swallow). Bound within the beginning of the book, a printed cell over-layed on a printed background painting. I like to think this is an actual frame, but I really doubt it.
Somehow I scored this book for like $45 brand new on Amazon UK (Also- check out how they packed it- not only slipcased but snuggly wrapped within an additional card board case! (Pic below)) This is probably one of my best scores on an amazing book for cheap. Its probably over a hundred now- but if you love Disney art, or the Jungle Book, or like me- are crazy about amazing concept art of Jungle ruins, just drop the coin now and get it. You could sell it next year and make more than a few dollars! But I suspect due to how gorgeous it is on and off the shelp, that you will keep it and end up collecting the entire four book series.

I should note that I do NOT have the Mickey Mouse volume of this set. I heard that there can be trouble with the binding especially in that particular volume (a real pet peeve of mine- poor bindings in a book of this size- or any size for that matter).
So Im not saying dont buy it, but you should probably take a look before buying it. At the same time- I *think* my good friend Greg Knight found the Mickey Mouse for really cheap so do a little cost benefit analysis if you do see one- but be warned.

Coming soon the review of Pierre Lambert's Blanche Niege (Snow White)

Le Livre De La Jungle
Pierre Lambert
LA MARTINIERE; Hors collection edition (2009)
237 pages (HC+Slipcase)
15.8 x 14.2 x 2 inches

Available through amazon resellers at around 115 buckaroos


Such awesome additional packaging!

The Art of Ralph McQuarrie

Here is a huge book that my good friend, super talented artist; Emmanuel Shiu gave to me as I left SF for NYC; "The Art of Ralph McQuarrie". Probably one of the most influential artists of my generation. I admit this book doesnt have everything, but theres still tons and tons of great work in there. His thumbnails are outstanding and this book is Massive!! Close to 400 pages!!!

Aside from all the excitement I have for this book as well as his legendary "Empire Strikes Back Portfolio" (this set absolutely blew me away and hung all around my bed) it's also with quite a bit of sorrow due to his recent passing earlier in the month. On a personal note, I always sensed a slight sadness in Ralph- being an artist at that level is really tough business, but he should definitely know of the infinite joy and awe he brought to me and millions of others, and really blazed the trail for an entire industry. Cheers Ralph!

Final Note- I see this is retailing for $800 on Amazon resellers but if youre motivated you can still find it new for $250, I cant see that lasting for much longer, so if youre a fan of his work, or a book collector this is a good one to get while you still can.

The Art of Ralph McQuarrie
Dreams & Visions Press
394 pages (HC+Slip case)
ISBN-10: 0979158001
ISBN-13: 978-0979158001

Disney Archive Series; Design

If I didnt like to spend money on books but I needed one, easy to find and affordable Visual Dev book from Disney- This is the one I would get. It has a little bit of everything from just about every Disney feature and short all the way up to "Tangled". Its a lot of art and nicely edited, pretty good size and not too much writing. Also, the printing looks great throughout! This archive series from Disney continues to impress me, and this DESIGN one is the best to date.

Walt Disney Animation Studios;
The Archive Series
DESIGN
287 Pages HC
Disney Editions
ISBN#978-1-4231-3420-6

Not getting any cheaper $39 buckaroos on amazon

Akira Animation Archives

Akira Animation Archives. Personally I think besides the comics themselves, this is the best of all Akira books. Character Sheets, Mechanical Model Sheets, Layouts, Storyboards, and quite a few Animation Boards, including both Character and Effect Animations. Pretty much a great all around book for animators, visual developers, layout artists, and people like me who love all those motorcycles, psionic battles, and general outrageousness of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira.

Kodansha
194 pages SC
ISNB4-06-330195-8
Available on Amazon JP 5,500 Yen

“Revolution in Fashion: 1715-1815”

There are so many good books out there. Here we have “Revolution in Fashion: 1715-1815” detailing a collection of elaborate-rococo-couture from the Kyoto Costume Institute. Highly detailed, nicely lit and styled photographs along with a handful of illustrations giving the reader an introduction to one of the most exciting moments ever for fashion and world history in general. Im not in any way a sewer or designer but one look at the detailing that went into a single coat cuff and you will find it hard not to agree that the amount of time, work, and craftsmanship is just as outrageous as the silhouettes themselves. Theres so much character in each outfit that this book and nice fashion books in general are a huge source of inspiration and reference for any character designer, concept artist or visual developer.
This book is from 1989, and from Japan so it could be quite costly, but keep your eye out for one or any other along these lines- and if youre really interested in seeing more of this stuff and for free, I can point you to this Pintrest board collection of La Beene who seems to have a knack for collecting such things. Heres her link- http://pinterest.com/labeene/

Revolution in Fashion: 1715-1815
Jean Starobinski
Abbeville Pr (May 1990)
168 pages (HC)
Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.6 x 0.9 inches
ISBN-10: 1558590722
ISBN-13: 978-1558590724

Available from Amazon resellers from 125-250 smackers

I AM PLASTIC TOO; The Next Generation of Designer Toys

Cheers to Paul Budnitz for following up his earlier collection of KidRobot jammers, with this 2nd volume collecting all the latest designer toys. These are both quite meaty books, with big full page photos of some great character design. A really nice addition to this volume that's not found in the first is a sprinkling of interviews here and there with a handful of the designers. A lot of these little interviews include pictures of the designer in their natural habitat- their STUDIO! Im a huge fan of seeing workspaces and CONSTANTLY fantasize about my own. Looking through these two books its apparent that there was definitely a designer toy explosion that occurred somewhere between 2006-2010 (whats that? The "ots"? The "late ots"?)
The jury is still out if that explosion continues today at the same pace- personally I cant imagine it not getting even bigger and look forward to Pauls eventual third book.
Its kinda hard for anyone not to find something they like in the world of these toys, and although Im not the biggest fan of quite a few of the most popular collectable lines, theres a whole lot in here that I really do like, and continue to draw inspiration from when considering color and character design. Good set for the shelf- get on it.

I AM PLASTIC TOO; The Next Generation of Designer Toys
Paul Budnitz
367pgs HC
Abrams Books
ISBN 10: 0-8109-5846-5

Available on Amazon. 32 bones

I AM PLASTIC; The Designer Toy Explosion

A nice, content heavy book from Kidrobot cataloging their lines of designer, collectible toys up to 2006. Broken down by Country of origin and then by artist. Barely any text in this book, pretty much entirely photos.

I AM PLASTIC; the designer toy explosion
Paul Budnitz
367pgs HC
Abrams Books
ISBN 10: 0-8109-5846-5

Amazon has it for 30 clams

Kronovecta

If I had to give up all my books except one- this is the one I would keep.
Consisting mostly of black and white sketches and marker renderings and weighing in at a massive 328 pages in a 14 x 11 format this volume is absolutely packed to the gills with some of the most notable futuristic industrial design ever to have been produced.
Tron, Aliens, Blade Runner, Short Circuit, 2010 Space Odyssey, Star Trek The Motion Picture and numerous other projects realized and not fill these pages along with countless drafts and rough sketches of many of the designs. Minimal text. This book and the set it comes in (Kronolog) are far from cheap. There's quite a few Syd Mead books out there, but if youre a fan of his and/or work in the industry, you better just buy the Kronolog set before it's completely financially out of reach. Otherwise jump on the bandwagon and just buy the Kronovecta alone. i believe they reprinted it in the early 90s and there are some reasonably priced copies floating around out there but probably not for long!

Kronovecta
Concept Designs of Syd Mead
328 pages SC
Bandai Ltd. Publishing
ASIN: B000GHRNCU

ISBN-10: 0929463064
ISBN-13: 978-0929463063

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

Instagram?

Anyone instagraming?
I've been posting pictures there once in a while but what I really like doing is seeing everyone elses pictures! So tell me what your instagram handle is so I can check whatchyou got! The pic above is an outtake from a photo shoot my wife was directing- thats her goofing around and, well, directing. I love the color of the balloons.

The Art of Pixar: 25 Years of Color Scripts

Egads, another PIXAR book. This one though is perhaps my favorite so far. The first half collects ALL of the Colorscripts to the current film, Toy Story 3. The next section is ALL of the Colorscripts for the shorts- even Enrico's Oscar Nominated film La Luna made it in! The last half of the book is made up of a lot of never before seen Visual Development art form the entire collection of PIXAR films all the way up to Cars 2. This book has a little bit of everything, light on character stuff, so if that's really your thing, you might wanna take a flip through before buying, but still I dont think you will be disappointed at all. It's an absolutely amazing collection of art from the PIXAR gang. Pretty thick at 310 pages and only $30 bucks on Amazon. Honestly, you cant go wrong with this one.
I have to give a special hats off to friend, hero, and now father, Daisuke Tsutsumi, who's Colorscripts and Visual Dev work shine particularly brightly in this volume. Well done. So proud of that guy.

The Art of PIXAR; The complete Colorscripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation
Amid Amidi
Chronicle Books (November 2, 2011)
320 Pages HC
ISBN-10: 0811879631
ISBN-13: 978-0811879637

Available for $30 on Amazon

GE Project

LINK TO HTML5 ANIMATED TEST SITE
I think its probably safe to show this little project I did last fall for a GE Health animated marketing brochure. Thats right, brochures and marketing materials are being shown on tablets with embedded videos and additional information for.. for maketing! I was only responsible for the illustration and animation side of this 10 day project and the other team was to insert all that additional sales stuff but I have a feeling they ended up going in an alternate direction in the end. Anyways- maybe a slightly different look then what Im used to doing but it was a great chance to familiarize myself with animating simple loops and building a mini site in HTML5.
Here is a link to the actual animated semi-interactive site

Pantone: 20th Century in Color

I found this interesting and newly published book on Pantone Colors of the 20th Century by two very accomplished color trend experts; Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker. I did a poor job compositing images together to show how they break down each decade by color palette, but hopefully you get the idea on what the book is. I must confide that this is probably my least favorite collection of images from all my art book reviews that I have ever put together- but this book is one of my favorites for 2011. Dont let my poor designing throw you off!!
Theres some text preceding each section in the book that verbally breaks down the "feeling" of the color world during each of those particular decades that I found really interesting and informative. Brief sections of well thought, concise writing, something I really appreciate in any of my art books.
I would say check this book out at your local bookshop first before blindly buying it to see if it resonates with you- it really resonated with me and I use it a lot to guide my color palettes when Im trying to depict a particular time in the 20th century.

Pantone: The 20th Century in Color
Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker
Chronicle books
207 pages HC
ISBN 978-0-8118-7756-5

Available for $26 on Amazon !

Task Want

My friend @TysonLundbech has another sibling start up for his RentWant project called; TaskWant
Crowd sourcing tasks.

Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Layout & Background

The long awaited and fourth book in the Walt Disney Animation Studios Archive Series; "Layout and Background" is on the bookstore shelves and gives a nice broad retrospective of Background Art from the very first Disney films to present day. There's even backgrounds for Roger Rabbit among many others in here which Ive never seen in any other of my many books. I do notice that a good portion of the reproductions are sadly, not that great- they're good, but Ive seen many of them in other books and there is a definite, noticeable difference in color and value. Also. While at the bookstore I inspected a few of the bindings and many of them were looking a little shaky.
It's too bad. I understand its a challenge to get the many pages to print well, it's a lot of art, but they dont have problems with their other art books- and bindings glue already coming undone on such a brand new copy is one of the worst things to see. A personal pet peeve of mine. The copy I have seems to be ok and holding up, but watch out for those bindings- makes it tough to order from amazon or someone and just hope you get a good one.
With all that said- its still an amazing, fantastic, and easily accessible collection and I would buy it all over again at full price regardless of those two major disappointments.

-@en_b

Disney Animation Studios Archive Series; Layout and Background
Disney Editions
274 pgs (HC)
ISBN-13 978-1423138662

Available Amazon USA or at your better local bookstore

The Art of Brother Bear

I will be honest, I never saw this movie. But I return to this book all the time. The background previz paintings and especially the on site ones make me drool. Im not sure if Disney still sends the Visual Developers to the actual location of the Feature to capture in real life, the look and feel of the environments the film takes place in- but they did on this one and a lot of those on location sketches and paintings are included in this book. That was the dream, at least for me, an aspiring background artist, to travel with a talented art team and draw and paint on location. Some real zingers in here from Paul Felix, Robh Ruppel, the master; Jay Xiangyuan Jie, and the rest of the team. Theres some good character work in here, but mostly you will find Backgrounds and Layouts. I saw a survey on deviant art (?) about what people like to see in an "art of book" and to my dismay, background paintings and sketches were near to the bottom. To me, although I like good character stuff, the backgrounds and layouts are by far my favorite things to look at and draw inspiration from. Everyones different though thats for sure.
Hard to believe but on amazon you apparently can buy this book used for 0.33 cents, or new for less than $6. This book is definitely worth that small cost, so go get it!

The Art of Brother Bear
H. Clark Wakabayashi
124 pages (HC)
Disney Editions
ISBN 078685420-0

The Art of Bolt

I think you can get this book for about $8.00 now on Amazon and its really good. I actually thought this movie was super under-rated. Its been a while since I saw it but I remember really enjoying this animated feature from the original SoCal Disney Studio, Disney Pictures. Flipping through this book reminds me how good it was and of course of the extremely talented team that brought it all to life. Nice character work but the background paintings in here really shine- cheers Mr. Paul Felix!
So go ahead and grab this one for the shelf, well worth the price.

Art of Bolt
Mark Cotta Vaz
160 pages (HC)
Chronicle Books
ISBN 978-0-8118-6531-9

Andrew Loomis and Figure Drawing

Listen, there are a ton of figure drawing books out there. More than a ton. But you just want one really good one right? Well maybe not but all I want is one and that one used to be a raggedy photocopied stack of papers Lee Ballard ran off for me in the fine arts department office. The book copied was: "Figure Drawing For All Its Worth" by Andrew Loomis, and it had been out of print for years. We were art students and there was no way any of us could afford that book, but check it out! They reprinted it! I think I got mine for $16 on amazon, I think its costs about $26 new now but its still a steal for this super informative volume of figure drawing and figure drawing techniques. Everythings in here, proportions, fore shortening, values, poses, lighting, and more- everything you need to know about figure drawing and more. Still dont believe me? Check out the reviews from artists you might believe, such as Alex Ross or Norman Rockwell. Yes, Norman Rockwell- I told you this book was old! So if you need a figure drawing book this one is the one, way better than Bridgeman or anything else I have ever come across.

Figure Drawing For All It's Worth
Andrew Loomis
204pg (HC)
Titan Books
ISBN 9780857680983

Availability: Amazon USA

Gurney Journey

Theres only one thing thats better than James Gurney's amazing art blog; Gurney Journey and that one thing is these crazy color illusions, this one courtesy of Mr James Gurney. Those two colors arent two colors at all, theyre actually the same, one color. Amazing.
Do check out Gurney Journey. So much good information and fantastic art.

Mashinen Krieger vol. 2 Chronicle and Encyclopedia

Here is the second and in my opinion the better of the two Volumes of Ma.K. designs from the very talented and groundbreaking designer Kow Yokoyama. This is one of my top 10 favorite books from my entire collection. Raw, greasy, muddy, and mostly military designs populate this book with some wonderfully lit diorama photographs.
Half a dozen pages in the back contain the pen and ink sketches of his designs. Theres another book that reprints most of these sketches along with a whole bunch more that I will post at a later date. Amazing work, and again, probably my favorite designer of all time. Totally awesome.

Mashinen Krieger vol. 2 Chronicle and Encyclopedia
Kow Yokoyama
Dainipponkaiga
112 pages HC
ISBN4-499-22875-1
Availability; Amazon Japan

RentWant

This is Charlie- Hes gonna be part time spokesman for my good friends start up: RentWant You have something youre not using you wouldnt mind making some money on it while it sits? You should probably check out RentWant.
Im gonna be doing a handful of Charlies with different rentable accessories for him. So while you wait for those, maybe rent some stuff out and make some money!

Roy SE-DUCK Pants

I never thought I would want $340.00 pants but I do. Check out all those details! And all on the inside where no one would ever see. Thats the coolest. Each of these are hand sewn by the same person from start to finish! Dude!
Crazy thing is even if I did have $340 I still wouldnt be able to get any of these- they sell out in hours.
Still reading? Well check out selfedge and take a step into the obscure world of clothing production. Theres some japanese companies that bought the old antique looms from levis or whatever and are making cloth to those old specifications... which as you know, are way more stringent and better quality than todays specs and robotic looms. Anyway, definitely a weird niche of denim and cloth fanatics out there. Mostly as I said located in Japan. They totally have my attention.

The Art of Herge; Inventor of Tintin 1907-1937

Well you guys should get ready for a full onslaught of Tintin as the new film rolls-out, Im gonna get a couple great Tintin books I have on my shelf posted before people either sour or sweeten to the property.
The book store my parents frequented had all the Tintin trade paperbacks and I spent a lot of time flipping through them as a young boy. Every cover was so compelling and the series so long and deep- it definitely captured my curiosity. They were all in French at the time so I never actually was able to read any of them, luckily Georges Prosper Remi, aka Herge, was for good reasons, a real master draftsman and story teller making for an easy pictographic read. This book has some really great early childhood drawings of his and a nice collection of non-Tintin related graphic and product design. I enjoyed seeing how Remi developed as an artist.
I understand this is a reprint form a previously released Belgium version, although the Belgium one is something like 400 pages and this one just a bit over 200 pages. A nice book to have but Im so interested in getting ahold of one of the original editions so that I could see all that missing content from the recently republished one. Anyone have any info on this?
Hope the film is

"The Art of Herge; Inventor of Tintin 1907-1937 Vol. 1"
Philippe Goddin translated by Michael Farr
Last Gasp
205pages HC
ISBN-13:978-0-86719-706-8

IanScottBerry.com Website

Ive made some changes to my online presence!
Its always with great reluctance that anyone says their website is done, mine certainly isnt, but I figured out how to get it all uploaded and how to make buttons and such- AND make it all iPad friendly! Theres some pretty extensive archiving of old projects that used to be on a series of sibling art blogs to this Last Outpost blog. Ive removed the links to those and probably wont post to them anymore, so they have all basically retreated to The Last Outpost and here I will be posting art book reviews, sketchbook pages, movie reviews, Nintendo DS paintings, plein air paintings and all of that stuf, all in this one easy to keep track of spot. Did I mention its iPad friendly? I think I might have three loyal people that regularly check on the Last Outpost, (thank you), but hopefully that will start growing again with more consistent, albeit random postings.
Thanks again for stopping by!

Sketchbook

Pek-a-Book: Ma.K. Chronicles and Encyclopedia Volume 1

Kow Yokoyama has been wowing me since the early 1980s when I discovered his models in my hometown RPG store. I was probably 9 or 10 years old and was totally mesmerized by his kit-bashed post WW2 military Sci-Fi styles showing scenes of all the mundane aspects of that muddy, alternate universe- such as; fixing the mech, prepping the GEV for flight, tending the farm animals. I seriously loved looking at those kits and the diorama photographs that were included on the box. So you can imagine how excited I was to see a revival of Mr. Kow Yokoyama's work in a handful of nicely printed hardcovered books probably 20 years later. Included inside are kits, sketches and photographs as well as a lot of other bits. If you want to see some ground breaking mech design, and just in general, totally awesome sci-fi, you need to check out these books. Theres 2 Volumes of these and all of his work from the 80's have been reprinted in one form or another. I'll be sure to be posting those other volumes in the coming weeks.

Ma.K. Maschinen Krieger Vol. 1 Chronicle and Encyclopedia
Kow Yokoyama
110 pgs HC
ISBN4-499-22825
Availability: Amazon Japan

Maine