SFF "Art of" Books

[Toby Frost]

Over the years, I've acquired a small collection of "the art of..." books: the sort of things that contain design sketches and concept art for films, games and so on. I make models, and they provide a lot of inspiration for new things to build. While they're usually about £30 brand new, they often go for quite a bit less on Ebay and Amazon, especially if they're about something that's been out a while.

The Art Of Mad Max: Fury Road contains (unsurprisingly!) a lot of designs for modified cars and the loonies who drive them.

Here are some designs by Peter Pound, who created many of the vehicles:

Alien: Isolation was an exceptionally well-designed computer game, that captured the late-70s industrial look of Alien (and Outland, too).

This is my favourite of the lot: The Art of Fallout 4. The Fallout games have a retro 1950s look, despite being in the future, and some of the designs are really cool. It's a huge tome of a book, full of great ideas for people, buildings, creatures and machines. Very much recommended.

And this is a bit of an oddity. It's a sketchbook by Jes Goodwin, one of the designers and sculptors from Warhammer. I think it's out of print, but it contains lots of interesting annotated drawings, explaining why each creature looks the way it does, and how different visuals give different impressions. Again, a very inspiring read for modelmaking.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

Nice collection! I love 'Art of' books. Haven't added any yet to my own inspiration library, but I plan to.

 

[Swank]

I have the Giger Alien book, a Roger & Martin Dean concept art book, two Barlowe alien life books, A Tolkien Bestiary, Robotech art and some other stuff along those lines, like the Stephen Caldwell Galactic Encounters books that were short stories assembled around SF cover art paintings. Much of it from the '80s.

I could use a Syd Mead book.

 

[Foxbat]

I have a couple

 

[Toby Frost]

Those look brilliant!

 

[Rodders]

Nice collection of gaming books, Toby. I think gaming has a better potential for imaginative story telling than film, so I suspect those books show a lot of what is missed out.

I have all of the "Art of" books for Star Wars, but I think the newer ones just don't give me the same felling I used to get from getting the original books.

Art of Jedi: Fallen Order. An excellent game with some amazing designs.



I'm quite jealous of the Alien: Isolation book. Possibly one of the most well executed games I've played yet.

There were a few Blade Runner 2049 books that I wanted to get, but I had to pass.

Not really an "Art of" book, but kinda is. I do have is the limited edition Star Wars Bluprints book by JW Rintzler, which is huge.



I also went through a phase of collecting various blueprint kind of books and have a nice collection of Star Trek blueprints. (Ships of the Line, i think they were called.)

As a teenager, I coveted by neighbours copy of "Worlds of the Dark Crystal" by Brian Froud.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'm quite jealous of the Alien: Isolation book. Possibly one of the most well executed games I've played yet.

Apparently there's a mod that removes the Alien, just so that you can walk about and appreciate the set design. The book is well worth getting, and probably cheaper now that the game's been out for a while.

 

[CupofJoe]

I can highly recommend Sky Captain and the Art of Tomorrow.
It is about the art design and creation of the film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow [ see what they did with the titles there? ].
I have the standard hardback and that is wonderful of itself, but apparently there is a deluxe version with extra sumptuousness.

 

[Rodders]

Thanks Toby, i'll look out for that mod as the design in that game was just superb and it would be nice to just explore.

 

[Toby Frost]

The design of Sky Captain would make a really interesting book (likewise David Lynch's Dune), because so much of what's good about it is related to the style. I've got the art book of Alice: Madness Returns, which wasn't a great computer game but had excellent design.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Theres a very good book called Art of Atari for those interested in the early days of gaming (late 70s early 80s) that concentrates mainly on the box art of VCS games.

Back then, when graphics were at best rudimentary, evocative box art helped fire our imaginations. So that blocky triangle really was a missile base, that square block was a brave adventurer exploring a dungeon, finding treasure and fighting dragons.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I’m a real sucker for these books. I have all the SW ones (natch) but also Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge and a few others I forget.

Great thread!

 

[paranoid marvin]

I’m a real sucker for these books. I have all the SW ones (natch) but also Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge and a few others I forget.

Great thread!

Not game related (as such) but have you got Star Wars Propaganda 'A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy'?

I've only had a chance to flick through it so far but it looks pretty cool, with believable propaganda artwork for both Empire and Rebel Alliance.

It also comes with 10 sturdy (and thankfully not folded) art prints (which more than makes it worth the £25 alone). I think my favourite is 'Remember Alderaan'.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Not game related (as such) but have you got Star Wars Propaganda 'A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy'?

Yes I do! It’s fantastic. Very reminiscent of the art for TLJ with Poe’s Black One fronting off a Resurgent class Star Destroyer. Such a gorgeous idea.

ETA : TROS not TLJ and it’s the Sith Eternal SDs not the FO ones.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Yes I do! It’s fantastic. Very reminiscent of the art for TLJ with Poe’s Black One fronting off a Resurgent class Star Destroyer. Such a gorgeous idea.

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ETA : TROS not TLJ and it’s the Sith Eternal SDs not the FO ones.

The prow of that Star Destroyer is very Alien-esque. Like the jaws are read to snap up that X Wing

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree. It also reminds me of the famous Tiananamen Square photo of a man blocking the way of a tank.

I recently got the art books for the cancelled computer game Fable Legends. It has a cartoony style that I really like, which owes quite a lot to Arthur Rackham.