Some inspirado for the new year...
Christmas 2009 was wonderful, I hope everyone who stumbles by this blog can say the same for their day. Christmas Eve at my Aunt's house, Christmas morning at home, church, and spending the evening at my grandparents with family was all amazing and went by far too quickly. What I am left with are bright memories and some excellent gifts!! I was sitting around enjoying the day off after the holiday and felt inspired to write a bit about a few of the art books I received as presents this year...
The image at the very top of this post is the cover to the new book on world famous illustrator/character designer Peter de Seve. The book is called "A Sketchy Past: The Art of Peter de Seve". I have been anxiously awaiting the publication of this book since it was announced some time ago. Peter de Seve is one of my all time favorites and I have felt for a long time that a comprehensive book focusing on his work was long overdue. I'm so glad this book exists! The book is outstanding. The production quality, selection of work featured and the accompanying text are excellent. If you're a fan of de Seve's work I am sure you already own this book or are planning on picking up a copy soon. If you are unfamiliar with the artist's work this is a great introduction, though it's not cheap so you might want to explore his work online before opting to buy. Check out Peter de Seve's work here, http://www.peterdeseve.com/ the book is available through Stuart Ng books at http://www.stuartngbooks.com/ and will be available at a discount through amazon.com eventually. This book is so inspiring, just makes you want to draw all day!
My brother surprised me this year with the book pictured above, The Hobbit An Illustrated Edition featuring artwork from the Rankin/Bass production of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien! I grew up watching the Rankin/Bass film and still love it to this day. I always loved the art style used by the animators on this film but never really looked into discovering who was behind it until recently. There isn't a whole lot of information out there and even less actual artwork but a great collection of stuff can be found in this particular edition of The Hobbit. The books uses concept illustrations, storyboards and actual stills from the Rankin/Bass film to illustrate Tolkien's text. There is some really wonderful, unique fantasy illustration in this book. Unfortunately, none of the individual artists appear to be credited so I won't be able to track them down and look deeper into their work. I am thankful this book is around though, it's great to see this artwork, uncredited as it may be. If you're a fan of the film, or just interested in a very cool illustrated edition of The Hobbit, try to track down a copy of this!!
Above is the Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years hardcover. This was another total surprise that I was not expecting. I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and go through this book carefully but from what I have seen it is awesome. The production quality is outstanding, both black and white daily strips and full color Sunday strips are reproduced beautifully on large glossy pages. I love the Peanuts strips so this is a very welcome bulky addition to my already way too large library.
Stephen Silver's Passion for Life is an awesome book that will make you want to draw your butt off as soon as you put it down. Stephen Silver is a leading character designer and one heck of an artist. This book features his figure drawings done from life. It's a nice thick hardcover brimming over with Stephen's energetic, style drenched drawings. Inspiring and educational for artists and fans of art and drawing! It is available on amazon.com and probably direct from Stephen himself through his website...www.silvertoons.com
The last book I'll talk about is Kevin Eastman's TMNT Artobiography. This book has been around for a while but I just got into the whole TMNT thing in a big way recently so I am just checking this out now for the first time. I grew up loving the Turtles and recently for whatever combination of reasons my fandom has returned. I have been exploring the origins of the Turtles franchise and in particular the original comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. This book features a lot of very cool material from the production of those comics among many other things. It's cool to see all this material and get a glimpse of the creative process behind the TMNT. I am psyched to look through the book more thoroughly in the days to come.
Christmas 2009 was wonderful, I hope everyone who stumbles by this blog can say the same for their day. Christmas Eve at my Aunt's house, Christmas morning at home, church, and spending the evening at my grandparents with family was all amazing and went by far too quickly. What I am left with are bright memories and some excellent gifts!! I was sitting around enjoying the day off after the holiday and felt inspired to write a bit about a few of the art books I received as presents this year...The image at the very top of this post is the cover to the new book on world famous illustrator/character designer Peter de Seve. The book is called "A Sketchy Past: The Art of Peter de Seve". I have been anxiously awaiting the publication of this book since it was announced some time ago. Peter de Seve is one of my all time favorites and I have felt for a long time that a comprehensive book focusing on his work was long overdue. I'm so glad this book exists! The book is outstanding. The production quality, selection of work featured and the accompanying text are excellent. If you're a fan of de Seve's work I am sure you already own this book or are planning on picking up a copy soon. If you are unfamiliar with the artist's work this is a great introduction, though it's not cheap so you might want to explore his work online before opting to buy. Check out Peter de Seve's work here, http://www.peterdeseve.com/ the book is available through Stuart Ng books at http://www.stuartngbooks.com/ and will be available at a discount through amazon.com eventually. This book is so inspiring, just makes you want to draw all day!
My brother surprised me this year with the book pictured above, The Hobbit An Illustrated Edition featuring artwork from the Rankin/Bass production of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien! I grew up watching the Rankin/Bass film and still love it to this day. I always loved the art style used by the animators on this film but never really looked into discovering who was behind it until recently. There isn't a whole lot of information out there and even less actual artwork but a great collection of stuff can be found in this particular edition of The Hobbit. The books uses concept illustrations, storyboards and actual stills from the Rankin/Bass film to illustrate Tolkien's text. There is some really wonderful, unique fantasy illustration in this book. Unfortunately, none of the individual artists appear to be credited so I won't be able to track them down and look deeper into their work. I am thankful this book is around though, it's great to see this artwork, uncredited as it may be. If you're a fan of the film, or just interested in a very cool illustrated edition of The Hobbit, try to track down a copy of this!!
Above is the Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years hardcover. This was another total surprise that I was not expecting. I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and go through this book carefully but from what I have seen it is awesome. The production quality is outstanding, both black and white daily strips and full color Sunday strips are reproduced beautifully on large glossy pages. I love the Peanuts strips so this is a very welcome bulky addition to my already way too large library.
Stephen Silver's Passion for Life is an awesome book that will make you want to draw your butt off as soon as you put it down. Stephen Silver is a leading character designer and one heck of an artist. This book features his figure drawings done from life. It's a nice thick hardcover brimming over with Stephen's energetic, style drenched drawings. Inspiring and educational for artists and fans of art and drawing! It is available on amazon.com and probably direct from Stephen himself through his website...www.silvertoons.com
The last book I'll talk about is Kevin Eastman's TMNT Artobiography. This book has been around for a while but I just got into the whole TMNT thing in a big way recently so I am just checking this out now for the first time. I grew up loving the Turtles and recently for whatever combination of reasons my fandom has returned. I have been exploring the origins of the Turtles franchise and in particular the original comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. This book features a lot of very cool material from the production of those comics among many other things. It's cool to see all this material and get a glimpse of the creative process behind the TMNT. I am psyched to look through the book more thoroughly in the days to come. I also should mention that I am typing up this post from the new laptop computer my bro surprised me with this year...yeah he went a little over the top but he insists I earned it somehow, haha. Either way I am incredibly thankful. Christmas was great, and of course is about so much more than these gifts but this is my art blog so this is the kind of stuff I want to talk about on here. These books provide me with copious amounts of inspiration and keep me drawing and creating. I am excited for 2010 and I have a lot of cool creative things planned which I will be sharing her on this blog for sure.
Thanks as always for dropping by!! I hope everyone who celebrated had a great holiday and will have a happy and safe New Years celebration and an awesome 2010!!
-Tom
posted by Tom at 10:42 AM
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