1. The Art of Massive Black:
The best art book I own!

2. The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves:
The art book is like the game, beautiful!

3. Mega Man: Official Complete Works:
Bring back a lot of childhood memory

1) "The Art of Tangled"

- I can't believe what a gorgeous volume this one is! All the sketches and concept art provided by Glen Keane and his team remind me of the OLD Disney Classics; and the beautiful paintings are horribly inspiring. I get the feeling I'm assisting at the birth of a new Classic, when I flip through its pages. Definitely a masterpiece movie - and a perfect volume of images and info to go with it.

2) "The Art of How to Train Your Dragon"

- Unfortunately I don't actually own this one yet, but flipping through its pages left me awe-struck a few days ago. Again, lovely character designs and BEAUTIFUL paintings. Inspiring, at least. It made me appreciate the movie so much more...

3) "Drawing Shortcuts: Developing Quick Drawing Skills Using Today's Technology. 2nd Edition"

- I first saw this book on your site and then immediately decided it's exactly what I needed. I'm an Architecture student, and I've had a bad time trying to make my perspectives and drawings look "good enough". I got some very good tips and pointers from this book and currently consider it one of the best investments I ever made.

4) "Tale As Old As Time"

- Although not as classy a volume as numbers 1) and 2) are, this deserves to be on this list because I've been dying to see a good "Art Of" book for my FAVOURITE Disney Classic for ages! It's impossible for me not to get all excited about owning this title; even though I wish it had MORE sketches and concept art.

5) "Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter"

- This one is not helpful for my school-work, but for my digital painting. I haven't had the chance to actually put it to good use yet (hence it being number 5); but I've been looking for something along these lines for a long long time and am very glad to finally have it in my hands. Also, I found out about it through your blog. Thank you for that :)

Lots and lots of good choices, but...

1. Art of How to Train Your Dragon hits all my favorite notes.

2. Junk One - by Skottie Young, the best cartoonist working today.
https://skottieyoungstore.bigcartel.com/product/junk-one

3. PR3: The Hallowed Seam by James Jean is pretty amazing: https://www.jamesjean.com/product/BCAF86/PR3%202nd%20Printing

1. COLOR & LIGHT by James Gurney
Not since the Andrew Loomis books from over 50 years ago has there been such a thorough and accessible book. Its to-the-point writing, arts & sciences reasoning and lavish illustrations have set the bar very high for books on learning.

2. FRAMED INK by Marcos Mateu-Mestre
A sharp and serious look at a well-tread but undernourished area of art. His straight-forward text is as clear as his art. He knows the job of the storyboard artist better than most and boils it down to it's essential elements.

3. THE ART OF DREW STRUZAN
This impresario was much deserving of a book that covers a 30 year career. The last great artist to touch the dying art of movie posters. That's not something to gloss over either. Unlike the death of typesetting, that nobody felt, hand illustrated posters with texture and paint should be mourned and yet celebrated in Struzan's work.

I had to find a different computer, but I finally got it to work.

My top 3 art books of the year:

Color and Light: I thought this was a super helpful reference book, particularly since I just started painting a short while ago. The tips and techniques are all very relevant, and the pictures are just beautiful.

Art of Tangled: I loved this movie, and the inside look at the character development and the beautiful backgrounds and the difficulties they went through to create the movie they ended up with was lovely.

Art of How to Train Your Dragon: I LOVED this movie, and the art book was just the icing on the cake.

I haven't been really keeping up to date with the art books--expensive things they are--so I'm rather dreadfully uninformed about what's new, but here's what I like from what I've seen:

1. Color and Light
Gurney was probably one of the most influential artists in my childhood, along with Bill Watterson and Chuck Jones, on account of his Dinotopia series. This amazing book has reignited my youthful fascination that has since been lost to years of bad art schools.

2. The Art of Resident Evil 5
The game wasn't good. Maybe some people liked it, but as far as I was concerned it was just another lousy big-studio blockbuster just making a quick million off an old franchise. But the rejected artwork tells a different story, at least going back to production. The concepts are brilliant and terrifying, full of character and life (or death, as it may be). It's a wonderful glimpse at what could have been a great game.

3. Composing Pictures
Technically this is just a reprint of a book from the 30s, but it's worth a mention. It's a good specific guide to a specific topic.

1.) James Gurney's Color and Light - a guide for the realist painter.
This is definetely one of the best, if not the best, publications for artists on the theme and a must have reference of any visual artists studio library!! A blast!

2.) The Art of Drew Struzan
One of the most honest books with insights into one of the toughest illustration industries.
Plus: it's not only about the poster art, it's about Drew's art! Must have!

3.) The Art of How to Train Your Dragon - great movie great book

1: Tron Legacy - Iconic Design Works
2: Star Wars Visions - Best Illustration Collection
3: Color and Light - Essential Tutorial Library

First off, amazing contest!

1. Color and Light by James Gurney. Just received my copy a few weeks ago and have been absorbing it page by page. One of the best art books, period.

2. Star Wars: The Making of the Empire Strikes Back. Fantastic new look into a classic, one of my personal favorites of the series. Dives much deeper than the original Art of Empire Strikes Back.

3. The Art of Drew Struzan. Breathtaking work and to have it all in one handy resource - WOW! It would be very difficult to find someone who has not seen or been influenced by Drew's posters.

1. Steampainting: SPARK
2. Color & Light
3. Art of how to train your dragon
great reviews guys

1. Art of Uncharted 2 - A large & definitive "Art of the Game" book. Important commentary from the very people involved displaying tons of concept art of 3D visuals. Endless inspiration.
 
2. Color & Light - Essential art theory book from one of the best natural media artists on the planet. Thoroughly enjoyable reading from a very down to earth painter in James Gurney. Invaluable to any artist.
 
3. Sentury II - 2 words "Syd Mead". Still producing concepts to rival the best, the nearing 80 "Futurist" still comes up with amazing concepts and ideas that despite being very sc-fi, remain heavily grounded in reality. Worth every cent.

my top 3 this year would have to be:
1) The Art of Toy Story 3. It's got great character designs and plenty of great art by fantastic illustrators like Dice Tsutsumi, Daniela Strijleva, etc.

2) The Art of Tangled. It's got drawings by Glen Keane. Need I say more?

3) Shadowline- the Art of Iain McCaig. It's just so darn beautiful *_*

1) Art of Tangled
Like most people who are into animation, Tangled has been the highly anticipated movie, starring the legendary animator Glen Keane. With amazing line quality that exceptionally displays force in Glen Keane's sketches, the process of Tangled is almost as admirable as the movie itself! The colors in the book also are also very nice and harmonized - only something to be expected from Disney!

2) Color and Light
The only book that I can find that teaches highly accurate light-on-form colors. It's been really hard for me to find a book that teaches light as in-depth as this. First book I've seen that demonstrates and teaches the different types of colors being affected by different types of light. Could arguably be number one in teaching how colors are very relative to light.

3) How to Train Your Dragon
Being my favorite Dreamworks movie, the book is also my favourite book from them. The book has tons of great concepts that we don't even see in the movie. A highly recommend for it having what art books are suppose to have, containing most if not all of the process (storyboard, character design, etc). Best story and design for Dreamworks yet!

1- The Art of Toy Story 3 - That full spread color script was worth the cost of the book alone. Informative, surprisingly touching, and a great bookend to my first ever artbook (the original art of Toy Story from 1997).

2- The Art of Wakfu Season 1 Book 1 and Book 3 (trying to get book 2) - It's rare to find such detailed information on single episodes in a collective artbook and I love how they added both scenes that made it into the final pieces, and the stuff that they worked hard on but ultimately sacrificed in the name of story. The character sketch work at the end of each book is also top notch.

3- The Art of Uncharted 2 - This book alone has production values to rival the game and that says a lot. Filled with information you wouldn't find in every game book and so much of those incredible game backgrounds I still just flip through it every few days to pretend I'm in Nepal etc just for the heck of it.

1. Tangled - Tons of behind the scenes paintings and drawings and no filler screen shots make this book an absolute must for fans...and Glen Keane mixed into all of it. Amazing.

2. Walt Disney Archives - Design - This is my favorite of the series so far. Beautiful paintings and page after page of splendid drawings and illustrations.

3. James Gurney's Color and light - This is by far the most helpful book on painting that has been published this year. Terrific book and quite an undertaking.

1. The Art of How to Train Your Dragon-So many fun characters and houses. Nico Marlet's drawings are awesome!

2. The Art of Toy Story 3-Absolutely amazing colors with great storyboard layouts.

3. Spectrum 17. A great variety of work and all of it is incredible!

1. The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2. Icons: The DC Comics & Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee.
3. Alex Ross: Rough Justice

1) Worlds & Wonders. Art of Aleksi Briclot
A beautiful book. And plenty of images. A good review of Aleksi's career(twelve years)

2) Light & Color: by James Gurney
Because I'm an illustrator and This book is a bible for the realistic painters.

3) Framed Ink: drawing and composition for story tellers
Composition is so important in pictures. I don't have it yet but it will be on my desk soon that's sure.

1) Art of Adam Hughes: The strength and "buoyancy" of of Adam Hughes is unrivaled. Not only does this book provide a amazing gallery of his work, it also goes in depth into his ideas and thought process behind most of the covers. You get a sense of the humorous personality of hughes' in his writing while marveling as his unparalleled skills at representing super hero women.

2) Art of Darksiders: While this book has one major flaw, the binding SUCKS and pages fall out. The content in the book is GODLY. The book is jam packed with sketches! Literally 4-8 images are found on almost every page. The creativity of both Joe Mad and Paul Richards is near unfathomable. If you can make it 20 pages in without your face exploding with inspiration then you might have been lobotomized.

3) Art of God of War 3: Really, what more can you say that the title doesn't already state? ITS THE ART BOOK FOR ONE THE MOST POLISHED AND INCREDIBLE GAME EVER. The pages of full of unseen characters and concepts, done by some of the best artists in the game industry. It has it all; concepts, storyboards, marketing illustrations, and 3d models!

These are my favorite 3 of the year.

My amazon que for next year already consists of;
Terryl Whitlatches new book "Animals Real and Imagined: Fantasy of What Is and What Might Be"
Piazo's "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: The Pathfinder Bestiary "
Piazo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2
Scott Robertson's "DRIVE: vehicle sketches and renderings by Scott Robertson"
Andrew Loomi's "figure drawing"

1. Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes
It's a book with Adam Hughes' art! Need I say more? I absolutely love his art and this book showcases not only his finished work, but also the preliminary sketches of it. He also provides an insight on his ideas working on the covers for DC. Simply gorgeous!

2. Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series
As a fan of the animated series, this is a very nice art book to get. Loaded with beautiful pictures and a lot of information about the show. Early concept sketches, how the creators developed the series (their influences and research), and also some storyboards and character sheets. This is a must have for a fan of Avatar: TLA!

3. The Art of How to Train Your Dragon
I really love this movie and I like the fact that with this book, I am able to get a closer look at the ideas behind the movie. I like reading about the ideas and concepts that go behind an animation - the character development, concept sketches and how they made each dragon different. The illustrations are beautiful!

In no particular order:

1. Claire Wendling - Daisies
French edition is published this year, so I assume it qualifies this beautiful coffee table book for this contest. I love every line Mrs Wendling draw. Most people use big words too easily (amazing, stunning etc.. .) An average or slightly above average artwork is NOT amazing. Franklin Booth and, say, Harry C. Wilkinson were great. Heinrich Kley as well. Harry Clarke is amazing. Zorn, Bouguereau and Vermeer more so. And what about Pierre de Champaigne...let alone Bernini or Michelangelo...?)
I do not use big words for little matters. However, Claire Wendling's art is not little matter.
In my opinion, she is one of the best illustrators around.

2. Alexandre Cabanel: La tradition du beau
Again - French edition. There is no english one and I doubt it will be. One of the greatest 19th century painters. I had luck to see his paintings in person and I can only say that he WAS stunning. No doubt about it.

3. James Gurney - Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
Indispensable book (just like the previous one) for all serious artist.

I could also include The Art of How to Train Your Dragon for its truly exquisite art, but Color and Light took precedence because it is how-to book with both great artworks AND plenty of helpful pieces of advice.

These are the ones that I've checked out:

1- The Art of Iron Man 2 :
I always enjoy the "behind the scenes" articles, footage and in this case books. The designs are just breath-taking and detailed. If you like mechanical designs, robots, cool electrical weapons and art, this book is yours.

2- EXPOSE 8:
" The Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe" .... this says it all. As an artist I need a bank of inspirations that I could consult. This book has all the inspiration I need.

3- Digital Art Masters: Volume 5:
I own the first 2 series of DAM and since then I've been hooked. This series is becoming better and better with time, the best part? each artist displays how the image was created.

Btw, for all interested I must mention the most beautifully illustrated children book I have seen this year - The Dragon's Feathers by Olga Dugina and Andrej Dugin
Originally published in 1993, it was reprinted a couple of months ago.
To say that those watercolor illustrations are masterfully conceived and illustrated would be an understatement. The art is mesmerizing.

1. The art of toy story 3: Love the triology, love the toys, love the creativeness, love the concept art and story boards included in the book. I also like the extra text included in this book.

2. Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast: Who can not love beauty and the beast, the only animation feature to have won best picture. If you're like me, and enjoy reading more than just looking at art, then this is the book for you.

3. The art of how to train a dragon: This was a fun little book, with lots of funky pictures :).

1. The Art of Toy Story 3: This beautiful art book is the perfect companion to an amazing movie. Dice Tsutsumi's color scripts are incredible.

2. The Art of How to Train Your Dragon: All of the character sketches are hilarious and wonderfully drawn. Also, the environment paintings are gorgeous.

3. The Art of Tangled: It's nice to see hand-drawn art instead of digital for once. Glen Keane's work is outstanding.