Books

During the 1960s, out-of-this-world automobiles took America by storm, care of pioneering custom car designers like Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and George Barris, whose dazzling chrome creations—each with its own name and personality—captured the hopes and dreams of thousands of youth ready for their first joyride.

Simultaneously, the music world was getting its own punch of adrenalin with Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, and Dick Dale providing the perfect soundtrack for a time when experimentation was the order of the day. The counterculture that emerged was one of pure innovation—hot rods, MAD Magazine, Rat Fink, Von Dutch, Robert Williams, Stanley Mouse. Never before or since has there been a time when the border between imagination and engineered physical reality was crossed with such boundless, almost reckless regularity.

Joyride/Flatout: Hot Rods and Dream Machines is a tribute to this formative time through the eyes of author and designer Dan Quarnstrom, whose love of hot rod culture, and those who were a part of it, is as fresh and contagious as it was more than 50 years ago, when he was a young boy attending his first hot rod show. From thumbnail sketches to finished drawings, Post-it squiggles to thorough model breakdowns, Joyride/Flatout is a testament to what can happen when you hold onto your enthusiasm and infuse it into everything you create.

Do you dream of becoming a concept artist in the video game industry but don't know where to start? The Big Bad World of Concept Art for Video Games: An Insider's Guide for Beginners gives aspiring artists an honest, informative, and entertaining look at what it takes to do just that. Author Eliott Lilly will help you on your journey from finding the right school and how to get the most out of your education, to preparing your portfolio to land that first job. In addition, renowned concept artists—David Levy, Sparth, Stephan Martiniere, Ben Mauro, and Farzad Varahramyan—share their own dos and don'ts to making a career in the video game industry a reality.

Darren Quach is a Los Angeles–based concept designer who has contributed his creativity to numerous video games, including Hawken, Fuse, Ratchet & Clank Future: ACIT, Total Overdose, and all three Resistance games.

Worldwide, Quach has worked with video game studios Adhesive Games, Insomniac Games, Etcetera, Universal Entertainment, and Killer Game. He is currently with BLUR Studio in Culver City, California.

“The painter laureate of the car” —AutoWeek

Be dazzled by gorgeous paintings from award-winning automotive artist Harold Cleworth. From illustrating the elegant curves of the multimillion-dollar 1936 Bugatti Atlantic, to perfectly depicting the brilliance of the head-turning red of Ferraris past and present, Cleworth brings an incredible photo-like quality to his work that not only captures the beauty of a car, but elevates it. With a precision that is beyond photography, it is no wonder that he is one of the world's most sought-after artists: commissioned by car companies to paint originals of their newest models, and by celebrities and private collectors to create portraits of their beloved automobiles.

CLEWORTH: an ARTFULLlife is the first publication to compile his life’s work, and is a captivating visual journey of an illustrious career that has spanned almost four decades. A must-have for automobile aficionados, it features Cleworth's most highly coveted paintings to date, and the fascinating stories behind them.

Akihito brings inimitable and interesting characters to life. The Heart of Art welcomes one to look deeper into the creative process and motivation behind the work of Akihito. Whether you are a designer, sculptor, makeup artist, or fine artist, this book will regale, challenge and inspire. The Heart of Art features the extraordinary work of an artist that creates characters that meld a love of Japan, its culture, and its rich history into fantastic works.

This book is about the fundamentals of light, shadow and reflectivity; the focus is firmly on helping to improve visual understanding of the world around and on techniques for representing that world.

Rendering is the next step after drawing to communicate ideas more clearly. Building on what Scott Robertson and Thomas Bertling wrote about in How To Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination, this book shares everything the two experts know about how to render light, shadow and reflective surfaces.

This book is divided into two major sections: the first explains the physics of light and shadow. One will learn how to construct proper shadows in perspective and how to apply the correct values to those surfaces. The second section focuses on the physics of reflectivity and how to render a wide range of materials utilizing this knowledge.

Throughout the book, two icons appear that indicate either “observation” or “action.” This means the page or section is about observing reality or taking action by applying the knowledge and following the steps in creating your own work.

Similar to our previous book, How To Draw, this book contains links to free online rendering tutorials that can be accessed via the URL list or through the H2Re app.

Graphic L.A. is part practical instruction, part guided meditation on the importance of color values and objects in art. The reader is led by the professional instruction of Robh Ruppel; instructor at the Art Center College of Design, Gnomon School of Visual Effects, and Concept Art Academy. He is also a multiple award-winning art director of video games.

By reducing environments down to basic shapes and colors (or “symbols”), Robh builds astounding images. Robh documents the progression of building an image while referencing basic techniques. By using color with surprisingly bold brushstrokes, he produces images of incredible depth with intricate handling of light and shadow. It is a rare exploration into simplicity without resorting to minimalism.

Readers will be certain to take away both a sense of admiration for Robh Ruppel’s work and a greater understanding and appreciation for the importance of color value relationships in all forms of art.

Art of the PaperBlue is a must have art book for artists, entertainment designers, and anyone who wants to learn to paint creative environment paintings. PaperBlue shares his knowledge of creating environment conceptual paintings for movies, games, and other entertainment industry fields. This book shows more than 10 full-length step-by-step tutorials with detailed explanations and hundreds of stunning art works and numerous quick sketches. In addition, PaperBlue shares his techniques of using custom brushes, smudge tools, color theories, compositions, and many other techniques helpful in creating imaginative art works. This book features Sci-Fi environment paintings, fantasy paintings, vehicle designs, Mechs, ships, fighters, aircrafts and more. Get ready to be inspired by the gorgeous artwork of PaperBlue, all while learning his painting techniques via step-by-step tutorials.

Scott Robertson Workshops are designed to inspire and to educate. As we strive to improve upon this mission, we have created the SRW Sketch Collection as something you can refer to whenever you need a little reminder of the rewarding creative experiences that the sketches in the booklet represent.

“Almost all of these 203 sketches have never been published until now. They were selected from my own personal sketchbooks and a few digital sessions represent my design explorations. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed creating them, and they can provide some inspiration when sketching your own designs.” – Scott Robertson

The beautiful minds of six extremely successful women artists in the entertainment industry present LOVELY: LADIES OF ANIMATION. The history of art in animation has had many female heroes, this elite group is continuing the tradition and building upon it. Featuring the first published personal works by Lorelay Bove, Lisa Keene and Claire Keane, this title is an indispensable addition to the library of those interested in animation. With a variety of styles from graphic works to realistic portraits, these images will inspire and delight the viewer with each turn of the page.

“After Cosmic Motors and his adventures in Hollywood, this is Simon's next coup. He has let his galactically huge imagination run riot to create a motorsport world we can only dream about.” – TOP GEAR magazine

At a stunning size of 12″ x 14″ (30.5cm x 35.5cm), and with full spread images spanning 24″ in width, this first book of a new fiction series will open the doors to a parallel history of racing. Daniel Simon designed for Bugatti, Lotus, Formula 1 and penned unforgettable vehicles for Hollywood movies like Tron: Legacy or Oblivion. This is his second book after Cosmic Motors.

Simon will present in this series over the next years fictitious racing machines at impeccable detail up to 50 megapixel, including vehicle specs and maps of the tracks they raced on. All vehicles and characters are explained through the carefully written story of racer Vic Cooper, who time-travels to the past and the future to compete in the most challenging motor races between 1916 and 2615. This is episode 1, the year 2027, written in English, French and German.

Design fans, car enthusiasts, CG addicts and science-fiction aficionados can enjoy Simon's parallel world through hyper-real renderings, drawings and photography of fictional drivers, managers and beautiful women. This first episode puts three uniquely designed race cars in the spotlight: The 1981 Masucci X-5 and X-6, the 2027 Masucci X-7 and the 2027 Prideux -Martin MF/27.

The foreword has been written by racing legend Jacky Ickx, who raced in the 1960s, '70s and '80s for many famed teams such as Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche, Brabham or Lotus. He is the only driver to have won in Formula One, Can-Am, Le Mans, and the Paris-Dakar rally.

“Daniel's designs are spectacular. ” — Flavio Manzoni, head of Ferrari Design

“This is really cool stuff.” — André Lotterer, winner 24 Hours of Le Mans 2011 & 2012

UPDATE: The PITLANE edition, as well as personalization of the limited version, are no longer available.

After a 12 year absence from creating his own art, Derek started to focus on his personal work in 2009.

His first personal project, Born in Concrete, was undertaken to dispel his biases towards expressive art, overcome his own perceived limitations and to rejuvenate his creative spirit. This collision of Soviet inspired retro sci-fi and Jewish mystical and qabalistic symbolism has evolved into a filter, or framework, that emotions, ideas and images are pushed through to be given shape and form. This project has been well received, being featured in numerous exhibits, international publications, as well as book and album covers, it continues to unfold and expand…

This book will feature a gallery section of artwork, a chapter on the artwork created for use as graphics on snowboards, the snowboards and the corresponding marketing material as well as a chapter on the creation of a resin model kit by Industria Mechanika.

A section of the book will also be dedicated to a step-by-step breakdown of how one of the
art pieces was created.

This is the fourth book by the award-winning science-fiction and fantasy artist Stephan Martiniere. Following his previous books, Quantum Dreams, Quantumscapes, and Velocity, Trajectory showcases Stephan's phenomenal artistic range and skills in a stunning new visionary collection of sci-fi book covers, theme park and animation concepts, video game designs and never-before-seen artwork.

Click here to view the LIMITED EDITION version of Trajectory.

tales: ('teilz) a narrative that relates the details of some real or imaginary event, incident, or story. Whether it's one Christian has read or one that has been developing in his head, the tale has always been one of his biggest inspirations. Tales: The Art of Christian Alzmann is Christian's first book collecting his digital paintings and sketches as well as his traditional pencil sketches. He also walks the reader through his digital painting process using Photoshop and Painter.

A fantastic addition to the Battle MiLK series, this third installment features four new artists contributing their work to the wide range of captivating images from the team. Upcoming projects from the artists include Star Wars 1313, Thor 2, Fountain City, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, season 5.

Inspired by his intense love of cars, animals and creativity, Big Book of Wacky Rides! by Fireball Tim is a mad-cap take on inanimate objects transformed into cool cars. Each illustration stands on its own as an amusing story, delighting children and parents around the world.

From the Olympic “Spoonster” to the “Snot Rocket”, these wild and wacky rides take kids of all ages on a journey of the imagination and unique design exploration