(Part 3) Best illustration & graphic design books according to redditors
We found 185 Reddit comments discussing the best illustration & graphic design books. We ranked the 82 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
This is just a sampling of my Amazon list, but:
Every so often I try and pick up a couple books, even just for reference sake. Sometimes its a photo book, sometimes its a reference guide, doesn't really matter so long as you can see some principles within applying to your craft.
Is this fanart?
It's literally the cover of Udon's Art of Capcom book from 2007.
Just went to upvote this guy's review, and my "Sponsor Suggested" item is a Charlie Sheen Adult Coloring book. Not even kidding. Nice reminder that we can sometimes take this trainwreck waaaaay too seriously.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1799006522/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1
>I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to sketchbooks so I feel like all my pages have to be perfect or have one drawing on each page and I become afraid of "ruining" them, so to speak. And I never touch them again.
Then it's not really a sketchbook, is it? You're trying to make a portfolio of work, and that's not what a sketchbook should be. It should be a place where you're not afraid to fuck up.
We get spoiled because we see these sketchbooks that already-well-known artists put out, but very rarely are they actual, warts-and-all sketchbooks. They're just little collections of drawings. My absolute favorite published sketchbook is the one Bill Sienkiewicz put out back in 1990, because it's full of actual pages direct from his sketchbook. Lots of little half-finished drawings and insane little doodles.
Me? I try to fill up each page front and back as much as possible. When I get a new one I just immediately draw something, shitty or not, on the first page, just so it's not blank any more.
I don't think there's really a comics underground anymore, but if you're looking at underground as Low-Budget And Probably Flew Under Your Radar, definitely check out:
Apparently it is in the book Babylon: Surreal Babies.
Check out this article for more images, and this image in HD.
I found all this by using TinEye on the OP image, which took me to this article.
[The Anatomist: A True Story of Grey's Anatomy] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Anatomist-Story-Grays-Anatomy/dp/1934137219) was really fascinating to me. I am not in the medical field at all and this was written at a level that I could understand. It is the story of the creation of the anatomy text Gray's Anatomy but focuses less on Henry Gray and more on the illustrator of the text, H.V. Carter. Apparently Carter has just a small credit and there is little documented about his life. The author does a wonderful job making what could have been an extremely dull history into a really entertaining and informative book.
I just treated myself and got this one and this one and I love them both!! 😊
Are you in the US? It's $7 on Amazon
https://smile.amazon.com/Fairy-Tales-Brothers-Grimm/dp/3836548348/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=The+Fairy+Tales+of+the+Brothers+Grimm&qid=1572329136&sr=8-5
Comic Wars
Marvel: The Untold Story
Marvel Year by Year
Marvel Age of Comics 61-78
Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC
All the Fireside books (Origins..., Son of Origins..., etc.) for Stan Lee's very biased and anecdotal memories of the 1960s.
Illustrator here - Decide if you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to freelance as an artist, because the honest truth is that you might never be able to freelance professionally full time, even if you are INSANELY talented, because convincing people to buy squiggles you make is very difficult to do.
Anyway, everything you need to know to starts with this question:
Who are you selling your work to?
From there, everything comes into place. Selling illustrations to businesses is a DIFFERENT business model than selling to consumers. Selling your illustrations to children book companies is DIFFERENT than selling to Tech companies. Selling your illustrations to old cat ladies requires A TOTALLY DIFFERENT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM from selling your illustrations to metalheads.
"But I want EVERYONE to buy my illustrations!"
HAHAHAHA! Forget illustration, you should be a stand-up comedian, kid!
Read these:
Inside the Business of Illustration, by Marshall Arisman and Steven Heller
Breaking into Freelance Illustration, by Holly Dewolf
2013 Artist's & Graphic Designers Market
add all the books by edward tufte! and also semiology of graphics by jacques bertin, modern typography by kinross,
elements of typographics tyle by bringhurst, man there's quite a lot of basics missing here :)as others come to mind I'll add them here, unfortunately I don't have my books with me at the moment
EDIT: The two dataflow one two books are pretty interesting as well, Information graphics by Robert Harris
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/1608869660/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/1684151716/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The only relevant books I found were
Flora Japonica https://www.amazon.com/dp/1842466127/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CjjsDbVX9PSVC
Wild Flowers of Japan: A Field Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/4770018096/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_2kjsDb7QP9XPF
And they both seem pretty old and don't have many reviews...
Here you go
I have two tarot decks. My first ever deck was Tarot Basics that I never fully connected with, but it was a good starter deck for me, because I went into tarot with almost no knowledge about the cards and meanings! My favorite deck though, and the one I've connected to the most, is the Raven's Prophecy deck! I actually find the images to be fairly simple, but I think the artwork is gorgeous, and I've found the cards to be very easy to interpret. As for its "personality," it's kind of...mature, in a way? With a little bit of edge. Kind of like an old, wise, know it all. It knows exactly what I need to hear, and it's there to help and support me, but at the same time, it's a little mysterious. It answers my questions, but I always feel like I need a clarification card because the answers are often open ended. Then, whenever I pull one, my deck basically tells me, "I gave you the clues and you have the tools, so figure it out yourself." It's a little grumpy, almost!
My favorite two oracle decks are The Literary Witches Oracle, and the Viking Oracle. I majored in English in college, and I'm a Norse heathen, so these two decks spoke to me right away. The Literary Witches Oracle behaves in a way similar to the Raven's Prophecy, where it helps answer and guide me, but then lets me do the rest of my work myself. It's "quieter" than the Raven's Prophecy though. If I had to explain it, the Raven's Prophecy is dark coffee on a stormy night, and the Literary Witches is tea on a rainy and grey afternoon. That's what their personalities remind me of.
The Viking Oracle is fun, and though the images of some beings I don't personally agree with, (for example, Fenrir is shown as a human, and Loki, who visited me in the same dream 7 nights in a row, does not look like that whatsoever, at least to me), the artwork is beautiful. I do like that they also included Elder Furthark runes, which Vikings used for divination (runecasting), and the energy of this deck is so different! It knows exactly who and what it is, what it's there for, and what you need help with. It's stoic, a bit masculine, and always gives me concise answers, so I like pulling a few cards from this deck along with the Literary Witches deck.
I also hand made my own runes using coyote teeth (ethically sourced), but sadly, I don't have a picture of those!
Did you make that? (TF2, page 210, the italic narcon, fake quote from an author or something)
https://www.amazon.com/Ladislav-Sutnar-Visual-Design-Action/dp/3037784245
Have you seen the Noel Daniel edited versions of the Grim Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales? They are really beautiful.