My Top Five Art Books

I have always been an art fan. When I was a teenager, I started using my money to preorder Disney films, specifically so I could get frames from the movie. When I got older and the internet became a thing, I would spend hours and hours just looking at art online and saving pictures that I loved. Back when floppy disks were a thing I bought tons and saved them full of my favourite pictures. Of course, nearly all of this was anime-inspired art. Now that I'm older and don't have the time to just sit and look at gorgeous pictures online, I buy art books. While they're expensive I love having them. A lot of the time when I just want to draw and don't know what, I'll grab one of these and try my hand at copying one of their pictures just by eyeballing it. It's fun and helps me figure out how these artists do what they do. 

Here are my top five artbooks and what I learned from them. 

The New Generation of Manga Artists, Vol. 2: The Gensho Sugiyama Portfolio

I bought this book a good 15 years or so ago. I don't mind saying that I love this style. The art style is a mix of cute and sexy that I adore. I particularly love the way the artist does hair and clothing. It looks thrown together haphazardly, but every line serves a purpose. I really need to spend more time looking over how they do it more. I would love the hair I draw to have that look like every strand can be seen in places. 

 The Enchanted World of Jessica Galbreth
I started following Jessica Galbreth a good 15 years ago, just when she started getting really big. Her art is super detailed and in the beginning, often dealt with goddesses and women of power and magic. I admit that my style is starting to look a lot more like hers. It isn't realism, but its definitely more realistic than I ever thought my direction would take. In particular, I love the way she does a complete picture. Every work is settled so you can't imagine seeing either character or background without the other, the two are so settled together. 

The New Generation of Manga Artists, Vol. 5; The Kao Yung & Kuan-Liang Portfolio
If I had to point at any one of these books and say, "that is the art style I lean most towards," I think this would be it. It has more realistic proportions than some of the others, and the art is so detailed while still looking so simple. Also, while I adore the wider eye style, I prefer my art to have smaller eyes like these, though I tend to go for a shape closer to our actual shape, just a bit larger than an actual eye would be. What I still have to learn from these artists is that gorgeous work on the clothing. While I am starting to learn how to draw bodies and where to put shadows and highlights, I still struggle with any outfit that isn't skin tight. I really have to look at Skillshare and see if they have some courses specifically on how to draw clothing.

The Art of Magic Knight Rayearth, Vol. 1

This was my first artbook and the first show that I can honestly say I lusted over the art for. I adore their style. Everything is so detailed. The gems, the clothes, the eyes, the hair, the pose, the background... If I could choose only one style to draw in for the rest of my life (and be incredibly good at it), I would choose to draw like a Clamp artist. Although every manga they produce has this same look and I have artbooks for some of their other shows, this was my first and remains my favourite. You can not get better than one of the original Iseki's. Plus, and this has nothing to do with the art, but I love that their art is always cutesy while telling stories of tragic situations where the only way to win is to destroy that which you love. They are some of my favorite storytellers as well as artists, bar-none.

Ni0 Art Works; Nishi's Alluring Figures
This artbook is amazing. First, the elephant in the room, this work is for mature readers. That is part of the reason I like it. The other much more important reason is that this art is gorgeous. It has a soft quality while being almost as detailed as the Clamp stuff. The hairstyles and the character design are top-notch and again, this artist knows how to draw clothing. However, the thing I love from this artist are the dramatic poses. Every pose is active, in movement. These aren't characters sitting down for a photo, these are characters in the midst of living a life and the art portrays that. That dynamic of movement is something I'm still trying to learn, but this artist has in spades.


I do have to mention that these are not in any particular order. Literally, they are in the order they came in when I added all five at once from my saved files. I will add that while I haven't added links, you should be able to find all of these books on Amazon and I suggest picking them up if you like the style. These are gorgeous for just appreciating, even if you don't want to learn from them. 

So, what are your favourite art books? Do you have any? If you draw, what have you learned from them? If you don't, let me know what you like about it, and what draws you to the work.