Carlo ArellanoCostume Design & Illustration: for Film, Video Games and Animation

This is a great art book showcasing various costume illustrators and the breakdown of their design process. Each chapter features a different artist providing a nice array of different styles and approaches in designing costumes. This art book is most useful for someone who already have some previous art and design training that wish to learn more about the field of film costume design/ illustration. There are a lot of great tips in the book such as what questions the artists ask themselves when creating their design solutions and some practical business tips reflecting the demands of the industry.Some chapters are more in depth than others and not every artists featured may match the style you like as it is the nature of compilation books. But overall I got a lot of useful information out of the book (after all, it is only around $20 which is a great price in my humble opinion). If you are looking for a book that teaches you how to draw from the ground up, this is not the book. If you are looking for a great book to exposes you to the various artists and techniques used in costume design/illustrations industry today, this is a great book that delivers well in that front.

I know several reviews complained about this not being a "how-to" book, but it really isn't meant for that purpose, although it does have a few interesting tidbits here and there from the featured artists. I recently taught a character design class focusing on wardrobe, and this book was precisely what I needed to show some great examples of character costume (like seeing how different types of cloth are worn, how they fold, etc.) The images are beautiful and clear, and have a wide variety of styles, both in terms of clothing and artistic rendering. This book is not meant to teach you how to draw or paint, but it is an excellent art book to showcase some masters of character design and for reference for those wishing to study character wardrobe.

Great if you're in need of costume inspiration and ideas. It does have some step-by-step guides on how to achieve various costumes, but generally it's more of an inspirational concept art book that can give you great ideas. Which was what I was looking for but it might not be for everyone.Don't get this book expecting a detailed lesson on how to create costumes, because it's not what this book is about.The concept art within is amazing.

This book looked like it could be useful to help me with the costume aspect of character design. I was a bit disappointed. This is not really a how-to book. Constantine Sekeris set out to find a bunch of colleagues who work in costume design and have them write a bit about their process and show some of their work. In that, the book is alright. I did learn a few things from several of the contributors.However, what the book lacks is specifics and depth. Most of the contributors talk about their process, what computer programs they use, and how they come up with concepts. For an illustrator like me looking for a shortcut into the costume design world, this book fell quite short. I was left only with a realization that I have a lot to learn about fashion and costume design. Best look elsewhere for that information.

For the costumer in your family, a great gift. Or if that costumer is you, treat yourself. You will find nothing but inspiration within the pages.

As others have said, there just isn't enough substance in this book to warrant a purchase. It's not particularly insightful and doesn't really go into costume design in any detail, which you'd think would be the main point of a book like this. It's mostly artists just providing vague/general description of their thoughts, and while some of the artists have better things to say than others, I still feel like it's not the book it's advertised to be.

The cover of this book essentially shows how artists create sketches of costume designs and how they begin to roughly render those designs. The cover is reflective of the content and is a perfect prelude to the examples included inside which are very loose creative sketches with growing detail.

First review. I've bought several books recently to help improve my artwork, and to try my hand at freelancing. This book had my attention long before it was released. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this. I can't say how disappointed I am.The good: all these artists are amazing. Their work is fantastic. There's a few step by step instructions, that typically start with silhouettes and enlarging to enhance detail. The book is printed on highly glossy paper and the print is large.The bad: where do I start? The book is broken down in chapters. I'll pick on Carlo Arelleno. His chapter is 10 pages long. He wrote 7 paragraphs. 6 pages are full photos of his art. Dude, its gorgeous. But one paragraph devotes to his method of thought. The rest offers mere commentary of vague practices he uses that are so general, they are pathetic. Want vague? Except statement: "in the beauty and the beast design, my inspiration was Renaissance France. I used the slash and puff sleeve designs of that era." Well that's just fantastic, Carlo. But the why is nowhere to be found. What was the job? What about this job made you differ from Disney's rendition? You know, maybe if we knew what you created the $%#* for, it might give us some insight that explains why you chose Renaissance France to begin research! Much of the book discusses to research designers and fashion through out history. That's great advice! Why not tell a history major to study history? No mention of what they use. No examples. No websites. No book recommendations. No thought process. Just a book of pretty pictures, a vague sense of prioritizing each artist's first thoughts, and casual commentary of what they chose, with vague references of ideas.In short. This book is terribly vague. Skip it.

Husband loves this!

Muy Buena compra a buen precio. Las ilustraciones son de muy buena calidad y muy interesantes. Varios estilos de dibujo

Bom em primeiro quero deixar claro que esse livro é perfeito, claro poderia ter muito mais páginas com muito mais personagens e um tamanho maior de altura e comprimento, é uma ótima aquisição para quem busca conhecimento e boas referências na área artística, as imagens com ótima qualidade de impressão e preenchendo a página toda, perfeito, recomendo com certeza, a única reclamação que tenho foi no transporte, não vi o cuidado devido pela a transportadora para com o livro. Obrigado.

Great illustrations and good info about designing for film as opposed to video games.