With a foreword by WoW art director Chris Robinson and also Alex Horley, one of the artists behind the Hearthstone card illustrations, Insight Editions’ The Art of World of Warcraft gives readers a beautiful, behind the scenes look at what goes into making Azeroth come alive. Everything a fan of the franchise could want and more is in here, from character, item and background artwork, to two-page gorgeous illustrations all printed on high quality glossy paper in a solid hardcover book that even non-fans will want for their book collection.
This is 224 pages of goodness that collects artwork ranging from early pre-production designs from all five expansions including the recent Warlords of Draenor. These images really set the standard for an artbook and feature places such as Shadowmoon Valley, Auchindoun, the underwater area of Zangarmarsh, and more famous parts of Draenor. It would’ve been nice to see some early looks at Highmaul Citadel or Tanaan Jungle for the soon to come 6.2 patch, but the artwork here is from a little before the 6.1 version.
To go along with these fine pieces of art is some commentary by some of Blizzard’s well-talented art directors such as Chris Robinson, Samwise Didier, and Bill Petras. Reading some of the things they discuss will give you a good look into how they’re all about capturing the magic that makes up World of Warcraft’s environment and detailing it as much as possible. The guys also go into how they work on coming up with ideas and looks for a certain class, race, or area from Azeroth and what made them envision it like they did.
The Art of World of Warcraft is easily the best art book I’ve ever seen. You can tell a lot of work went into making this as it features a solid, high quality, beautifully made hardcover combined with photo-grade glossy pages that bring out the lush colors and fine details on the drawings. Put this together with a talented team of artists that share how these fine images came about, and you have a must-have book for fans as well as for art and book lovers alike.
