COOL TOY REVIEW
Home
Reviews Archives Features Forums Contact About Menu ☰
Home News Channels Reviews Photo Archive Features Forums Contact About

CTR Book Review: The Art Of World Of Warcraft

Posted by: Adam on May 22, 2015 at 03:55 PM CST


To celebrate more than a decade of one of the most successful games of all time, Insight Editions and Blizzard Entertainment have announced The Art of World of Warcraft, that brings together concept artwork and cinematics created from the MMORPG's inception, right through to the Warlords of Draenor expansion. There's even a few pieces of fan art, with one in particular resulting in Wei Wang being hired by Blizzard.

Beginning with a foreward by reknowned illustrator Alex Horley and an introduction by Senior Art Director Chris Robinson, The Art of World of Warcraft comprises 6 sections, one for the birth of the series and then each of the expansions that followed, and is closed-out with an artists index. Each section opens with a one-page summation of the ideas that fueled the concept art that was created, while Samwise Didier, Bill Petras and Chris Robinson provide commentary for many of the paintings.

World of Warcraft, as you might expect, features concept art that focuses on the early landscapes and general environment of Azeroth, along with symbols, icons and the initial development of creatures and characters.

For the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, the art relates to the realm of Outland, as well as two new playable races, the draenei and the blood elves, with inspiration drawn from the former's inherent goodness, and the latter's addiction to mana.

The section for Wrath of the Lich King centers on the story of Arthas the Lich King and his transformation to a ruthless death knight, and as such there is a distinct shift in tone from The Burning Crusade. There are also paintings that depict the environments and architecture of Northrend that are clearly inspired by Norse mythology, while the artwork for Dalaran borders on high fantasy.


Reprinted from The Art of World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment published by Insight Editions. Copyright © 2015 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

The destruction of Azeroth brought on by the Dragon Aspect Deathwing led to the re-envisioning of the continents of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor for the game's third expansion, Cataclysm, and resulted in a major change to the environment, while the latter half of the section is devoted to Deathwing and also the newly-introduced playable races, the worgen, and the goblins.

Constrasting starkly with the mood of Cataclysm, the themes of harmony, beauty and creation that typify the pandaren and their homeland is the basis of Mists of Pandaria. The distinct Asian ethic is immediately apparent in the designs of buildings, vistas and panoramas, while further artwork included in the section draws from the opening cinematic from the fourth expansion set, along with the main new NPC characters, Hozen and Jinyu.


Reprinted from The Art of World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment published by Insight Editions. Copyright © 2015 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

The latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor, took a similar approach to that of Cataclysm, in as much as it allowed for the re-imagining of the planet Draenor that would become Outland. The approach taken by the design team was to take familiar aspects from Draenor and give them the look and feel of an alternate reality, with the artwork featured in this section delivering eerily similar depictions of the Dark Portal, the mushroom swamp of Zangarmarsh and Shadowmoon Valley in all of its former glory.

The artwork shown in the book ranges from initial pencils to fully-colored and cinematic renditions, using a variety of materials, and all are incredibly detailed to perfectly showcase the visual journey of the game's history. For anyone with an appreciation for fantasy art, regardless of whether or not you play World of Warcraft, this book is visually stunning.

The Art of World of Warcraft is released on 16th June and is priced $45.


Related Stories:


REBELSCUM.COM

Collectors Oracle

Entertainment Earth

Home | Contact | About
2006 - 2024, Cool Toy Review. | Privacy