Medium – Book
About the Book – This book includes concept drawings for the Harry Potter films, focussing on buildings and places, characters, magical objects, graphical design (i.e. book covers, newspapers, labels, shop fronts) and creatures. Included in different sections, the pictures show some of the development of the artistry around the films, concept sketches, maps, blueprints, and other ways that the production designers brought the Wizarding World to life.
My Rating – 3/5
My Thoughts – To be honest, this book was a bit of a disappointment. For Christmas a couple of years ago, I got this book and ‘Middle Earth from Script to Screen’ (as I am a movie art geek!) I reviewed the Lord of the Rings art book as my fifth book this year, and really, there is no comparison. The Harry Potter book is lovely, and does contain some fascinating and beautiful concept drawings – particularly fascinating was the graphic art done to really bring the world to life. But I missed the in depth descriptions and the integration of the narrative and quotes from the cast/crew that appeared in the Middle Earth book.
What I would have liked to see was more pictures of how the props, costumes and characters developed – from original concepts to the finished piece. I also missed the commentary from the people who worked on the films – how did they come up with their ideas? What was their favourite set/costume? I realise that the two books I’m comparing had slightly different scopes – the Middle Earth book is more about the whole process from Script to Screen, whilst the Harry Potter book is more just about artwork. But it almost felt that there was something slightly missing in the lack of commentary about the pictures and objects being created.
Jen's Book Blog 